The assessment
What is assessed — writing
The province's weakest component, and the one with the clearest published criteria.
Writing is the weakest of the three components province-wide, and has been for years. It is also the component where preparation has the clearest legitimate role, because the criteria are published and narrow.
The three skills
- Developing a main idea with sufficient supporting details
- Organising information and ideas coherently
- Using conventions — syntax and sentence structure, grammar, cohesive ties, capitalisation and punctuation — in a way that does not distract from clear communication
Read the third carefully. The standard is not correctness. It is not getting in the way.
The blueprint
| Component | Questions | Raw points | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Selected-response | 12 | 13 | 65% |
| Open-response, based on a prompt | 1 | 7 | 35% |
| Total | 13 | 20 | — |
The single writing task is worth 7 of 20 points. It is the highest-value item in the entire language component.
Those 7 points come from two rubrics applied to the same piece of writing — a 4-point Topic Development scale and a 3-point Conventions scale. The Framework states the 7-point total and publishes both rubrics; the 4-plus-3 split is the arithmetic that follows, not a figure EQAO states in those words.
How that one task is scored — twice
Topic Development — four points
| Code | Development | Organisation | Relationship to task |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Not developed; ideas limited and unclear | Random, few or no links | Limited |
| 20 | Minimally developed; few ideas, little information | Minimal, weak links | Partly related |
| 30 | Clear focus, adequately developed with ideas and supporting details | Simple or mechanical, adequate links | Clearly related |
| 40 | Clear focus, well developed with sufficient specific and relevant detail | Logical and coherent, effective links | Thorough |
Conventions — three points, on a completely different scale
| Code | Descriptor |
|---|---|
| 10 | Errors in conventions interfere with communication |
| 20 | Errors in conventions do not interfere with communication |
| 30 | Conventions are used appropriately to communicate |
A child can make spelling and punctuation errors throughout and still reach 20 on conventions, provided the meaning survives. There is no credit for being error-free as such — the top code is about conventions working, not conventions being perfect.
The corollary matters more: fear of spelling errors is more expensive than spelling errors. A child who writes short, safe sentences to avoid mistakes loses points on Topic Development, which is worth more, to protect a Conventions score they were unlikely to lose anyway. Tell them to write the interesting word.
Errors that prevent communication are coded I, not 10. But it is genuinely rare, and it is not what a hesitant speller is anywhere near.
Which expectations are in play
Strand B — the same B2 and B3 expectations as reading. Conventions are assessed in both the selected-response questions and inside the open-response answer.
Strand D — Composition
D1.1 | Purpose and audience — and how form and genre serve the intended meaning |
D1.2 | Developing ideas, drawing on lived experience and other subjects |
D1.3 | Research using three or more sources (not assessable at scale) |
D1.4 | Organising content — sorting and sequencing for the form and genre |
D1.5 | Reflecting on planning strategies (not assessable at scale) |
D2.1 | Producing drafts — narrative, persuasive and informational texts |
D2.2 | Beginning cursive (not assessable at scale) |
D2.3 | Voice — descriptive words and sentence patterns expressing thought, feeling, opinion |
D2.4 | Point of view in their own texts |
D2.5 | Revision — replacing words, adding sentences, using feedback |
D2.6 | Editing and proofreading |
D3.1–D3.3 | Producing, publishing and presenting final texts; reflecting |
D2.1 names all three. A child who has only ever written stories is exposed. Practise all three forms, and practise recognising which one a prompt is asking for.
Running out of time and never finishing. Organisation is a scored criterion, and a piece with no ending is disorganised by definition. Better to plan for three developed paragraphs than to start five.