Talking It Out
Reluctant Revisers – collaboration, reading and writing. If they are able to come up with good questions to analyze their own writing or other writings it will help them become better self-reflectors.
Throughout the school year, you and your students might discover each other’s super powers.
Having a go-to for specific things is important. It makes the other person feel valued and you are at ease with having an “expert” take an in-depth look at a specific part of your writing.
The table is an awesome way to have students start and pick their strengths. What seems to connect with them? What seems familiar? What seems right? What type of hat fits? Does the feel of this pen form to their hand?
The Right to be Assessed Well
Three levels of assessment:
- State
- Classroom
- Personal/Reflective
Assessment must be perceptive – careful, reflective reading of a piece. Assessment must be compassionate – uplift and not find fault. Assessment should be useful – to serve and grow the writer.
It’s kind of bittersweet to hear a second grader say, “Please, tell me what I did right so I can do it again.” Bittersweet isn’t the word for it, but I’m unable to articulate what I would feel if I hear a little kid say that. We all have had that feeling before – not knowing what we did right and frustrated when we can’t conjure the magic again.
In our school we have students keep a portfolio of work from the beginning of their freshman year (or whenever they transfer in) until their senior year. They are able to see how they meet schoolwide learning outcomes, progress in their abilities, how their perspectives change, etc. They are especially useful when they complete a GBE (graduation by exhibition) which is required at Venture in order to graduate. I would love to incorporate more writing or start encouraging student to choose assignments that allow creative writing (and other types) to be displayed.
“We should be very, very careful for what we assess, for in the end, what we assess is what we will get.”
Not all advice is good or helpful. You know your writing best – be critical with yourself and with criticisms. I’ve heard “Don’t take criticism from someone you wouldn’t take advice from” and it rings true in writing.”
I have a hate/love relationship with the grading of writing. It is subjective – people say, “Use a rubric!” Yes, now you have “classified” your subjectivity or justified it, however you would like to say it. Did the reviewer have their cup of coffee yet? Did they have to go to the Post Office because they were out when their parcel delivery was attempted? So many factors can subtly influence. On the other hand, if you take away the human aspect, the subjectivity, all writing might become the same and formulaic and boring.
Look up six trait model of writing – someone mentioned it in AVID – and now I come across it again.
Paul's Postings 
Paulie G,
I would also like to incorporate a more thoughtful writing component into our portfolio process. I love the idea of “the art of selection”, and I think that would be a powerful academic process for our students to go through.
The subjectivity of writing was also a key takeaway for me. This is such a reality when it comes to writing assessment, and it is why calibration can be such a frustrating process. I mean there’s even subjectivity when it comes to conventions… which is crazy but true. Many would first assume: “Of course there is only one right way to use a comma”, but then there is the stylistic element that comes with punctuation as well. You know I love a dash, and a complex sentence, and some parentheticals thrown in for good measure. That might float one person’s boat, but it definitely won’t float everybody’s.
Writing—such a complex beast. I think it’s great how thoughtful you are when it comes to helping our kids tame it.
You da best!
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Paul,
I also have a love/hate relationship with the grading of writing. It is so subjective. This past year my PLC tallied the scores our students received for a writing grade on the report card. Our grading system is a number system (1-4). If a student receives a 4 that means the student exceeded the standard. Our grade level was all over the place. Some classes had multiple students exceeding the writing standards and other classes only had one or two students exceeding the standards. Why is that so? Does one teacher do a better job at helping their students? Or does that teacher grade much easier? I think it has more to do with the teacher rather than the student. This discrepancy is a big deal to me. I was the teacher with few students receiving a 4. When we have to turn our data into the principal I can’t help but think it negatively reflects on me as a teacher. Grading writing is challenging, but by having conversations about writing scores I think my PLC team is headed in the right direction in order to create consistency.
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