Assessing The Teaching Of Writing

Many writing teachers are searching for a better way to turn student writing into teaching and learning opportunities without being crushed under the weight of student papers. This book introduces a rubric designed by the National Writing Project—the Analytic Writing Continuum (AWC)—that is making its way into classrooms across the country at all grade levels. The authors use sample student writing and multiple classroom scenarios to illustrate how teachers have adapted this flexible tool to meet the needs of their students, including using the AWC to teach revision, give feedback, direct peer-to-peer response groups, and serve as a formative assessment guide. This resource also discusses how to set up a local scoring session and how to use the AWC in professional development. Book Features: Introduces teachers to a powerful assessment system and teaching tool to support student writing achievement.Offers a diagnostic tool for guiding students toward a common understanding of the qualities of good writing.Provides ideas for helping students learn from models and give productive feedback to peers.Illustrates ways to adjust the AWC to various grade levels and different teaching goals. “Smith and Swain reveal how the Analytic Writing Continuum assessment tool can be used as a catalyst for a deeper understanding of writing and a source for a common language for teaching and learning writing. I would recommend this book to all involved in the process of English language arts curriculum and instruction.” —Jessica Early, Arizona State University “As a teacher of diverse students in myriad grades, I've found the Analytic Writing Continuum to be an invaluable tool. If you teach writing, you need this book!” —Bob Crongeyer, codirector, Area 3 Writing Project at UC Davis

This book provides teachers, instructors, scholars, and administrators with a practical guide to implement portfolio assessment of writing in their work contexts. Unlike most existing volumes, which underscore theory building, it describes and discusses several key issues concerning how portfolio assessment can be carried out in authentic classrooms with a focus on its processes, reflective components, task types and design, scoring methods and actionable recommendations.

"Brian Huot's well-reasoned, provocative discourse on primary conceptions in the field will be of significant value to scholars in writing and writing assessment, to writing program adminstrators, to readers in educational assessment, and to graduate students in rhetoric and composition."--BOOK JACKET.

A practical guide written by teachers, for teachers, this book provides authentic, proven practices in the teaching of writing, along with samples of student writing, grades 7--12, and integrating Common Core State Standards within a comprehensive English Language Arts curriculum. Teaching Writing Grades 7--12 in an Era of Assessment is an ideal guide for those who have not had access to professional development in teaching writing. In it, readers get the benefit of hearing first hand from real teachers teaching real students. In addition to presenting detailed, specific pedagogy appropriate for seventh grade, eighth grade, and high school students, the book also addresses a wide range of students, including English Language Learners and reluctant writers and readers.

While assessment and feedback tend to be treated separately in the L2 writing literature, this book brings together these two essential topics and examines how effective classroom assessment and feedback can provide a solid foundation for the successful teaching and learning of writing. Drawing upon current educational and L2 writing theories and research, the book is the first to address writing assessment and feedback in L2 primary and secondary classrooms, providing a comprehensive, up-to-date review of key issues, such as assessment for learning, assessment as learning, teacher feedback, peer feedback, portfolio assessment, and technology enhanced classroom writing assessment and feedback. The book concludes with a chapter on classroom assessment literacy for L2 writing teachers, outlines its critical components and underscores the importance of teachers undertaking continuing professional development to enhance their classroom assessment literacy. Written in an accessible style, the book provides a practical and valuable resource for L2 writing teachers to promote student writing, and for teacher educators to deliver effective classroom writing assessment and feedback training. Though the target audience is school teachers, L2 writing instructors in any context will benefit from the thorough and useful treatment of classroom assessment and feedback in the book.

In the 21st century, writing is more important than at any other time in human history. Yet much of the emphasis in schooling has been on reading, and after the early years, writing skills have been given less attention. Internationally, too many children are leaving school without the writing skills they need to succeed in life. The evidence indicates that students rarely develop proficiency as writers without effective teacher instruction. Teaching Writing offers a comprehensive approach for the middle years of schooling, when the groundwork should be laid for the demanding writing tasks of senior school and the workplace. Teaching Writing outlines evidence-based principles of writing instruction for upper primary students and young adolescents. It presents strategies that are ready for adoption or adaptation, and exemplars to assist with designing and implementing writing lessons across the middle years of school. It addresses writing from a multimodal perspective while also highlighting the importance of teaching linguistic aspects of text design such as sentence structure, vocabulary and spelling as foundations for meaning-making. Contributors argue that students need to continue to develop their skills in both handwriting and keyboarding. Examples of the teaching of writing across disciplines are presented through a range of vignettes. Strategies for assessing student writing and for supporting students with diverse needs are also explored. With contributions from leading literacy educators, Teaching Writing is an invaluable resource for primary, secondary and pre-service teachers.

Although fraught with politics and other perils, teacher evaluation can contribute in important, positive ways to faculty development at both the individual and the departmental levels. Yet the logistics of creating a valid assessment are complicated. Inconsistent methods, rater bias, and overreliance on student evaluation forms have proven problematic. The essays in Assessing the Teaching of Writing demonstrate constructive ways of evaluating teacher performance, taking into consideration the immense number of variables involved. Contributors to the volume examine a range of fundamental issues, including the political context of declining state funds in education; growing public critique of the professoriate and demands for accountability resulting from federal policy initiatives like No Child Left Behind; the increasing sophistication of assessment methods and technologies; and the continuing interest in the scholarship of teaching. The first section addresses concerns and advances in assessment methodologies, and the second takes a closer look at unique individual sites and models of assessment. Chapters collectively argue for viewing teacher assessment as a rhetorical practice. Fostering new ways of thinking about teacher evaluation, Assessing the Teaching of Writing will be of great interest not only to writing program administrators but also to those concerned with faculty development and teacher assessment outside the writing program.