Writing Engagement and Formative Feedback in the English Language Arts Classroom: What Can We Learn From Teachers?

• In Event: Becoming Literate: The Science of Teaching Reading

Abstract

The Writing Engagement Scale (WES) is a formative classroom assessment with which students self-assess their experience with a recently submitted writing assignment to provide teachers with actionable information to formatively adjust their practice and instruction. After conducting a series of studies to validate the tool, we set out to investigate the nature and value of the formative feedback the WES generated for teachers using a ten-item questionnaire. Our results demonstrate that the WES aids teachers’ ongoing efforts to adjust their pedagogical approaches and instructional practices by eliciting information that both affirms what worked in the classroom and draws attention to how and where teachers might improve writing instruction at the individual and whole class levels.

Authors

• Seth A. Parsons, George Mason University

• Paul M. Kessler Rogers, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Jonathan Marine, George Mason University

• Samantha Ives, George Mason University