A Study Of The Effects Of Dynamic Assessment On Continuation Writing Of Senior High School Students

Dynamic assessment(DA),as a new assessment model,pays more attention to students’ individual learning process,and advocates that students’ individual learning potential should be tapped in the learning process.It is an important way to integrate teaching,learning,and evaluation.In recent years,the research on dynamic assessment in the field of education is developing in depth.In 2016,the continuation writing was implemented in National College Entrance Examination,which puts forward higher requirements for students’ comprehensive language proficiency and thinking ability.A single assessment method is difficult to promote the comprehensive development of students.Against the research background,this study attempts to introduce the concept of dynamic assessment in a senior high school.A dynamic assessment model is applied to the teaching of continuation writing.Three questions are proposed in this study:(1)What are the effects of DA on students’ modification of continuation writing?(2)What are the effects of DA on students’ continuation writing level?(3)What are the effects of DA on students’ learning attitudes towards continuation writing?Based on Vygotsky’s Socio-cultural Theory and Complex Dynamic System Theory,this study selected 98 students in two parallel classes of Grade 2 in a senior high school in Tai’an,Shandong Province.The experimental class adopted dynamic assessment model,while the control class continued to follow the original teaching model.The research is carried out from the following three aspects:(1)This study compares the first draft,revised draft and final draft of the four writing exercises in the experimental class during the experiment in order to examine students’ modification in content,language and structure.(2)This study compares the pre-test and the post-test,and scores students’ writings in the aspects of content,language,and structure respectively,so as to explore the impact of dynamic assessment on students’ writing level.(3)Two questionnaires are distributed to the experimental class before and after the experiment.Moreover,9 students of different levels are randomly selected for interviews in order to have a deeper understanding of the changes in students’ competence and learning attitude.There are three findings in the present study:(1)The DA is effective to students’ revision in content and structure.On the whole,the students’ modification has a decreasing trend.Under the model of dynamic assessment,students consciously avoid previous mistakes when they continue to write again.(2)The DA can effectively improve students’ writing level.In general,the experimental class has a significant progress with improvements in three aspects,that is,content,language,and structure.The progress is more evident in content and structure,and less so in language.(3)The DA has a positive effect on students’ learning attitudes towards continuation writing.After the experiment,the students’ confidence and interest in continuation learning are increased significantly;they have a deeper understanding of continuation learning;their behavioral tendencies are more positive towards writing as well as initiative and planned.They also use appropriate learning strategies in the process of writing.In summary,this study proves the effectiveness of dynamic assessment on students’ continuation writing in revision,writing performance and learning attitude,which provide valuable theory and data supplement to dynamic assessment research and enlightenment for writing instruction in senior high school.