Illinois State University Writing Program
Uptake Genres As Formative Assessment
Updated Fall 2014
In many ways the assignments in our program are in keeping with a Writing-About-Writing or a Genre
Studies model. While they differ from assignments typical of a traditional writing program pedagogy, they
are in sync with these newer models for creating more diverse writing situations. 1 However, we think our
approach to two specific areas, “Uptake Genres” and “Alternative Classroom Assessment Practices,” are
the best illustration of the new directions we are exploring on making learning visible (and thus
potentially more transferable to diverse writing situations).
Uptake Genres: In a discussion with Anis Bawarshi, during his 2013 campus visit for our Visiting Speaker
Series, we worked to connect his notion of “uptake genres” to our own understanding of
“documentation-of-learning.2” The idea behind both concepts is connected to “formative assessment” –
an understanding that writing classrooms need to include practices in which writers can gauge and
evaluate their learning-in-progress, rather than waiting until an assignment or project is due and using
only that product to gauge learning. In the space of our genre studies/CHAT program, the benefit of
formative assessment is also tied directly to an understanding that a given writing product is always
necessarily a poor measure of the way an author is “taking up” information about the genre and writing
situation. Following the work of Melanie Kill,3 we also want to be conscious that uptakes are naturally,
inescapably divergent. Each individual’s uptake is based on a myriad list of different situation criteria,
including his  her antecedent knowledge. Further, research in genre theory, CHAT and transfer tells us
is that this antecedent knowledge can dramatically impact uptake for each individual in a given learning
situation. Uptake genres, then, allow participants to slow down for a moment – to make visible how
different members of the class are “taking up” a concept, idea, or skill. Uptake genres are often formative,
which means that they happen during the learning in a particular unit. However, our goal has also been to
incorporate different kinds of uptake genres into our summative assessments as well, which we will
discuss more fully in the next section.
For us, an “uptake genre” is any moment where a production (textual, oral, aural, visual) allows
participants to see HOW they are learning, rather than WHAT they are learning. This focus differs from
much work on formative assessment, which tends to focus more on whether students are learning in
steps – a way to check small components of learning as a scaffold to a larger or more complex task. In our
view, uptake genres are designed to give the writing researcher (student or teacher) a clear (if ephemeral)
view of what learning looks like in all of its complexity in any given moment in the classroom.
Uptake Genres Examples: While the “Course Units” we present (see Appendix 3) offer an example of how
“uptake” works in our classrooms, the following examples illustrate how we use uptake genres as part of
an ongoing discussion throughout the activities of a single unit, and across the units in a course.
Example #1: “The Genre Recipe: A Genre Uptake Activity”
This example is a genre used by Jeff Reints, (Ph.D. Student, Graduate Teaching Assistant, Writing Program
English 101 Coordinator) as an ongoing activity that helps students to not only see their own learning-in-
1
Models explored in the First-Year Composition Program at University of Central Florida (2012-13 Winner, CCCC
Writing Program Certificate of Excellence) and the Writing Program at Washington State University (2008-9 Winner,
CCCC Writing Program Certificate of Excellence).
2 We have since adopted “uptake genres” to talk about formative assessment, but some of our materials still use the
term “proof-of-learning” or “documentation-of-learning” to describe this practice.
3 See Kill, Melanie. “Acknowledging the Rough Edges of Resistance: Negotiation of Identities of First-Year
Composition.” College Composition and Communication 58.2 (December 2006). 213-235.
progress, but also to see how uptake can differ between individuals working on the same types of genre
activities.
This activity opens with an analysis of the genre of the typical cookery recipe. Students bring in favorite
recipes or research them on the Internet. Small groups compare their recipes to develop a list of
requirements of the genre. The two key items in this activity, for uptake purposes, are 1) a list of required
components, and 2) the instructions detailing what to do with the components. The final portion of the
activity highlights the cultural and economic assumptions that lead to omissions in recipes. The activity’s
steps are as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The unit in which the “Genre Recipe” is first deployed focuses primarily on genre investigation.
Each student selects a genre of writing they will research, document, and reproduce.
Midway through the unit, students are asked to produce a Genre Recipe in which they detail the
required materials and processes for composition in the selected genre. They are cautioned that,
unlike a traditional cookery recipe, they must attempt to include EVERY component and
procedure. Nothing is to be omitted. Some students will include things like “a brain for thinking”
or “a hand for writing” in their Genre Recipe’s ingredient list. This is a good thing, as it indicates a
creative attempt at thoroughness, and students are encouraged to be similarly detailed in the
procedures section of the Recipe.
Along with the Genre Recipe, students are asked to hand in a draft attempt to reproduce the
genre they are investigating. They are explicitly instructed to attempt to follow their own Recipe.
The submitted Genre Recipes are redistributed so that each student receives the Recipe of
another student for anonymous review. This review consists of a good faith attempt to replicate
the genre strictly by following the Genre Recipe, along with a brief review of what did or did not
work in attempting to do so. What was unclear? What was omitted? How can the recipe be
improved to better reveal the complexity of the materials and procedures required for a
successful production of the genre?
In the final step, the original composers of the Genre Recipe receive back the anonymous review
and the attempted composition. They then use this material to write an improved draft of the
Genre Recipe and the target genre, possibly after further research. The student documents all
changes made to the Recipe. The final deliverables for the unit are both drafts of the Genre
Recipe, both drafts of the genre under investigation, and students’ notes documenting the
research and composition process.
Example #2: “Skills and Knowledge Checklist”
This example is a genre used by Julie Bates (Ph.D. Student, Graduate Teaching Assistant, Grassroots
Writing Research Journal Associate Editor) as an ongoing text that not only works throughout a given unit,
but moves throughout the entire semester as a way for people to document and observe their learningin-process.
Investigation 1
Skills & Knowledge Checklist
Pre-Investigation Checklist
Briefly explain what you think this Investigation is asking you to do:



Create a list of all of the skills and/or knowledge you already have that you think will be useful to
you as you complete the Investigation;
Create a list of any skills and/or knowledge you think will be necessary to complete this
Investigation but that you do not already have (or perhaps that you may need to brush up on);
Post-Investigation Checklist
o Briefly explain what you think this Investigation asked you to do;
o
o
o
o
Create a list of all of the skills and/or knowledge you already had at the start of the
Investigation that you ended up using to complete this Investigation;
Create a list of all of the skills and/or knowledge that you acquired during the
Investigation that aided you in completing the Investigation;
Create a list of any skills and/or knowledge that, in hindsight, you wish you would have
acquired to assist you in completing the Investigation;
Spend some time thinking and writing about how the skills and/or knowledge you
already had or that you acquired during this Investigation might be useful to you in the
future. Be as specific as possible.
Alternative Classrooms Assessment Practices Examples: The following examples illustrate our focus on
teaching the skills of “learning how to learn how to write” rather than on producing writing that
demonstrates mastery. Our focus also has a strong impact on how assessment works in the classroom.
Example #1: “Assessing Learning through Multiple Measures”
While we cannot fully demonstrate our diverse range of classroom assessment practices, the following
excerpt from a course plan by Julie Bates (Ph.D. Student, Graduate Teaching Assistant, Grassroots Writing
Research Journal Associate Editor) illustrates how uptake genres are integrated fully into the formal
assessment and grading for the course: