No abstract

This protocol article describes the project Functional Writing in the Primary Years, which received funding in late 2018 and was started in August 2019. The Functional Writing in Primary School (FUS) project aims to increase the quality of teaching and learning writing in the first years of schooling. A large-scale, mixed-methods study, the FUS project investigates the effects of an early start with functional writing, focusing on young students' development as writers and their ability to use writing as a tool for learning and communication. The project also investigates teachers' writing instruction and professional development. The protocol describes the project's rationale and major methodological aspects and culminates in a concluding discussion about possible caveats.

In 2010, the Norwegian Writing Centre (NWC) was commissioned by the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training to develop the National Sample-Based Writing Test (NSBWT), which was to be administered annually to a national representative sample of students in primary and lower secondary school (NSBWT-5 for school year 5 and NSBWT-8 for school year 8). The NWC was also commissioned to set up a national panel of raters (NPR), consisting of teachers, with the purpose of 1) establishing a strong interpretive community and 2) having in place a panel that would reliably rate the NSBWT. The first reliability estimates from the autumn of 2010 indicated large variation. However, it was the belief of the NWC that an interpretive community would slowly evolve through rater training over a long period of time. The present study utilized multiple data sources to explore this assumption by investigating potential variation among a sub-sample of NPR members. The data consisted of one quantitative dataset of ratings and one qualitative dataset based on semi-structured interviews and live ratings. The quantitative investigation showed large variation among the raters, as did the investigation using qualitative data. The results are discussed in depth.

Writing assessment scales were developed to include functional aspects of writing proficiency in contemporary Norwegian teaching toolkits for Grades 1 to 3. This study aims to describe the process of developing empirically based, assessor-oriented writing proficiency scales and of investigating the quality of the scales. We focus on psychometric qualities, professional users’ perceptions of their quality, and the teachers’ use of the scales. Overall, the first piloted version of the scales showed indications of well-functioning scales. The results from this investigation show that it is possible to develop scales for the assessment of young children’s writing proficiency that capture the intended construct and provide a basis for reliable assessment. The investigation also found that users of the assessment tool found that it functioned well. Keywords: writing assessment, writing development, rating scales, reliability Upprätta bedömningsskalor för att utvärdera utvecklingen av skrivförmågan hos unga studenter Sammanfattning Denna artikel berör arbetet med att utveckla bedömningsskalor för bedömning av funktionell skrivförmåga i årskurs 1–3. Syftet med undersökningen var att dels beskriva arbetet med att skapa empiriskt baserade bedömar-orienterade skalor, dels att undersöka kvaliteten på dessa skalor. Det senare gjordes genom att studera skalorna psykometriska kvalitet, den kvalitet de uppfattades att ha samt lärares användning av skalorna. Sammantaget visade undersökningarna att skalorna fungerade väl, redan vid första utkast. Vidare indikerade resultaten att det var möjligt att konstruera skalor för bedömning av små barns skrivande som kunder generera reliabel bedömning samtidigt de fångade väsentliga aspekter av funktionellt skrivande. Undersökningarna indikerade också att användare av bedömningsverktygen generellt uppfattade dem som välfungerande. Nyckelord: skrivbedömning, skrivutveckling, bedömningsskalor, reliabilitet