Standards as a tool for teaching and assessing cross-curricular writing

ABSTRACT

The Berge et al. article in this volume presents the functional construct of writing that underlies summative and formative assessment of writing as a key competency in Norway. A functional construct implies that specific acts of writing and their purposes constrain what is a relevant selection among the semiotic resources that writing generally affords.

In this article, we present the specific criteria that are currently being introduced in Norwegian teaching and assessment of writing, as well as selected aspects of their development. The article builds on an assumption that assessment criteria have such educational importance that even their origins, intellectual trajectories and underpinnings should be given attention in educational research. In this context, the article presents elements of a rare approach, in that national ‘norms of expected proficiency’ at politically predefined educational grade levels have been grounded in sustained collaboration with experienced teachers of writing across the curriculum, and may thus be viewed as yet unofficial ‘standards’.

In the first step, a combination of existing curricula and literature review of writer development was used to tentatively draft a first set of criteria for the grades included in a 2005 national test of writing (grades 4, 7, 10 and 11). In the second step, such criteria were developed through an iterative, long-term process where initial criteria were confronted with the judgements of experienced teachers. Through ‘think aloud’ assessment interviews, pairs of teachers across Norway were asked to assess specific cases of students’ writings and voice criteria for their judgements, both within and across a series of domains.

In the third step, interview transcripts were used to search for criteria used by several pairs of locally situated teachers across geographically distributed schools. Criteria thus identified were pooled into a refined set of ‘national standards’ that were subsequently tested out in everyday classroom contexts. On the basis of this confrontation with educational reality, the set has been further refined to form the version presented in this article.

The Norwegian case raises a range of issues related to curriculum development, ‘standards’ and educational sustainability.

KEYWORDS:

• Writing assessment
• standards
• norms of expectation
• curriculum development
• educational sustainability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Developing National Standards for the Assessment of Writing: A Tool for Teaching and Learning. Homepage: http://norm.skrivesenteret.no.

2. In the national assessment system, only five acts of writing and six assessment domains are included. The act of writing To interact and the assessment domain of Use of the written medium are excluded for reasons that fall beyond the scope of this article.

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded by The Research Council of Norway [grant number 212303] and South Trondelag University College [grant number 4806].

Notes on contributors

Lars Sigfred Evensen

Lars Sigfred Evensen is employed as a professor of applied linguistics at the Department of Language and Literature at the Norwegian University of Technology and Science in Trondheim. His academic interests are epistemology, discourse analysis and developing writing competency across learning trajectories.

Kjell Lars Berge

Kjell Lars Berge is employed as a professor of textual studies at the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Languages at the University of Oslo in Norway. His academic interests are text linguistics, semiotics, rhetoric, discourse analysis and literacy studies.

Ragnar Thygesen

Ragnar Thygesen is employed as a professor of special needs education at the Department of Education at University of Agder in Norway. His academic interests are learning difficulties in relation to the key competencies in school, especially writing and reading.

Synnove Matre

Synnøve Matre is employed as a professor in Norwegian L1 education at the Facculty of Teacher Education, South Trondeelag University College in Trondheim. Her academic interests are children's language and text development writing education and assessment, and conversation analysis.

Randi Solheim

Randi Solheim is employed as an associated professor in Norwegian L1 education at the Faculty of Teacher Education, South Trondelag University College in Trondheim.

The authors are members of an interdisciplinary team taking part in a research project entitled Developing National Standards for the Assessment of Writing: A Tool for Teaching and Learning, funded by The Norwegian Research Council and South Trondelag University College. The theoretical models and instruments presented in this chapter have been collaboratively developed by the group members. The team consists of Jannicke Ohrem Bakke, Vestfold and Buskerud University College; Kjell Lars Berge, University of Oslo; Lars S. Evensen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology; Sindre Dagsland, South Trondelag University College; Trine Gedde-Dahl, University College of Oslo and Akershus; Synnøve Matre (project leader), South Trondelag University College; Hildegunn Otnes, Norwegian University of Science and Technology; Randi Solheim, South Trondelag University College; Ragnar Thygesen, University of Agder; Gustaf Skar, South Trondelag University College.