Rationale

A proficient writing score states that the student:
*Generates representations of ideas using simple ideas

*Organized ideas related to the topic

*Uses own words and precise word choice to relate information

*Simple grammatically correct sentences

By the end of the kindergarten year, students must be able to read and write 45-50 sight words to be proficient. At the beginning of my study, only 30% of my students had reached proficiency for writing their sight words.

Students who were progressing or below in letter sound identification could identify fewer than 26 sounds.

When deciding what I wanted to research for Capstone, a few ideas came to mind. One idea that was deemed most important in my mind was writing. This year, my district adjusted writing rubrics and what kindergarteners most know by the end of the year. Additionally, my district has also adopted new writing curriculum resources. In years past, kindergarteners had a target to meet each quarter for writing. This year things have changed. The kindergarten writing curriculum is on a continuum. This means that the students are graded according to end year goal every quarter. Looking at the end goal, there were many areas my students need to work on. These areas included organization, voice and word choice, ideas, and sentence fluency and conventions. I collaborated with my kindergarten team, my mentor, and my literacy coach to better understand the curriculum and how to incorporate the workshop model.

At the beginning of the school year, my students took a baseline writing assessment to show what they know. When looking at the scoring of this assessment, there were 16 points possible. The rubric looks at 4 writing domains, with a possibility of 4 points per domain. In grading the baseline assessments, 100% of my students scored between 4-7 points, which lands them in the beginning range. The end of the year goal is for students to be proficient in all areas of writing, which is a score between 11-13 points. In addition to my baseline writing data, I also used my observations and anecdotal notes see that writing is an area of growth in the classroom. I noticed that my students have come into kindergarten with a range of educational experiences. With the variety of experiences, my students need a variety of instruction. This shows me that differentiated instruction is key to meet the needs of each of them.

Writing is an essential skill. Kindergarten is the foundation for writing. At the beginning of the year, my students' were just learning the basics of letter sound connections and building a sight word basis. This is a lifelong skill that will be used long after they leave my classroom. Writing instruction is also important for first grade readiness. It is expected that the kindergarteners meet certain grade level indicators to be ready to move on to first grade.