Through a district-wide empathy interview process, teachers asked for a tool that reflects classroom realities, supports instruction, and provides a clearer picture of proficiency across grades. Students wanted more opportunities to share and talk about their writing. While the SWW offered a valuable snapshot, the Learning Progressions for Writing (LPW) are designed to go further. Developed by teachers and aligned with curriculum, ministry progressions, and current research, the LPW help identify trends across samples, target next steps, and guide intentional instruction that fosters growth and meaningful conversations about writing.

A diagnostic writing piece is an informal, unpolished sample written by a student. The goal is to see what learners can do with minimal scaffolding, while still honouring the supports of an inclusive classroom. These pieces are used to notice patterns, strengths, and entry points into instruction, not act as a stand-alone measure of achievement. It contributes to a broader profile of a writer that is built over time through triangulated evidence: observations, conversations, and multiple writing samples. The LPW help teachers zoom out to notice trends across a class and zoom in to see what individual students can do and where they may need support. They are designed to be used over time and with intention, guided by two key questions: To what extent is the student meeting the expected learning across tasks and contexts? What should I zoom in on next?

The LPW help teachers clearly and consistently describe students’ writing development by providing shared language and next steps for growth. EdPlan (see link) supports school teams in identifying trends across classes and grades. It is important to note that the Learning Progressions for Writing represent only part of the broader English Language Arts curricular competencies and content.

The strands are interdependent and are not weighted. Each plays an important role in developing writers, and teachers consider triangulated evidence across all strands when identifying best-fit descriptions. In EdPlan, teachers record a number for each strand. A student’s profile may show different levels across strands, which is expected and reflects the complexity of writing development.

No. Proficiency means students demonstrate the expected learning consistently in a variety of contexts. It’s about overall growth, not perfection.

The LPW are a teacher-facing document. Teachers draw on them to co-create success criteria with students, making the expected learning clear and attainable. These criteria guide conversations about writing, supporting feedback, reflection, and next steps. Through this process, students build awareness of their strengths, set meaningful goals, and develop agency, ownership, and confidence in their growth as writers (see conferencing tools further down this website page). Teachers and schools then use family-friendly language, writing samples, and conferencing conversations to connect the Progressions with the proficiency scale.

The LPW are flexible and responsive, supporting writing development for diverse learners. Teachers can layer in universal and essential supports, integrate digital and multimodal writing, and use technology to remove barriers to participation. Evidence does not need to come from the same task or topic for every student; a range of genres and contexts allow students to demonstrate their strengths. This flexibility supports student choice and teacher-designed tasks, with the ultimate goal of every student seeing themself as a writer.

An optional online course is available for teachers who want to explore the LPW in more depth, consider using them in place of the SWW, and share feedback during this draft year. The course takes about an hour to complete and can be done at your own pace. Building shared understanding through calibration is also an important part of using the Progressions well. To support this work, annotated student samples (see link) are available. Schools are encouraged to make space for collaboration in ways that fit their context.