Writing Assessment at St Joseph's

Writing Assessment at St Joseph's

At St Joseph’s, we have recently introduced an online writing assessment platform called Elastik/Writemark to support teachers in Years 2–6. The platform helps identify students’ strengths and learning needs in writing by allowing teachers to digitally upload narrative and persuasive writing samples for assessment against the Victorian English Curriculum.

Each student’s writing is analysed, and a detailed report is generated outlining the writing skills they have demonstrated, as well as areas requiring further development. This provides teachers with timely, accurate feedback that can be used to inform future planning and targeted writing instruction.

Teachers can also customise each assessment by selecting the specific criteria to be evaluated for a writing task. The platform assesses writing against ten criteria, which are aligned with the NAPLAN Writing Marking Guide. These are:

Cohesion

Text Structure

Paragraphing

Punctuation

Sentence Structure

Character and Setting (Narrative)

Ideas

Audience

Vocabulary

Spelling

Once students' strengths and areas for improvement have been identified, teachers can respond with targeted instruction through explicit small-group or whole-class lessons.

This ensures that teaching is focused on the specific writing skills students need to develop. So far, our teachers have found this assessment tool to be a valuable resource that supports effective teaching and informed planning.

Amanda Jackson

Structured Literacy Leader