Writing Assessment for Middle School and High School Teachers

Illinois State University Course Number: English 409.03
Semester: Spring 2006
Instructor: Bob Broad, Associate Professor of English
Course meeting times: Specified Saturdays 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Course meeting places: Stevenson 410 (conventional) and STV 408 (networked PC)

Course Overview

This course will take as its starting (and ending) point the idea that assessment is, in Grant Wiggins’s term, “educative.”  That is, assessment is not only, and not most powerfully, a means to document learning.  It is most importantly a means to generate, support, and guide learning.  Therefore one of the key criteria by which we should judge any assessment is:  “What does this assessment teach our students (and faculty, administrators, the public, etc.)?” 

In studying writing assessment, we will therefore explore assessment options with careful attention to what we believe they teach us about composition (and learning, etc.).  Each member of the class is expected to identify, refine, develop, and carry out an individual or collaborative research project (textual research and/or empirical research) on some aspect of writing assessment of immediate importance and usefulness to herself/ himself.  We will also undertake a “communal change project” on a topic of our collaborative choosing. 

Some themes and topics we will explore include: 

• Histories of writing assessment
• Testing vs. “authentic” and “educative” assessment
• Writing portfolio assessment
• Responding to vs. grading students’ writing
• Classroom writing assessment
• Statewide and/or large-scale writing assessment
• Computer-assisted writing assessment

Course Format

Like other classes in the “Teaching Writing in High School and Middle School” series, this course is designed specifically for the benefit of teachers of writing in secondary (middle-school and high-school) English classrooms.  We will educate ourselves regarding relevant theory and research, and integrate that learning into highly focused and “useable” research projects.  In general terms, our activities and projects in and outside of class will include:  Reading assigned texts and writing in a response journal (reflective writing-to-learn); Class discussions and activities; Communal Change Project; and Individual Research Projects. 

Participants in the class will assemble, compose, groom, and present their own course portfolios to promote and document their learning.  They will be expected to “publish” their finished research projects on a website, in a sourcebook for teachers of writing, and/or in professional publications such as books and journals for teachers. 

Check the links below for more information.

This web page is authored by Bob Broad. It was last updated on
January 23, 2006, and has enjoyed visits. 

The URL for this page is
http://lilt.ilstu.edu/rlbroad/teaching/409-03/409-03.htm

Copyright © 2006 Bob Broad