Writing Assessment

This week we read an article by Peter Elbow titled Ranking, Evaluation, and Liking: Sorting Out Three Forms of Judgement as well as a chapter regarding assessment from Regie Routman's Writing Essentials.

Elbow's main argument simplified, is that ranking is no good because it is inaccurate and unreliable, it gives no substantive feedback, and it is harmful to the learning and teaching environment (p. 188). Elbow argues that we should therefore have less ranking and more evaluation. According to Elbow, "evaluation means looking hard and thoughtfully at a piece of writing in order to make distinctions as to the quality of different features or dimensions" (p. 193). Elbow does make a cautionary statement however, noting that too much evaluation can be harmful because it can lead students to believe that their job in school is to only give what they think the teachers want. Elbow further states that constant evaluation by someone in authority can make students hesitant to take risks in their writing - risks that are necessary for learning to occur (p. 197).

Routman cautions schools and teachers against becoming too "rubricized" (p. 243). Although rubrics promote reliability according to Routman, she cautions that rubrics may simultaneously undermine the validity of the assessment. This is due to the fact that rubrics allow for teachers to assess a student's writing based on the six traits (ideas, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, organization, and conventions), while at the same time, the teacher may fail to look at the big picture of what the student is trying to say (Routman, p. 242).

I need to keep all of this at the front of my mind while I am reading and assessing my students' writing. Ranking is not beneficial to my students to help them succeed and grow as writers (although I may not have a choice depending on my school and/or district). Evaluation (in moderation) is most conducive to my students' growth. One example of evaluation that Elbow offers is using a grid. Elbow states that grids satisfy his students' desire for ranking without giving in to the conventional grades. Elbow titles his grid columns Strong, OK, and Weak, and he labels the rows based on what he is looking for in the writing.

The number one thing I want to ensure is that my assessments are both reliable and valid. If I'm using a rubric to assess, I need to make sure that I'm also aware of what the writer's overall message is. I do not want to have a classroom full of writers who score well based on the rubric, but who's writing is stagnant.

Both Routman and Elbow advocate for lots of writing that is not graded nor evaluated. Our students need lots of practice writing and lots of opportunities to play and take risks with writing. One piece of advice that Routman mentions in her book, Writing Essentials, is that if you are able to read all of your students' writing, then they are not writing enough. I want to live by this simple rule. I want to give my students lots of practice with writing. I do not want to score/grade/evaluate every piece of writing that my students create. When I do assess their writing, I want it to be reliable and valid and I want to remember to look at the whole picture, not just the fragments of the rubric. Most of all however, I want to help my students succeed at writing. I want them to enjoy writing and I want them to see themselves as writers. This is what my personal evaluation should be based as a teacher of writers.