Second grade teachers collected writing samples from their students. The writing samples were administered in the same fashion as the SAI assessments. The teachers then scored the samples using a four-feature rubric. The data reported is the number of students who scored 2 or less on the features of focus, support and organization and less than a 2 on the convention feature. 81% of the total errors in second grade occurred in the areas of support and organization. The second grade teachers did a relation’s diagram to attempt to discover the root cause of an essential question—Why do students have trouble with organizational skills? The second grade teachers developed an improvement theory from the root causes and effects.

Root Cause:

• More time assessing rather than instructting

Root Effects:

• Lack of higher level thinking skills

Improvement Theory:

• One assessment per month
• Focus on key components
• Modeling
• Conferencing
• Using the rubric with students
• More revision
• Prior knowledge to prompt