Week Four: Assessment

This week's chapter in Within and Beyond the Writing Process makes it pretty clear that assessment of student writing is not the fun part. I'm sure the group that read Papers, Papers, Papers would agree with that sentiment. We want to hear students' voices, guide them along, help them communicate their message, but we'd rather not judge them when it's finished.

The textbook does make an important distinction between the types of assessment that help and the types of assessment that judge, and I think that's important. I think teachers have the power to communicate a very strong message about writing in the way they choose to evaluate students. In the AP Composition course I took my junior year of high school, Mr. Heydanek (Kim's cooperating teacher, incidentally) graded each of us on how much we improved over the semester. This gave me the message that every paper was an opportunity to learn something new, and that continued efforts all year were necessary to make the grade. The purpose of the course was to make our own writing the best it could be, and I can honestly say that I learned to write that year.

The Writing Process authors would agree that the types of assessments that grade solely on one product rather than process, a collection of products or progress sends the message that students are not in class to learn to write but to produce something good enough for the teacher's standards. It shows students no reminders that writing is an individual craft that takes a lot of practice and lessons to master, and doesn't help students to remember the teacher is there to help.

I think the most important lesson I've learned about writing instruction so far this semester is that the way you frame learning to write to your students is so important. I strive to be able to communicate to my students that "You have something to say, you have a story, and I will help you communicate that message." Ideas, revision, editing, all of these lessons fall under the umbrella of making yourself understood, which is of utmost importance to teenagers especially.

The Adger article on vernacular speech and writing reminded me of a writing lesson teachers shouldn't overlook: Audience matters. I think a simple discussion on what implications audience has on writing (Is your English teacher going to respond well to "IM-speak" in your paper? Are readers of your standardized writing test going to take away points for non-standard English?), how this reflects on our society and what each student, as a writer, can do about it is so important. Mr. Heydanek always asked us to write our audience and our purpose at the top of each essay, so the instruction could be as simple as that or an entire lesson plan on stigmatized language. Also, a reminder that there are times (a personal narrative, for example, or a poem) when "writing how you talk" is completely appropriate and adds voice (one of the six traits!) to a piece of writing.


RESOURCE LINK OF THE WEEK:

It occurs to me that, just as in writing, we must negotiate language to communicate a message, so must we do so in editing. To get all students on the same page in terms of the editing marks they are using look at their own and their peers' papers, I found the following handout. I'd probably transfer the entire thing to a poster, but I liked the simplicity of this handout so I thought I'd share it.

http://www.thewritingsite.org/resources/managing/workshop/pdf/editmark.pdf