Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Roles and values of assessment in teaching and learning
The value of assessment in teaching and learning pdf
Roles and values of assessment in teaching and learning
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The most difficult aspect of being an English teacher, for me, is assessing my students’ writing. I can remember, so clearly, the day my cooperating teacher handed me a student’s writing and said, “Read this and give it a grade.” After reading it, I felt an overwhelming and uncomfortable power shadow over me. I didn’t know the rules of assessment. What was I supposed to be looking for anyway? I was able to realize immediately that there is a definite difference between knowing how to write an essay and knowing how to assess one.
When I was asked what I finally came up with as a grade, I told her the student earned a “B.” She agreed and I remember thinking to myself that maybe my task wasn’t as difficult as I had thought moments before. Then, just when I thought the hard part was over, she asked me why I gave it a “B.” After giving her my reasons, she stated she was in agreement with me. At this point, I asked her what grade she had given it. She replied, “B-.” Now I was completely baffled. How could she agree with everything that I said and then give it a different grade?
Whether or not teachers like to admit it, assessing writing is, in fact, a fragile issue as well as a partly subjective one. For instance, while my cooperating teacher agreed with my insight, she also thought that particular student should have applied more effort to the essay. After teaching this student for eight months already, she was aware of his capabilities as a writer and expected more. Her reasoning was one that I would never have been able to develop since I was not as familiar with the student.
Can the assessment of writing be accomplished in a fair manner? There is no doubt that readers are subjective viewers. It is an issue that we are unabl...
... middle of paper ...
...rection. In this way, the students will earn higher grades and become better writers in the process. This direction through assessment will help lead students to success.
The use of assessment in writing remains a delicate topic for many teachers. However, with our help, it can grow to be a positive force in our students’ lives. Berlin once said, “To teach writing is to teach a version of reality.” The importance of communication and success in our world is, indeed, a reality. Isn’t the assessment of writing, after all, a version of reality as well? Aren’t we supposed to be preparing our students for their futures? Although assessing writing is not a simple task, it should not be viewed as unfair or unnecessary. Instead, we must consider it unfair and unjust to hide this reality from the students who will continually encounter it once they exit our classroom doors.
As the first semester of my sophomore year wraps up, I begin to realize that I have learned a lot in all of my classes. The class that I learned the most from has definitely been my English 111 course. This class have given me so many opportunities to improve my writing skills. With all of the success I’ve had in this class, I believe I will do just fine with writing later in my life.
In Downs and Wardle’s article, they argue and identify the flaws in teaching writing in college. Demonstrating the misconceptions that academic writing is universal, but rather specialized in each case. Citing studies and opinions from esteemed professionals, Downs & Wardle state their points and illuminate the problem in today’s many colleges.
Many people can relate to receiving an essay paper back in which they believe that the grading is unfair. Grammatical errors, style, and subject are areas that receive the most attention. However, it may not be the writers’ work that is ineffective, maybe it 's the English language itself that is lacking in quality. Similarly, George Orwell in " Politics and the English Language" convinces the audience that the causes of the decline in the English language are the vagueness and meaningless of prose that is receiving impact from political jargon. Orwell effectively persuades the readers by addressing opposing views, providing examples that offer support to sub-claims, and creating reader connections while simultaneously
This article, reporting on the research done by Margo Glew and Charlene Polio of Michigan State University, examines writing assessment in a different way than most research on the topic. The goal of this research was to look into how an ESL student chooses prompts for a writing exam when offered a choice. Polio and Glew not only investigate how they choose, but how long it takes each student to choose and if they should even be given a choice at all.
Barkaoui (2010) quantitative study of variability in raters assessments discusses the impact of rating scales and rater experiences in writing rating (p.54).12 ESL essays were holistically and analytically assessed by 25 raters, novice and experienced( Barkaoui,2010,p.56). Results shows that rating scales has greater impact on rating processes, especially in analytical ratings( Barkaoui,2010,p.56). ...
Change is interwoven in the learning process and therefore is inevitable. It is beyond amazing to reflect on ourselves and see how much we change in just six months. I do not know what is more remarkable—the change itself or knowing that that change represents an expansion in our knowledge, a growth in our abilities, and an improvement in our writing. However, one thing I am sure of is that it feels good to see that, excuse the cliché, hard work does pay off.
A healthy mother-daughter relationship is very important. This is proven in Amy Chua’s memoir Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mom and Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club. Even though the books have a similar theme, they are completely different. Amy Chua’s memoir has a frustrating but positive tone, while Amy Tan’s novel has a hateful, bitter, and negative tone.
This class has been significantly more difficult than any other English class I have taken all throughout high school. This semester, I have been introduced to different styles of writing that I have never been exposed to before. This class has been stressful, but also fun. With using all of the resources I have been given throughout the semester, I have been able to do my best to further my writing abilities and hopefully only continue to grow them as I finish my later years in college. Throughout this essay, I will discuss my failures, my successes, my overall performance in the class, and my skill development skills.
As I reflect it becomes clear to me that I enjoyed writing my junior year in high school. My English teacher Mr. Duckworth was a one of a kind teacher. His classroom was a normal classroom setting with the desk all line up behind one another. All of his students would face the white erase board that was located in the front of the room. He would typically sit at his desk leaning back in his chair giving us instructions on what was to be done in the class. As we sit in the class, all I can hear are my classmates laughing and joking around as he spoke. he would already have an essay topic on the board that was to the right of us that he could easily see from his desk. This was an everyday routine for all of his classes. As we begin to write, I noticed how different classmates of mine would get up to ask for help with their essay. The students who never asked for help usually would end up with a lot of red markings on their essays.
When we talk about English 1110, everyone actually knows the main part of the course is writing. The goal of this class is to improve structural, style of writing, thoughts and performances of students. During this semester, the curriculum includes essays and topics from many different aspects of different issues which are useful to me. From this class, I had the opportunity to improve my writing skills. For example, before writing a paper, I always have outline, strategies, arranging and modifying as well as finding ideas to improve my writing style in a better way. Before taking English 1101, I just wrote essay with what I think of that time and did not care whether my essay is understandable or not; however, i have been improved for the past three months. When I see a title, I start to write down all ideas and also create an outline and order of all documents in a reasonable manner. In addition, all response papers that I have done during this semester I started to have different way of thinking by listening my friend's arguments, feedbacks or comments, agreements or disagreements. Those group activities from friends were helpful because I started to recognize what are right and wrong things in my essay. From there, I have my own personal opinions and defend my arguments.
Similarly, average writing ability is higher among students whose teachers emphasize more than one process writing strategy. The 1992 NAEP assessment offered direct evidence that use of pre-writing activities is associated with the highest average proficiency scores. There is some conflicting evidence, however. The writing proficiency of students who reported their teachers always encourage various pre-writing activities (table 1) obtained higher scores than other students. Yet, on the 1992 NAEP assessment, students who actually used unrelated notes or drawings, wrote different versions, or wrote first drafts performed about the same as those who did no pre-writing. Only those who used lists or outlines, or diagrams, outperformed those who showed no evidence of pre-writing. Perhaps students* actual practice in a test situation does not always conform to what is taught, especially in response to time pressure or low motivation (the NAEP has no individual consequences for the
In final analysis, my writing has greatly improved during this semester, and having looked at the area's I most need to work on has given me an awareness of what my weaknesses are. Examining what I have learned and what I need to learn allows me to generate a strategy to fortify my writing skills. Critiquing my own work has given me insight into how my writing is progressing in this class and allowed me to see short comings I had missed previously. Self-evaluation is a helpful tool for anyone who wants to continue to learn what areas they can improve upon and how much progress they are making. I believe those who appraise their own work will have a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses then those who do not evaluate themselves.
Over the course of the semester, I feel that I have grown as a writer in many ways. When I came into the class, there were skills I had that I already excelled at. During my time in class, I have come to improve on those skills even more. Before I took this class, I didn’t even realise what I was good at. This is the first class where I felt I received feedback on my writing that helped me to actually review my work to see what areas I lacked in and where I succeeded.
Over the period of time that I was in this course, I thought it would be a very simple and easy to finish class. But as time went on, I found myself to be demanded more of what I think, what I feel, what must be relied on my ability to understand the concepts and conventions of not only the essays, but of what goes on in the writers mind when writing.
In spite of the importance of assessment in education, few teachers receive proper training on how to design or analyze assessments. Due to this, when teachers are not provided with suitable assessments from their textbooks or instructional resources, teachers construct their own in an unsystematic manner. They create questions and essay prompts comparable to the ones that their teachers used, and they treat them as evaluations to administer when instructional activities are completed predominantly for allocating students' grades. In order to use assessments to improve instruction and student learning, teachers need to change their approach to assessments by making sure that they create sound assessments. To ensure that their assessments are sound they need include five basic indicators that can be used as steps to follow when creating assessments. The first of these indicators and the first step a teacher must take when creating a sound assessme...