How does error tracking work in French language arts?

📍 For schools in France. This article covers a system that only schools in France use.

In French language arts (français), error tracking covers language skills, but also reading comprehension and interpretation, argumentation, method (commentaire, dissertation, contraction, etc.) and creative writing.

Errors are sorted into 18 categories:

• Spelling and punctuation (Orthographe et ponctuation)

• Syntax and vocabulary (Syntaxe et vocabulaire)

• Language study (Étude de la langue)

• Dictation (Dictée)

• Comprehension (Compréhension)

• Interpretation (Interprétation)

• References and literary devices (Références et procédés)

• Comparing documents (Confrontation de supports)

• Framing the question (Problématisation du sujet)

• Addressing the topic (Traitement du sujet)

• Argumentation (Argumentation)

• Discussion and critical review (Discussion et examen critique)

• Structure (Structure)

• Commentaire and dissertation method (Méthodologie commentaire et dissertation)

• Open writing method (Méthodologie rédactions libres)

• Writing prompt (Consigne d’écriture)

• Contraction (Contraction)

• Creative writing (Écriture créative)

Most of these categories also include positive observations, which flag a success (for example Correct, well-controlled language or Relevant, well-illustrated argument). They show up in the analysis, next to the errors.

This error detection pinpoints the types of errors each student makes most often.

🧠 What is error tracking for?

Error tracking helps you better understand where students struggle in their written work, whatever the type of assessment (dissertation, commentaire, written answer, short answers, creative writing, etc.).

Skills measure how well a student masters a subject skill tied to the course content. Error tracking looks at something else: recurring types of errors in language, reading, argumentation and method. It complements skills and focuses on the quality of written work.

📌 What does error tracking cover in French?

Ed.ai detects errors automatically across 18 categories:

• Spelling and punctuation

  E.g.: word spelling, past participle agreement, subject-verb agreement, conjugation, confusing grammatical homophones, punctuation and typography

• Syntax and vocabulary

  E.g.: badly built or incomplete sentence, wrong or vague word choice, unsuitable register, repetition

• Language study

  E.g.: wrong word class or grammatical function, wrong meaning of a word, incorrect transformation

• Dictation

  E.g.: grammar error, spelling error, missing word or passage

• Comprehension

  E.g.: misreading a passage, confusing author, narrator and character, incomplete list of evidence

• Interpretation

  E.g.: paraphrase, quotation that doesn’t support the point, device misread or not interpreted

• References and literary devices

  E.g.: no reference used, device poorly defined, genre or movement misidentified

• Comparing documents

  E.g.: image not compared with the text, shallow description of the image

• Framing the question

  E.g.: no problématique, key terms of the question not analyzed

• Addressing the topic

  E.g.: off topic, topic narrowed down, lesson recited

• Argumentation

  E.g.: unsupported claim, example not developed, circular reasoning

• Discussion and critical review

  E.g.: no discussion, simply agreeing with the text

• Structure

  E.g.: announced outline not followed, unstructured body, missing conclusion

• Commentaire and dissertation method

  E.g.: incomplete introduction, missing transitions, line-by-line commentary

• Open writing method

  E.g.: missing introduction, paragraphs stacked with no progression

• Writing prompt

  E.g.: prompt only partly addressed, too short

• Contraction

  E.g.: key idea left out, personal addition, length off target

• Creative writing

  E.g.: writing constraint of the prompt not met, inconsistent story, inconsistent tenses

🎯 How do you use error tracking in Ed.ai?

Error tracking helps you:

• spot the most frequent errors in a class or for one student, on one or several assessments

• follow progress and persistent errors over time

• tell one-off slips from recurring errors

• target the errors to work on first in reteaching activities

• build a bank of typical errors that Ed.ai can draw on to generate personalized reteaching exercises