Assessment
Vicki Spandel and James D. Williams present very opposing arguments on how students should be assessed.
Williams recognizes the reality of norm-referenced tests in society and our responsibility as educators to prepare students for that:
A great deal of assessment and evaluation is not about individual student performance but rather is about the performance of all students in a given school, district, or state. “Accountability� – the effort through mandated testing to hold teachers and schools responsible for meeting established standards of performance – is a reality that influences what teachers do on a daily basis. Effective writing assessment and evaluation therefore require understanding what underlies assessment in general…
I too believe that it is our responsibility as teachers to recognize the reality of state mandated testing, and to properly prepare our students for that societal construction. But to embrace it and stroke it with tenderness, I will not.
Williams argues that because of society’s tests we need to accurately assess our student’s progress. If then there is a situation where a student struggles and defeats that struggle with dramatic improvement, but remains behind the rest of the class, that student will still receive a below average grade, and their hard work will go unrewarded, possibly encouraging that student to give up on his/her efforts.
Vicki Spandel addresses these issues in The Nine Rights of Every Writer. Spandel suggests that students deserve the right to be assessed well which includes assessment with compassion, assessment that is perceptive, and assessment that is useful. I especially embrace the ‘compassion’ part, as students’ work needs to be rewarded to encourage them to continue, “So much of assessment is about identifying problems. But courage is what writers need most� (Spandel, 94). If we neglect an individual’s hard work to follow norm-referenced testing, it is as if we are mocking their work and considering it of no use.
Unfortunately mandated testing neglects individual needs of differentiation. Yes. We do need to introduce students to the reality of the norm-referenced tests and familiarize them with its testing strategies, but we should make sure students recognize that the mandated tests are not an entire measure of their ability. Students should be exposed to different forms of assessment that also recognize their individual talents and interests so they can continue to reach their full potential as learners.
To help and encourage students to go off topic, there is a great link of creative writing prompts you can use with your students: