This was a three year research and development project that studied improvement of student writing skills when supported by the use of home based computers. STAR Writers began in 2001 and was completed in 2004, this project involved all students in grades three through five at Fowler, Mt. Healthy and Longfellow Elementary Schools. Chosen through a competitive grant process these schools used Buddy2 grant funds in conjunction with local funds to support the purchase of home computers and Internet access.

Students Tracking Achievement Results Writers

The goals of the project were to:

• increase student achievement in writing skills aligned with school and district goals.
• increase student ownership of educational achievement from goal setting through assessment of their learning.
• extend time on task through well-planned uses of home-based technologies.
• actively engage parents in the learning process.

We are now engaged in year two of a follow-up study among four schools (2004-2006) to hone writing assessment skills of teachers. Confidence of participating teachers in grades 2 through 8 in holistic assessment using the ISTEP+ rubrics has dramatically improved and interrater reliability between teachers and trained STAR scorers now exceeds 95%.

Teacher participants employ writing traits assessment and instructional strategies in their day-to-day teaching. Their “best practice” lesson plans are being shared with all Indiana educators through Buddy’s new online writing resource at The Writing Site.

In an effort to extend the benefits of Buddy’s experiences in writing instruction and assessment to all Indiana educators, the Writing Site was launched early in 2005. At the core of this site is an interactive tutorial for holistic assessment of student writing using the ISTEP+ rubrics. Currently, users can practice scoring authentic student writing samples in a variety of genres from grades 3 through 8. Immediately after submitting a score, the user is presented with a comparison of his/her score with an “expert’s” score, including a detailed rationale explaining the scorer’s thinking process while assigning the derived score. Six practice papers are available in each grade level and genre.

In addition, hundreds of writing exemplars are available for review, download, and printing for classroom instruction use. Supplementary content about writing instruction, strategies, resources and research is being developed to add value to this site as the “go to” for educators looking for information about writing.

For more information contact the STAR Writers Project.

Download STAR Writing Instruction Checklist for Indiana Teachers

The STAR Writing Instruction checklists were developed to support the STAR R&D project teachers in tracking instruction of writing in an easy, time-effective way that also automatically provided some personal feedback for their own reflective practice in writing instruction. They are offered here for any Indiana teacher, grades K–8, to download and use to help track and improve writing instruction.