Unacknowledged and untended opposition can lead the "resistance" to destroy even the best planned of portfolio systems. The greatest cause of initial resistance to portfolio assessment is the fear that teachers will lose their autonomy and/or authority in the classroom. Writing instructors need to ask themselves about issues of control and…

A study evaluated a new freshman writing course offered to students at the University of Minnesota who were underprepared for study at a major research university. In the fall of 1997 it was proposed that all freshmen be placed in for-credit, strengthened, basic writing courses rather than placing certain students in non-credit, pre-college-level…

This book explores the findings and beliefs researchers and teachers have shared about classroom practices and children's writing processes, highlighting representative studies with a focus on classroom application. The book examines subjects in a comprehensive review of recent research. It looks at past findings and presents challenging questions…

This report describes the second phase of a study of the transformations students make in their written texts as they write from sources in a given discipline. Phase 1 of the study examined how students performed the task of writing a critique of a scholarly article in sociology and how their efforts were evaluated by professors in the discipline.…

Demonstrating that gender perceptions and expectations can influence assessment decisions that seem neutral on the surface, this book examines the responses of 31 freshman composition teachers to student writing. The book shows the negative effects of gender biases on assessment. For writing instructors to increase their sensitivity to gender…

Intended for both experienced and novice K-12 teachers, this book invites teachers to bring new life into the reading-writing workshop and calls for teachers to push back the frontiers of their thinking about teaching writing and reading. The book includes chapters on establishing courses of study in which children read and write memoir, picture…

A study examined the difference in writing competency achievement between classes taught by full-time faculty and classes taught by adjunct faculty, and whether student ratings of the course and the quality of instruction differed. Subjects were 1,339 students in all 49 classes taught by 11 full-time and 23 adjuncts in the Fall semesters of 1991…

This summary report is the third of three reports (Preliminary, Final, and Summary) of the findings of the 1988 Provincial Writing Assessment in Manitoba, Canada for grades 4, 8, and 11 of French Immersion schools. It contains a brief description of the study along with recommendations. The report notes that the 1988 Writing Assessment was the…

This final report is the second of three reports (Preliminary, Final, and Summary) of the findings of the 1988 Provincial Writing Assessment in Manitoba, Canada for grades 4, 8, and 11 of French Immersion schools. It contains an overview of the purposes, procedures, and a detailed presentation of the findings and recommendations of the Writing…

This summary report is the third of three reports (Preliminary, Final, and Summary) of the findings of 1988 Provincial Writing Assessment in Manitoba, Canada for grades 4, 8, and 11 of the Franco-Manitoban schools. It contains a brief description of the study along with recommendations. The report notes that the 1988 Writing Assessment was the…

This final report is the second of three reports (Preliminary, Final, and Summary) of the findings of the 1988 Provincial Writing Assessment in Manitoba, Canada for grades 4, 8, and 11 of Franco-Manitoban schools. It contains an overview of the purposes, procedures, and a detailed presentation of the findings and recommendations of the Writing…

The renewed attention to assessments that attempt to capture complex aspects of educational attainments of students is explored. The definition and impetus for attention of the measurement community to higher order thinking skills are examined. Through a detailed description, a model assessment development process is presented. The process relies…

An informal study explored the difficulties of writing teachers who are asked to set aside preferred ways of viewing student writing for state-mandated criteria when serving as evaluators for state-mandated tests, such as Florida's College Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST). Twelve high school, community college, and university-level writing…

Only with the beginnings of a structural system of social classes in America--a system based on both wealth and education--did an ethic of gentility and "correctness" arise in American attitudes toward speaking and writing. Rhetorical instruction was forced to move away from the abstract educational ideal of "mental discipline" and toward the…

The Highland (Indiana) public schools developed a writing program for elementary school students based on the premise that children learn to use language by actively generating language. The program features language production as the principal student activity in the English class and uses the students' own written work and oral expression as the…