Writing assessment is a contested site where competing discourses overlap and invoke conflicting expectations, creating dilemmas for teachers who want to do what they believe is best for children and fulfill their school's writing targets. A critical look at assessment quandaries reveals surface dilemmas as clashes between overlapping discourses,…

Two teachers engage in assessment discussions based on an analytical rubric to assess an ELL student's writing. Discourse analysis methods were used to analyze recorded/transcribed assessments and discussions. The teachers focused on descriptors for the rubric's lowest scores, neglecting their own knowledge and experience with English learners. As…

Traditionally, assessing student writing ability has often been product-focused. Advocates of child-centered process-oriented classrooms, however, suggest that teachers should also focus on understanding children's writing behaviors in the context of meaningful communicative tasks. In such an approach, writing conferences are one way in which…

Describes a large-scale model of portfolio assessment that used papers collected from 27 fifth grade students throughout a school district in Durham, New Hampshire. Highlights information that can be gleaned from this approach to assessment, and notes that instruction should be adapted to respond to the results of the assessment. (MM)

Discusses the heavy demand on teachers and students for making sense of writing test scores. Illustrates the interpretive demands of going beyond writing test scores to make sense of the scores. Suggests that these demands point to the need for professional development in this area. (RS)

Presents an in-depth look at the design and development of a portfolio-based writing assessment tool intended for use on a daily basis in the classroom. Helps teachers think about the role of assessment in guiding students' narrative writing, with particular emphasis on the connections among curriculum, instruction, and assessment. (RS)

Contends that by using nonfiction writing as a daily developmental process, a child finds a predictable, nurturing, and accepting environment which helps teachers understand their students, helps children learn, and promotes acceptance of both the student and the child. (MS)

Describes a study of the features of British children's narrative writing, at ages 7, 10, and 13. The results indicated a progression from a simple chronicle of events, through simple stories based on a disruption of the probabilities, to more highly developed stories. (HTH)

Reviews the ERIC documents that examine teachers experiencing the writing process and that describe the format of workshop and inservice programs that seek to involve teachers in writing. (JL)

Describes the expressive writing of Japanese elementary school children, citing examples designed to encourage American language arts teachers to use their responses to students' writing to bolster children's attempts to become actively and personally engaged in their writing. (HTH)

Looks at the importance of valuing children's play for its contributions to writing skills. Shares the insights a teacher derives from observing children in situations where they seem to be "only playing." Reminds readers of the crucial connection between assessment and teaching that should be maintained. (MG)

Describes a "focused holistic" method of writing evaluation, which considers a total piece of writing, but in terms of predefined criteria. Provides sample evaluations. (HTH)

Examines ERIC materials on the nature of and supporting the use of invented spelling in elementary school writing. (HTH)

Discusses 13 professional books (on multiple intelligences, changing literacies, censorship in children's literature, grading student writing, learning journals, and more) and one book of fiction that are potentially useful to educators, and that, in one way or another, take up the theme of "being explicit about explicit instruction."…

Describes how a seventh-grade teacher was able to devise a final examination that both reflected the goals of his process-oriented writing class and met the requirements of his school board. (ARH)