What's interesting is how my son's creative writing ability has changed in the past few years. He used to be horrible at writing, and it wasn't a smart thing (he's gifted). He was especially bad at creative writing.
I think it must be a developmental thing because now he is in 7th grade, and he loves creative writing.
I personally think that in 3-5th grade, the writing assessment should be about something concrete like "How do you make a peanut butter sandwich?" or "Describe what you look like." It's concrete and shows if a child can write or not.
You know, not everyone is good at putting thoughts into words. If that were the case, everyone would be a writer. Your idea is a good one.
The English curriculum we used for those grades while homeschooling (Rod & Staff) did exactly that. I think it really helped a lot.
I hated writing essays like the one that kid was given. I just cannot think of something to think when put on the spot like that, especially with the pressure of a test. The ridiculous thing is, they wanted several paragraphs, not just a few sentences; out of a third grader no less.
My oldest daughter is really smart but a total geek. She HATES writing stuff like that and when she does, writes way below what one would expect of her. She recognises it and is trying to deal with it in college. Her comment was, "Put a lab report or computer program in front of me and I'll do fine." And she does. She's a computer science major and loves it. I told her that when she's done with that, she won't need to deal with it any more. It's not something that one uses in real life.
Not all kids are cut out of the same cloth. Why should they be so hard on kids who don't do well at *creative writing* (which is only done in school and I'm beginning to suspect it's main purpose is to give English teachers something to do) and yet be soooo understanding when kids aren't good in Math and Science, which ARE used much more in everyday life?