Assessment Week

Assessment, formal assessment anyhow, is the hardest thing for me to pin down. I imagine that is the case for most teachers. I have no trouble with progressive assessment, or whatever you would call monitoring and discussion based assessment...but I have trouble deeming someone's written work as 'good' or 'bad', especially if I can tell that they have worked hard on it and/or if it's a great improvement over previous papers. With the papers that are an improvement, I always have to stop and think about whether I should give it the "C" that it deserves or to give it an "A" or "B" because it's progress.

Rose's "Language of Exclusion" was interesting for me to read. It had some of the same concepts as Lives on the Boundary did, but the presentation and his writing style were very different. I realize that the shift in style is due to the difference in audience, from that of educators and pedagogy students to a more formal academic venue; but it was still strange to go from the almost friendly tone in Lives to this article.

Reading this article also made me think about my own means of assessment. I am a fan of rubrics, both as a student and as a teacher. As a student, I like to see the areas that I need to work on. It doesn't matter if there are points or simply a checklist like the rubric we discussed in class. Rubrics also show what the teachers value...and I'm sorry, but it's important to know what the professor wants. As much as what should matter is becoming a stronger writer...you sort of have to take on the professor's values as your own for the duration of that class.

I know that Rose would not agree with most of the rubrics I use for my classes. They are not wholly grammer/usage based, but I believe that if the grammar and mechanics are so poor that it disrupts the flow of the paper....it should affect the grade.

All of the above rant aside, most days I wish that (after the basic level classes are over) there would be no grades, only comments and working on improvement in writing. My ideal writing class would have units such as: Style, Diction, Flow/Organization, Thesis. Now, I don't think this would work for basic level writing....