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Writing Assessment: Supporting Writing Development

The same writing assessment tool is used with all the different assessments – Emergent, Bridge, Transitional and Conventional.

Overall Information

The Writing with All Tools Continuum (Farrall, 2022)

  • Is a 35 point ordinal scale with qualitative writing levels from early emergent to Australian Curriculum Year 4;
  • Is designed to assess writing samples from developing writers who are using any writing tool, including handwriting, flip charts, or keyboards;
  • Aims to assist you to monitor the small changes that students might make over time;
  • Has a strong emphasis on the skills each individual needs to develop as they move to the next stage of writing, including functions of print, language, and form.

The Writing with All Tools Continuum (WwATC) Version 1.2.1 was published in August 2024. The continuum document contains:

  • The continuum with examples
  • Guidelines for collecting writing samples for assessment and moderation
  • Assessment and moderation guidelines
  • Further information on writing tools
  • Information about attributing meaning and co-constructing language
  • Extra information around some of the terms used in the continuum
  • Acknowledgements
  • References

There are also some additional support documents that you can access below.  And you can read the original blog post about the development of the continuum as well.

Downloads and Materials

The video below is a recording of an online training that I did on the Writing with All Tools Continuum v1.0.