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Surveying Growth in Your Writing Classroom

You've given your students helpful writing feedback all year long. Now it's time to reverse roles.

Before summer break, survey your students about their learning experiences. Students will reflect on their progress and growth as writers, and you'll receive first-hand accounts of what worked and what didn't work in your classroom.

Featured Download: End-of-Year Writing Survey

Hand out this survey to gather information about students' attitudes, behaviors, and learning.

Download a PDF
Copy the Google Doc
Copy the Google Form

End-of-Year Writing Survey

Teaching Support

Consider this support when administering the survey.

Level

4–12

Learning Objectives

By completing this activity, students will . . .

  • Reflect on their developing writing identity.
  • Monitor their learning and growth as writers.
  • Evaluate classroom assignments and practices.
  • Identify classroom practices and assignments that match their learning needs.
  • Recall specific writing moves and habits for future success.
  • Select areas for improvement and future growth as writers.

Teaching Tips

  1. Adapt the survey to match the learning goals of your classroom. When you revise existing questions or create new ones, consider the values, practices, and behaviors you tried to cultivate in your classroom this school year.
  2. Encourage honesty. Tell students that you will take their answers into account when teaching the same class next year.
  3. Give students class time to complete the survey. As they work, scan the room and jot down something you will remember about each student (a favorite piece of writing, a great revision, an area of improvement, etc.). Share the memories with students individually or with the whole class.
  4. Save the survey results for future planning. As you continue teaching, you can compare results among years, giving you even more nuanced insights. 
  5. Give yourself time and distance before drawing hard conclusions about the results. When you are ready to start planning for the new school year, read the results with fresh eyes.
  6. Prepare a start-of-school version of this survey and use it with this end-of-year survey to track progress.

Teacher Support:

Click to find out more about this resource.

Standards Correlations:

The State Standards provide a way to evaluate your students' performance.