Tools for Observation
1. Observation of the Process: Watch and listen while students write. Document what you observe using:
2. Observation of the Product: Read and analyze what they write. Document what you observe using:
3. Observation of the Reflections on the Process: Ask students to think, talk, and write about their development as writers. Students’ reflections may be documented using:
- Writing conference notes
- Anecdotal notes from Focus Lessons or Group Share
- Photographs, videotapes, audiotapes, or other multimedia records of students at work during Writers’ Workshop
2. Observation of the Product: Read and analyze what they write. Document what you observe using:
- Writing conference notes
- Published rubrics or state/local scoring guides
- Teacher- and student-generated rubrics and scoring criteria, focusing on the writing skills and strategies you are teaching in that particular unit of study (e.g., structure and organization, development of ideas, showing and not telling, use of paragraphs, grammar and punctuation, etc.)
- See “Analyzing Student Writing” form in this section of your Writers’ Workshop binder.
3. Observation of the Reflections on the Process: Ask students to think, talk, and write about their development as writers. Students’ reflections may be documented using:
- Writing conference notes
- Student-Teacher or Student-Student Interviews
- Student Reflection Sheet, Post-It notes, rubrics, or other self-assessment tools
