The CEA Forum (College English Association, Texas Digital Library - TDL E-Journals)
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Another Fine Mess Assessment\u27s Gotten Us Into: Inheriting the Gooey, Slimy, Delicious Mess of Qualitative Assessment
No full textThe questions that needed to be asked about our students’ writing emerged during the process of discussing the first batch of portfolios. Again, this echoes Broad’s experience. He writes, “From the standpoint of qualitative methods, this late blooming is a good thing because it means this research question could not have inappropriately guided decisions I made in collecting data†(24). Again, the quantitative approach that had been used in the past would not have lead us to the central issues that we needed–and still need–to address
Writing Assessment: Emotions, Feelings, and Teachers
No full textFor my purposes, I approach writing assessment as more than just grading or responding to a set of student papers within a classroom context. Instead, I look at writing assessment as a complex act that links to teaching and learning, that affects the educational environment and students, that acknowledges the consequences of the assessment, and that reflects what the assessor values and how to get to that value. Beginning with an overview of emotion and feelings and moving to an overview of writing assessment as an emotional practice, this article shifts to discuss how emotions and feelings relate to writing assessment. Then, I focus on ways scholars could use emotions and feelings to further theorize writing assessment work—mostly to understand how emotions shape decisions. Through this theorizing, I hope to move away from the what teachers do during the act of assessing student writing, to the why. My aim is to provide a vehicle for getting at the emotional aspects of why
Oral Interpretation of Literature: Readers\u27 Theater
No full textThe pedagogical principle of experiential learning embodied in the oral interpretation of literature through Readers’ Theater provides an avenue to accomplish a seemingly daunting task. Students’ participation in reading, interpreting, discussing, writing, assessing, and performing their own creative responses to a literary work promotes a learning activity that leaves an indelible mark on their educational process as they explore complex and abstract levels of thinking—in real time, no less. The activity entices students out of the virtual world of technology to explore a tangible sphere of performance. The thought processes that the activity demands cover the gamut of Bloom’s taxonomy of skills, which defines levels of intellectual behavior important to learning. The synthesis and evaluation elements at the top of the taxonomy demand creative behavior. Anderson and Krathwohl’s revision of the taxonomy— remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating—also places creativity at the top of the hierarchy of skills
A Bold Move: Reframing Composition through Assessment Design
No full textIn short, while rubric assessment would show whether certain minimum standards were being met in the course, to the degree that the assessment was accomplished without robotic tiredness or subjective evaluations skewing results, we hoped that qualitative assessment could provide records that would be more accurate than rubric assessment in that we would not only show sample portfolios of classes, but include instructor analysis of the grading procedures for these classes—analysis done by engaged participants. Furthermore, qualitative assessment could provide an opportunity for, and record of, faculty development through transcripts and later analysis of instructor discussions about these courses, their portfolios, and the grading procedures
Designing the Early American Literature Component of the Undergraduate American Literature Survey Course
No full textThe author describes alternatives to traditional ways of conceptualizing the early American literature survey course, focusing on film (1492 and Black Robe)
Moving Forward in Writing Program Assessment Design: Why Postmodern Qualitative Assessment Makes Sense
No full textAn examination of postmodern grounded theory and narrative research methodology philosophies should make us rethink foundational issues in writing assessment design. Postmodern approaches emphasize interpretation and meaning-making, arguing that truths are made rather than found. In fact, many postmodern researchers emphasize the impossibility of objective, reliable results, especially in human research. In a communicative field such as teaching writing, this makes particular sense—the myriad of factors involved in a student writer\u27s progress and in a teacher\u27s ability to facilitate writing development cannot be isolated from each other
Using Reflection to Promote Students\u27 Writing Process Awareness
No full textIn this article, I demonstrate how the use of reflective writing assignments in first-year composition facilitated students’ understanding of their own writing process strategies. I first discuss the theoretical roots from which reflective practice among student writers grows. Next, I employ my students’ voices to demonstrate that reflection allowed these students to become aware of and to make decisions about their own writing processes. Finally, I offer tips for teachers who wish to bring reflective writing into their classrooms
Shooting Straight about Paragraphs: They Are Not What We Say They Are
No full textI propose that we think about what a paragraph is by considering its function, what it does in a piece of writing, whether in a popular novel, a newspaper article, an e-mail, a business report, or a lofty piece of literary criticism. We might think about a paragraph as a rhetorical dwelling
Designing Assessment for Postmodern Academia: Examining How a Move to a Postmodern Qualitative Assessment Changed a Department
No full textIt is our belief that the story of how the composition faculty convinced administration to move from a rubric-based assessment model to a more qualitative model is both interesting and beneficial for others facing similar challenges. In the following five articles, Katie discusses how the experience of such assessment affected the faculty, Jeff shows why we decided to try qualitative assessment and how we succeeded in convincing administration to let us try this alternative path, Krystia explains how and why we chose a postmodern methodology, Karen summarizes what we learned from the assessment, and Marjie poses some results and concluding thoughts