The model presented in this article aspires to represent a theoretically valid and coherent definition and description of writing, as a basis for teaching and assessing writing as a key competency in school. It represents a critique as well as an extension of previous alternatives in that it views writing as a culturally and individually intentional act of semiotic mediation. Its perspective is sociocultural and functional; focussing on the relation between writing acts and their purposes, and its dynamic construction captures flexible relations between these. The communicative aspects encapsulate semiotic tools which written mediation affords. A discussion of curricular and didactic potentials finishes the article, illustrating how the model may form a basis for a varied teaching of writing, as well as being a tool for learning and assessment within and across school subjects.

This article reports consequences for student writing quality based on a long-term professional learning project. Project teachers, representing all school subjects in grades 3-7, were presented with a writing construct, 'Wheel of Writing', and norms of expectation for writing proficiency. Participating teachers used the writing construct and norms as a basis for writing instruction and writing assessment. The project was conducted in 24 schools across Norway. 3088 students from 20 project schools participated. 233 students from 4 schools were used as a comparison group. The investigation showed that students in primary school improved their writing quality significantly. Students in lower secondary school did not. However, there was substantial variation in writing quality effects between schools, classes, and individual students. For instance at a number of schools, project students from lower secondary school improved their writing quality significantly. The article discusses potential explanations of the effects.

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.

The article presents the cultural background, methodological design, theory, and results of a comprehensive research project where the doxa and textual norms of the judges at the national writing exam in Norway were studied. The background of the study is the quite comprehensive reforms in Norway of the way writing is taught in the upper secondary schools, the kind of writing that is encouraged in the schools, the kind of tasks that are used at the national writing exam, and how writing should be assessed in the Norwegian upper secondary schools, as well as the national writing exam. The study is related to comparable studies internationally, first and foremost the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievements (IEA) study of writing.

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