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 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the sudden cancellation of in-class instruction for many students around the world presented an unprecedented disruption in children’s education. As the COVID-19 pandemic took form, multiple concerns were raised about the potential negative impact on students’ learning. The current study examined this proposition for children’s writing. We compared the quality of writing, handwriting fluency, and attitude toward writing of first grade Norwegian students during the COVID-19 pandemic (421 girls, 396 boys), which included emergency remote instruction for almost 7 weeks, with first grade students in the same schools a year before the pandemic began (835 girls, 801 boys). After controlling for variance due to national test scores, school size, proportion of certified teachers, students per special education teacher, school hours per student, student gender, and native language, we found that students attending first grade during the pandemic had lower scores for writing quality, handwriting fluency, and attitude toward writing than their first grade peers tested a year earlier before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. Implications for policy and instruction as well as future research are presented.

Until children can produce letters quickly and accurately, it is assumed that handwriting disrupts and limits the quality of their text. This investigation is the largest study to date (2596 girls, 2354 boys) assessing the association between handwriting fluency and writing quality. We tested whether handwriting fluency made a statistically unique contribution to predicting primary grade students’ writing quality on a functional writing task, after variance due to attitude towards writing, students’ language background (L1, L2, bilingual), gender, grade, and nesting due to class and school were first controlled. Handwriting fluency accounted for a statistically significant 7.4% of the variance in the writing quality of primary grade students. In addition, attitude towards writing, language background, grade and gender each uniquely predicted writing quality. Finally, handwriting fluency increased from one grade to the next, girls had faster handwriting than boys, and gender differences increased across grades. An identical pattern of results were observed for writing quality. Directions for future research and writing practices are discussed.

A sample of 1049 Norwegian teachers in grades 1-3 were surveyed about how they taught writing as well as their preparation and efficacy to do so. Although there was moderate variability in their response to survey items, most teachers provided students with a multi-faceted writing program. Teachers indicated students typically spent 20 min a day writing, and they were assigned various types of writing over the course of the school year. The average teacher applied numerous instructional practices frequently to teach writing skills, support students' writing, provide students with feedback, and conference with them about writing. Less commonly, teachers taught planning and revising, promoted students' motivation for writing, and applied evaluation data to adjust writing instruction. While teachers were not generally positive about their preservice preparation to teach writing, they believed that their inservice preparation was adequate. They were slightly to moderately positive about their efficacy to teach writing. Teachers' beliefs about preparation and efficacy as well as their use of data-driven practices each uniquely predicted teachers' reported writing practices. Recommendations for future research were offered.

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

The current study examined how Chinese characters were taught by primary grade teachers in Macao during online instruction resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., emergency remote instruction). A random sample of 313 first to third grade teachers in public and private schools were surveyed about their instructional practices. Most teachers surveyed (72%) reported they taught a lesson about Chinese characters once every 3–4 weeks during emergency remote instruction, and 83% and 81% of teachers indicated they assigned homework for writing and reading characters, respectively, at the same rate. On average, they reportedly spent 97 min per week teaching students to write, read, and understand the meaning of new characters, devoting equal time to each of these skills. They also indicated students practiced writing and reading characters in class for 40 min per week. They further noted students were expected to spend 35 min a day practicing writing and reading characters for homework. While teachers reportedly used a variety of instructional practices for teaching characters ( M = 30.38), the typical teacher applied less than one-half ( N = 64) of practices assessed. Teachers reported use of asynchronous (online learning activities which can be completed at other times) and synchronous (real-time videos and audio/text) teaching methods and perceptions of adequacy of technical support predicted reported teaching practices. The findings from this study raise questions about the teaching of Chinese characters in Macao during emergency remote instruction.