Seventh-grade students should be able to identify the important components of fiction such as plot, characters and setting. Students should be able to find these things as well as specify whether any of these aspects are confusing or poorly executed. Give students a writing sample to read, preferably one that is imperfect. Then give the students things to identify: the setting, the characters, the plot, the climax and the conclusion. Ask students if any of these things were confusing to them or could be better conveyed.
Seventh-grade students should also be able to critique the effectiveness of essays in conveying their purpose. Give students an informative article, essay or paragraph to read. Ask them to identify the following components: the purpose of the piece, the supporting evidence the author uses and the intended audience. Then ask students about their answers. For instance, ask whether the intended audience is appropriate or if the piece is written in a way that is accessible to the audience.
Assign students a piece of writing that contains various misspellings, incorrectly used words and grammatically incorrect sentences. If students have weekly spelling tests or vocab words, include as many of those words as possible, preferably misspelling them or using them incorrectly in sentences. Then ask students to list all of the errors on the page on their own. Once they have had a chance to work alone, allow students to work together as a class to identify all of the errors while you mark them off and encourage students to find them all.
Seventh-grade students will benefit from working together in small groups to assess each others' writing. Put students into groups and ask them to bring a recent writing assignment. Have students pass their assignments around and give them a variety of focus points to identify and critique. Examples include checking spelling and grammar; identifying key words in the text that reflect the purpose; identifying the audience; and identifying the purpose.