Reimagining Writing Assessment

"This book is for teachers who want to honor their students' experiences as writers and readers-and their own." -Maja Wilson In Reimagining Writing Assessment,Maja Wilson shows us that by replacing the scales embedded in rubrics with new tools--an array of interpretive lenses designed to observe and describe growth-we can create healthier readers and writers who are more proficient in the long run and more motivated to read and write. She reminds us that "assess" in its Latin derivation means "sit beside." In this book she models new ways of "sitting beside," listening to student stories of the writing, respecting the writer's intentions, and telling stories of our reading. Taking the form of conversations, Maja's new definition of writing assessment is not an outcome or final evaluation: it is an ongoing process in which writers and readers make meaning from texts and attempts, from intentions and effects. In this process, teachers come to understand how to teach and talk with each student about writing differently. And students learn to understand and take control of their own development as decision-makers.

The conventional wisdom in English education is that rubrics are the best and easiest tools for assessment. But sometimes it's better to be unconventional. In Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment, Maja Wilson offers a new perspective on rubrics and argues for a better, more responsive way to think about assessing writers' progress. Though you may sense a disconnect between student-centered teaching and rubric-based assessment, you may still use rubrics for convenience or for want of better alternatives. Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment gives you the impetus to make a change, demonstrating how rubrics can hurt kids and replace professional decision making with an inauthentic pigeonholing that stamps standardization onto a notably nonstandard process. With an emphasis on thoughtful planning and teaching, Wilson shows you how to reconsider writing assessment so that it aligns more closely with high-quality instruction and avoids the potentially damaging effects of rubrics. Stop listening to the conventional wisdom, and turn instead to a compelling new voice to find out why rubrics are often replaceable. Open Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment and let Maja Wilson start you down the path to more sensitive, authentic style of writing assessment.

Students thrive when they are exposed to a variety of disciplinary genres, and their lives--and our institutions--are enriched by improving their writing outcomes. Taking account of evolving research, writing in the disciplines, and demographic and institutional shifts in higher education, this volume imagines new ways to improve writing outcomes by broadening the focus of assessment to wider issues of humanity and society. The essays--by contributors from diverse fields, from writing studies to nursing, engineering, and architecture--demonstrate innovative classroom practices and curricular design that place fairness and the situatedness of language at the center of writing instruction. Contributors reflect on a wide range of examples, from a disability-as-insight model to reckoning with postcolonial legacies, and the essays consider a variety of institutions, classrooms, and types of assessment, including culturally responsive assessment and peer feedback in digital environments.

Adler-Kassner and O'Neill show writing faculty and administrators how to frame discussions of writing assessment so that they accurately represent research-based practices, and promote assessments that are valid, reliable, and discipline-appropriate. Public discourse about writing instruction is currently driven by ideas of what instructors and programs “need to do,” “should do,” or “are not doing,” and is based on poorly informed concepts of correctness and unfounded claims about a broad decline in educational quality. This discussion needs to be reframed, say Adler-Kassner and O'Neill, to help policymakers understand that the purpose of writing instruction is to help students develop critical thinking, reading, and writing strategies that will form the foundation for their future educations, professional careers, and civic engagement. Reframing Writing Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning is grounded in the best of writing assessment research, and focuses on how to communicate it effectively to publics beyond academe.

A real-world action plan for educators to create personalizedlearning experiences Learning Personalized: The Evolution of the ContemporaryClassroom provides teachers, administrators, and educationalleaders with a clear and practical guide to personalized learning.Written by respected teachers and leading educational consultantsAllison Zmuda, Greg Curtis, and Diane Ullman, this comprehensiveresource explores what personalized learning looks like, how itchanges the roles and responsibilities of every stakeholder, andwhy it inspires innovation. The authors explain that, in order tocreate highly effective personalized learning experiences, a newinstructional design is required that is based loosely on thetraditional model of apprenticeship: learning by doing. Learning Personalized challenges educators to rethink thefundamental principles of schooling that honors students' naturalwillingness to play, problem solve, fail, re-imagine, and share.This groundbreaking resource: Explores the elements of personalized learning and offers aframework to achieve it Provides a roadmap for enrolling relevant stakeholders tocreate a personalized learning vision and reimagine new roles andresponsibilities Addresses needs and provides guidance specific to the jobdescriptions of various types of educators, administrators, andother staff This invaluable educational resource explores a simple frameworkfor personalized learning: co-creation, feedback, sharing, andlearning that is as powerful for a teacher to re-examine classroompractice as it is for a curriculum director to reexamine thestructure of courses.

Do you think education works? Does it meet the needs of future society, business and most importantly, the average school leaver? In this book, Richard Wells explains his amazement at how all the components of New Zealand education collaborate in creating an ever forward-moving system better prepared for the 21st century than any other. After teaching in the UK, Wells moved to New Zealand in 2006 to find there was no prescribed curriculum and teachers were trusted to run the whole system, including writing high school graduation assessments themselves. The Government is appreciated by teachers as a supportive aide to them as they hold each other to account in a positive and collaborative nationally networked system. In New Zealand, teachers are proud of the education system they operate and develop with their students, some being unaware of how lucky they are. Wells explains each of the elements and organisations that jointly form the world's leading 21st Century education system. He describes the developments and decisions that were made in achieving this and how it is moving into a phase of using student-negotiated national assessments that few other countries' educators could even contemplate. The book is filled with useful diagrams and posters to illustrate key themes and pedagogies. Wells paints a picture of what happens when young people are measured by their depth of thinking and understanding and can personalise their approach to doing so. The book introduces you to a country where the leading people and schools shape the future of world public education.

A moving exploration of how gay men construct their identities, fight to be themselves, and live authentically It goes without saying that even today, it’s not easy to be gay in America. While young gay men often come out more readily, even those from the most progressive of backgrounds still struggle with the legacy of early-life stigma and a deficit of self-acceptance, which can fuel doubt, regret, and, at worst, self-loathing. And this is to say nothing of the ongoing trauma wrought by AIDS, which is all too often relegated to history. Drawing on his work as a clinical psychologist during and in the aftermath of the epidemic, Walt Odets reflects on what it means to survive and figure out a way to live in a new, uncompromising future, both for the men who endured the upheaval of those years and for the younger men who have come of age since then, at a time when an HIV epidemic is still ravaging the gay community, especially among the most marginalized. Through moving stories—of friends and patients, and his own—Odets considers how experiences early in life launch men on trajectories aimed at futures that are not authentically theirs. He writes to help reconstruct how we think about gay life by considering everything from the misleading idea of “the homosexual,” to the diversity and richness of gay relationships, to the historical role of stigma and shame and the significance of youth and of aging. Crawling out from under the trauma of destructive early-life experience and the two epidemics, and into a century of shifting social values, provides an opportunity to explore possibilities rather than live with limitations imposed by others. Though it is drawn from decades of private practice, activism, and life in the gay community, Odets’s work achieves remarkable universality. At its core, Out of the Shadows is driven by his belief that it is time that we act based on who we are and not who others are or who they would want us to be. We—particularly the young—must construct our own paths through life. Out of the Shadows is a necessary, impassioned argument for how and why we must all take hold of our futures.

A deep exploration of the intersection of faith, creativity, and justice from acclaimed hip-hop artist and creative polymath Sho Baraka “Sho has the courage to say what many are thinking and the candor to say what many are not. His words have positively influenced me for years—now this book gives the world that influence.”—Lecrae You were created to help bring truth and beauty into this broken world. God made you with an imagination and a yearning for justice. No matter your calling or vocation, you can help shape a better world around you through your creativity. But that doesn’t mean it will be easy. We are surrounded by toxic stories and bad cultural thinking. We’re held back by incomplete theology. But does it have to be like that? Is frustration the end of the story? In the face of confusion and injustice, we can lose sight of our true narrative—the one that started in a garden and wants to make our real lives better today. In He Saw That It Was Good, activist and recording artist Sho Baraka wrestles deeply and honestly with these questions, gives you permission to do the same, and shows a hard-earned path to creative change. With Sho, you’ll engage with art, justice, and history. Learn from the powerful principles of historic movements, explore why it’s important to cultivate your creative calling (no matter what you do!), and discover a fresh look at how the gospel can transform how you see God, your neighbor, your work, and your world. You’ll return to your biggest and truest story. Your life (and your world) need never be the same.