We have just finished term 1 over here in WA and I collected an independent writing sample from my Pre-Primary students. Throughout the term we have been completing our writing journals and doing lots of word work activities during our rotations, so I really wanted an independent writing sample to see how the students have progressed. All three of the Pre-Primary classes at my school decided to do the same assessment so we could compare samples and areas our students needed more support in. At my school we have a very high number of ESL students so we all thought we would choose something simple and relevant to them for this 1st sample. We decided on 'What I like doing at school' and gave them the sentence starter 'I like...' (however we did not write 'I like' for them as we wanted it totally independent!)

First we completed lots of oral language and sentence structure as a group and each student shared with a partner and then the group their sentence. Students went back to their table and were then able to draw their picture into the rectangle box (provided in the template). They came back to the mat and were reminded about capital letters, full stops, spaces and sounding out words...but that was as far as our help went! The results were interesting and definitely showed me areas where students had weakness and  also where I could extend them.

The writing and drawing were then added to card with a title and assessment rubric (included in the template) and a photo of what they liked doing.  Here are some of the samples showing different ability levels. (majority of my students are around the same level of the 3rd pic - 2nd row in green)

Download all parts to this template here! (included heading, assessment rubric and drawing box) It consists of 4 pages - a page with all parts on one page if you don't like cutting and gluing!and then all other parts on their own pages. What I like Doing at School Writing Assessment

'Remember keep calm and pretend it's on the lesson plan'

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