How to Create a Writing Benchmark

❗ The ability to create Benchmarks requires access to our Admin Tools. Check out this article to learn how to gain administrator access in NoRedInk!

Once you've decided that Writing Benchmarks are aligned with your school or district's educational goals for the year, you can follow these steps to create a Writing Benchmark!

1. After receiving administrative access in NoRedInk, log in to your account and select Admin Tools at the top of your dashboard. 

2. Select Writing Benchmark on the left-hand side and then select Create new Writing Benchmark.

On the next page, you'll be able to choose between creating an Unscaffolded Quick Write or a Scaffolded Guided Essay/Short Response as your Writing Benchmark. Check out each section below to learn how to create the different types of Writing Benchmarks! 

Create an Unscaffolded Writing Benchmark

Unscaffolded Quick Write activities provide students with a prompt and associated texts. Quick Writes can be used to serve a range of purposes, from building writing fluency and developing specific writing skills to assessing understanding of course content. To create an Unscaffolded Quick Write Benchmark, you can follow these steps:

1. Select Unscaffolded at the top of the Create Benchmark page.
2. You can administer either a pre-made prompt or create a custom-made Writing Benchmark. You can also assign a Grading Assistant-powered Quick Write! 

3. You can select the eye icon next to a pre-made prompt to preview the experience students will have while writing their submissions.
4. If you select a pre-made prompt, the next page will pre-fill each field. You can always still customize it or add a custom prompt.
5. If you select Create your own, the next page will guide you through all of the fields you can customize.

You can add your prompt or source that students can reference while they write, select the minimum length of the essay, customize the grading rubric, and choose the grading method you'd like teachers to use. 

6. Once you've finished customizing the Benchmark, you'll be prompted to create a follow-up Benchmark. This follow-up Benchmark will automatically use the rubric from the initial Benchmark you created.
7. You can always skip the follow-up by selecting Skip follow-up at the top of the second Benchmark's page

8. After creating the follow-up Benchmark or choosing to skip creating one, you'll select the schools that will be administered the Benchmark.

9. Once finished, select Finalize Benchmark.
10. On the final page, you'll fill out the remaining fields to finalize your Benchmark. You'll enter:
    • The name of the Benchmark
    • The grade level of the Benchmark
    • The open and close dates of the initial Benchmark

🍎 We recommend giving teachers two weeks to administer the benchmark, plus another two weeks to grade student submissions.

11. When you've finished finalizing the Benchmark, select Send to teachers at the bottom of the page. 

Once it's sent out to teachers, the Benchmark will appear as a recommendation in the Assignment Library and their teacher dashboard 3 weeks before the administration window opens. 

❗ If any teachers are not seeing the recommendation on their account, please ensure that they have the appropriate grade levels set on their Manage Classes page in NoRedInk! 

Create a Scaffolded Writing Benchmark

Scaffolded Guided Essay and Short Response activities provide students with tutorials, model writing, and targeted tips alongside a prompt and associated texts. This frees up time for teachers to provide more individualized instruction. To create a Scaffolded Guided Essay or Short Response Benchmark, you can follow these steps:

1. Select Scaffolded at the top of the Create Benchmark page.
2. You can administer either a pre-made prompt or create a custom-made Writing Benchmark.

3. You can select the eye icon next to a pre-made prompt to preview the experience students will have while writing their submissions.
4. If you select a pre-made prompt, the next page will pre-fill each field. You can always still customize it or add a custom prompt.
5. If you select Create your own, the next page will guide you through all of the fields you can customize.

You can add your prompt or source that students can reference while they write, select the genre of the essay, customize the grading rubric, choose the grading method, and even select the specific parts of the essay you want students to focus on.

6. Once you've finished customizing the Benchmark, you'll be prompted to create a follow-up Benchmark. This follow-up Benchmark will automatically use the rubric from the initial Benchmark you created, even if you choose a follow-up with a different rubric.
7. You can always skip the follow-up by selecting Skip follow-up for now on the left side of the page. 

8. After creating the follow-up Benchmark or choosing to skip creating one, you'll select the schools that will be administered the Benchmark.

9. Once finished, select Finalize Benchmark.
10. On the final page, you'll fill out the remaining fields to finalize your Benchmark. You'll enter:
    • The name of the Benchmark
    • The grade level of the Benchmark
    • The open and close dates of the initial Benchmark

🍎 We recommend giving teachers two weeks to administer the benchmark, plus another two weeks to grade student submissions.

11. When you've finished finalizing the Benchmark, select Send to teachers at the bottom of the page. 

Once it's sent out to teachers, the Benchmark will appear as a recommendation in the Assignment Library and their teacher dashboard 3 weeks before the administration window opens. 

❗ If any teachers are not seeing the recommendation on their account, please ensure that they have the appropriate grade levels set on their Manage Classes page in NoRedInk! 

Additional Resources

• Admin Guide to Writing Benchmarks
• Managing your Classes and Students
• Which should I assign: Quick Write, Guided Essay, or Guided Short Response?