Readings for February 22
After reading Spandel and Williams, I realize how difficult it is to properly assess student writing. I am particularly frightened assessing creative writing as I personally do not write creatively. I think one way to try to make each student successful, is to grade their process of writing in addition to their final product. Peer review, self-assessment, and various drafts will all combine to make up a student’s grade. In addition, I hope to have the time to allow students to continually revise for a better grade.
I really liked Williams’ approach about reading papers twice, and putting them in piles of similar strength. My cooperating teaching recently spoke to me about this approach and the numerous benefits so I was already sold on the idea. I think one way to cut down on grading and paper load is to have students write fewer papers, better. That is, to have multiple revisions of every paper. I think this gives them a deeper understanding and makes grading easier, since as a teacher you will have seen their paper numerous times.
Both Williams (although less blatantly) and Spandel spoke about the role of testing as a measurement of successful learning. Since we as a cohort have been discussing this for about a year, I don’t feel obliged to go into detail and I feel as though most of us agree current educators should play more of a role in making the standards. I did like Spandel’s advice on compassionate assessment and focusing on finding ways to assess that encourage students.
Spandel made some very interesting points regarding straying off topic. I feel that not allowing students to stray produces boring, restrictive, and possibly contrived writing. I also like how she mentioned that restricting students to prompts implies arrogance and a need for control on the part of the teacher. I couldn’t agree more and would like to add that it may also point to laziness (or time constraints) as a teacher would be able to grade papers more quickly when everyone writes about the same thing. Looking back on my most successful writing, I would come up with a thesis but would eventually stray as my research would point me in a different direction. Had I not had that freedom, those papers instead would have been some of my least successful.
This website makes some strong points on the importance of formative assessments for writing rather than summative. http://www.bridgewater.edu/WritingCenter/Resources/sumform.htm
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4 comments:
Hi, Are you sick of me always commenting on your blog? We're always simpatico so it is sort of dumb. I have to admit that I'm sort of afraid of grading papers - I mean, what do I know? I'm afraid I'll grade too easy and no one will learn anything from the assessment. What I really think is that experience is going to be how we really learn anything useful about assessing students.
dude i am nervous about grading papers too. if we have rubrics and use writing workshops i think we'll be fine (seriously). i think it is important for us to read about this stuff, but the only way we will really figure it out is if we roll up our sleaves...
I agree with you that William's suggestion of grading papers by first piling them them up in different sections is a way to time-effectively grade papers. However, I feel that that process may take away from the individuality of the students' progress as writers. If we constantly compare students' writing to the rest of the class, what happens when a struggling writer improves tremendously and a good writer shows little improvement, does the struggling writer still recieve a grade with the 'lower grade pile'?
I also dread grading papers, there are so many things to consider when doing it! Like Speicher says, though-we'll only really get it through experience, when we actually know our students...then we'll know how to best assess them...
I like how you approach this from a personal and selfish approach (I swear it is a compliment), as teachers, I feel that we sometimes focus so strongly on being heroes, imspirations, and making a difference one student at a time, that we forget that we too need to have lives. I like the approach of having them write fewer papers and workshopping them as a menas of making less for us to grade. Genious!!
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