Benchmark Assessments

   The last two weeks have focused on benchmark assessments for my project.  First, my team needed to agree on a benchmark assessment for editing and revising.  We created a rubric to use for the students' authentic pieces of writing.  We disagreed about what pieces to use, but we ultimately decided that as long as we asked the students to write about a memory, it would be considered a prompt.  Then, we decided to take this through the writing process and include editing, so that the students would be submitting their best work. 
   We also wanted a second assessment that was similar to the CMT, since this was an assessment that our students typically struggle with.  It is not set up in an authentic way, so we want to be sure that we set up our students for success with this aspect of the CMT.  The test that we agreed upon was very difficult for our students to navigate through.  We are not allowed to write in our CMT pratctice books, so we created an answer packet for the stuents to write in.  The act of going back and forth from a book to an answer key proved to be too cumbersome for our students at this point in time.  We decided that this was not an accurate benchmark because of the level of stress for our students.  Finally, we decided to use three pages from the You Be the Editor practice materials as a benchmark, and we will be implementing this assessment next week. 
   The editing rubric was very helpful in assessing my students ability to use proper mechanics in their writing.  I was able to pinpoint the students that need some differentiation. I am very happy to have this important information about my students.  Without the rubric, I may not have been able to pinpoint these students as easily.

EDITING RUBRIC

Student Name_____________________________________                                 Date____________

Story Title_______________________________________________

	4	3	2	1
Capitalization	Beginnings of sentences and proper nouns are almost always capitalized.	Beginnings of sentences and proper nouns are capitalized most of the time.	Beginnings of sentences and proper nouns are capitalized some of the time.	Beginnings of sentences and proper nouns are seldom capitalized.
Punctuation	Appropriate punctuation is almost always used (ending punctuation and commas in a series, date, and city & state.)	Appropriate punctuation is used most of the time (ending punctuation and commas in a series, date, and city & state.)	Appropriate punctuation is used some of the time (ending punctuation and commas in a series, date, and city & state.)	Appropriate punctuation is rarely used (ending punctuation and commas in a series, date, and city & state.)
Spelling	Writing includes grade appropriate spelling (homonyms, sight words, and words that follow taught spelling patterns) almost always.	Writing includes grade appropriate spelling (homonyms, sight words, and words that follow taught spelling patterns) most of the time.	Writing includes grade appropriate spelling (homonyms, sight words, and words that follow taught spelling patterns) some of the time.	Writing rarely includes grade appropriate spelling (homonyms, sight words, and words that follow taught spelling patterns.)
Sentence Construction	There are very few examples of run-ons, fragments, and rambling sentences.)	There are few examples of run-ons, fragments, and rambling sentences.)	There are some examples of run-ons, fragments, and rambling sentences.)	There are many examples of run-ons, fragments, and/or rambling sentences.
Word Usage	Verbs (subject-verb agreement and verb tense,) comparative and superlative adjectives, and pronouns are almost always used appropriately.	Verbs (subject-verb agreement and verb tense,) comparative and superlative adjectives, and pronouns are used appropriately most of the time.	Verbs (subject-verb agreement and verb tense,) comparative and superlative adjectives, and pronouns are used appropriately some of the time.	Verbs (subject-verb agreement and verb tense,) comparative and superlative adjectives, and pronouns are rarely used appropriately.