ENG 699: Advanced Teacher Research: Writing Assessment
Independent Study (3 Credits)
Dr. Lindsay Ellis
Final Project: Due June 14, 2012
Issue: There are myriad problems with the current practice of high-stakes writing assessment in the
United States. Two are particularly aggravating. First, the method of soliciting writing samples from
students on high stakes tests does not accurately require them to demonstrate the understandings,
knowledge, and skills that effective writers employ. Second, the teachers in whose hands the
teaching of writing rests gain no insight into how to improve their practice.
Task: Write a 12-18 page research review/story/critical reflection/action brief [genre] for the next
cohort of teacher-researchers studying assessment [audience] in order to help them improve the
process of data collection, classroom instruction, and evaluation [purpose]. Your essay should
explain some problems with prior experiences of writing assessment in the context of your own
teaching, then describe and evaluate the alternative strategy for assessing the effectiveness of your
instruction that you carried out this year.
The following outline of structure and questions is meant to help you. Try to give your piece
coherence and thoroughness. You do not need to mechanically answer every question.
I. Research Review
 Why is the practice of high stakes writing assessment not helpful to teachers in improving
their teaching practice?
 What understandings, skills, and knowledge do writers need in order to be successful in
college and career (or the next level of school?)
 What do the standardized tests actually assess? What understandings, skills and knowledge
do students need in order to do well on these tests?
 What information from their students as writers do teachers need in order to improve their
teaching of writing?
 What lens does the rubric used by your state/school help evaluators to see? What is made
less visible by this rubric?
 What forms of writing prompts give students a chance to demonstrate their understandings,
skills, and knowledge about writing process and product?
 What forms of teacher involvement in writing assessment help teachers to improve their
teaching of writing?
 Why are mentor texts in the genres that they are asked to write useful to writers?
 Why is time to orally discuss, think over several days, and draft/revise over several days a
useful method of assessing writers' understandings, skills, and knowledge?
II. Story
 Part 1: What happened in your classroom in the fall as you prepared to and carried out a
week of writing assessment?
 Part 2: What happened in your classroom in the spring as you prepared to and carried out a
week of writing assessment?
III. Reflection (Part 1):
 Were there any surprises in this process?
 Why do you think things went as they did? What does that teach you?
 If you were to do this again, what would you do differently next time:
o to prepare to give the writing invitation (if you were to use the same assessment)
o to facilitate students' effective demonstration of their understandings, skills, and
knowledge (i.e., Would you change the "rules" of the week of doing the assessment?
Would you change what mentor text you used or how you gave the instructions?
Would you change the amount of time anywhere?)
o to make evaluation more effective at the end?
IV: Story
 Part 3: What happened as you evaluated your students' texts? Describe your process of
evaluation.
V: Results/Findings
 Describe the results of your evaluation. What did you find?
o In what areas did your students' writing improve over the course of the year?
o In what areas did your students' writing not improve over the course of the year?
o Did you notice any patterns or phenomena that the rubric language did not help you
to describe?
o Did you notice any patterns in evaluating the writing of students in other schools?
o What qualities of students' papers stood out as "good" as you read?
o What qualities of students' papers stood out and made you think the paper was
"weak" as you read?
o What understandings, knowledge, and skills do students demonstrate and not
demonstrate?
VI: Reflection (Part 2)
 Why do you think your students improved in the way that they did?
 Why do you think that your students did not improve in certain areas?
 What do these patterns teach you?
 What understandings, knowledge, and skills do you think you need to find a way to teach
more effectively next year?
VII: Plan of action
 What plans do you have for how to teach writing next year as a result of this study?
 What will you do to prepare to teach well?
 What will you do in the classroom?
 What topics do you want to read more or learn more about?
VIII: Works cited (at least 6 sources)
Rough draft DUE: May 31
Final draft DUE: June 14, 2012