This book won the 2014 CCCC (Conference on College Composition and Communication) Outstanding Book Award - Edited Collection Race and Writing Assessment brings together established and up-and-coming scholars in composition studies to explore how writing assessments needs to change in order to account for the increasing diversity of students in college classrooms today. Contributors identify where we have ignored race in our writing assessment approaches and explore issues related to assessment technologies, faculty and student responses to assessment, institutional responses to writing assessment, and context for assessing writing beyond composition programs. Balancing practical advice and theoretical discussions, Race and Writing Assessment provides a variety of models, frameworks, and research methods to consider writing assessment approaches that are sensitive to the linguistic and cultural identities that diverse students bring to writing classrooms. This book illustrates that this is no one-size-fits-all model for addressing diversity in assessment practice but that assessment practices attuned to racial diversity must be rooted in the contexts in which they are found. In doing so, Race and Writing Assessment enriches contemporary research on contextualized approaches to writing assessment.

A hands-on guide for anyone who teaches writing to students with learning disabilities This valuable resource helps teachers who want to sharpen their skills in analyzing and teaching writing to students with learning disabilities. The classroom-tested, research-proven strategies offered in this book work with all struggling students who have difficulties with writing-even those who have not been classified as learning disabled. The book offers a review of basic skills-spelling, punctuation, and capitalization-and includes instructional strategies to help children who struggle with these basics. The authors provide numerous approaches for enhancing student performance in written expression. They explore the most common reasons students are reluctant to write and offer helpful suggestions for motivating them. Includes a much-needed guide for teaching and assessing writing skills with children with learning disabilities Contains strategies for working with all students that struggle with writing Offers classroom-tested strategies, helpful information, 100+ writing samples with guidelines for analysis, and handy progress-monitoring charts Includes ideas for motivating reluctant writers Mather is an expert in the field of learning disabilities and is the best-selling author of Essentials of Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement Assessment

The definitive reference in the field, this volume synthesizes current knowledge on writing development and instruction at all grade levels. Prominent scholars examine numerous facets of writing from sociocultural, cognitive, linguistic, neuroscience, and new literacy/technological perspectives. The volume reviews the evidence base for widely used instructional approaches, including those targeting particular components of writing. Issues in teaching specific populations--including students with disabilities and English learners--are addressed. Innovative research methods and analytic tools are clearly explained, and key directions for future investigation identified. New to This Edition *Chapters on genre instruction, evaluation and revision, argumentative writing, computer-based instruction, and professional development. *Chapters on new literacies, out-of-school writing, translation, and self-regulation. *Many new topics and authors, including more international perspectives. *Multiple chapters connect research findings to the Common Core writing standards. See also the editors' Best Practices in Writing Instruction, Second Edition, an accessible course text and practitioner's guide.

This clear, no-nonsense book guides current and future teachers through the concepts, tools, methods, and goals of classroom literacy assessment. The expert authors examine the roles of formative, summative, and benchmark assessments; demystify state and national tests and standards; and show how assessment can seamlessly inform instruction. Strategies for evaluating, choosing, and interpreting assessments are discussed, as are ways to communicate data to parents and administrators. User-friendly resources include boxed vignettes from teachers and researchers, practical assessment tips (and traps to avoid), and 12 reproducible planning forms and handouts. Purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.

The think-aloud approach to classroom writing assessment is designed to expand teachers’ perspectives on adolescent students as writers and help them integrate instruction and assessment in a timely way. Emphasizing learning over evaluation, it is especially well-suited to revealing students’ strengths and helping them overcome common challenges to writing such as writer’s block or misunderstanding of the writing task. Through classroom examples, Sarah Beck describes how to implement the think-aloud method and shows how this method is flexible and adaptable to any writing assignment and classroom context. The book also discusses the significance of the method in relation to best practices in formative assessment, including how to plan think-aloud sessions with students to gain the most useful information. Teachers required to use rubrics or other standardized assessment tools can incorporate the more individualized think-aloud approach into their practice without sacrificing the rigor and consistency more regulated approaches require. “Details how both students and teachers can benefit from engaging in this practice, and does so in ways that allow readers to adapt it to their own situations.” —Peter Smagorinsky, University of Georgia “This is the first truly new way of thinking about assessing writing that I have encountered in a long time.” —Heidi L. Andrade, University at Albany–SUNY “An invaluable guide for using think-aloud formative assessments to gain insight into student writing development. Every high school and college writing instructor should read it!” —Amanda J. Godley, University of Pittsburgh

This book is the first on the craft of effective writing structured expressly for the psychologist-assessor. Author J. B. Allyn, a professional writer who specializes in psychology, combines reference book with tutorial. She blends information on the qualities that create a writer’s unique presence on the page with illustrations of correct English grammar. All of the questions, answers, and illustrations evolved from the concerns of psychologist-assessors, as did the examples, which are grounded in their writing and communication needs. The result creates a guide for report writing that can be used by either practicing professionals or graduate psychology students. The book divides into three sections: The first and third sections discuss various aspects of effective communication, while the second is a handbook of common grammar problems. Helpful elements guide the reader through the text, including frequent bullet lists, tables and graphs, and grammar and style examples that are framed around assessment reports. It is also written in a conversational tone, which creates the same style it proposes for effectively written reports, and is a key tool for clear and appropriate communication. Readers will refer back to this book, both for quick tips on style and grammar, which are appropriate for any mental health practitioner, and for more detailed advice on writing and communication in assessment reports.

The evaluation of student performance and knowledge is a critical element of an educator’s job as well as an essential step in the learning process for students. The quality and effectiveness of the evaluations given by educators are impacted by their ability to create and use reliable and valuable evaluations to facilitate and communicate student learning. The Handbook of Research on Assessment Literacy and Teacher-Made Testing in the Language Classroom is an essential reference source that discusses effective language assessment and educator roles in evaluation design. Featuring research on topics such as course learning outcomes, learning analytics, and teacher collaboration, this book is ideally designed for educators, administrative officials, linguists, academicians, researchers, and education students seeking coverage on an educator’s role in evaluation design and analyses of evaluation methods and outcomes.

Highly practical and accessible, this indispensable book provides clear-cut strategies for improving K-12 writing instruction. The contributors are leading authorities who demonstrate proven ways to teach different aspects of writing, with chapters on planning, revision, sentence construction, handwriting, spelling, and motivation. The use of the Internet in instruction is addressed, and exemplary approaches to teaching English-language learners and students with special needs are discussed. The book also offers best-practice guidelines for designing an effective writing program. Focusing on everyday applications of current scientific research, the book features many illustrative case examples and vignettes.

Reflects philosophy of Model Curriculum Guide for the English-Language Arts (K-8).

While most English professionals feel comfortable with language and literacy theories, assessment theories seem more alien. English professionals often don’t have a clear understanding of the key concepts in educational measurement, such as validity and reliability, nor do they understand the statistical formulas associated with psychometrics. But understanding assessment theory—and applying it—by those who are not psychometricians is critical in developing useful, ethical assessments in college writing programs, and in interpreting and using assessment results. A Guide to College Writing Assessment is designed as an introduction and source book for WPAs, department chairs, teachers, and administrators. Always cognizant of the critical components of particular teaching contexts, O’Neill, Moore, and Huot have written sophisticated but accessible chapters on the history, theory, application and background of writing assessment, and they offer a dozen appendices of practical samples and models for a range of common assessment needs. Because there are numerous resources available to assist faculty in assessing the writing of individual students in particular classrooms, A Guide to College Writing Assessment focuses on approaches to the kinds of assessment that typically happen outside of individual classrooms: placement evaluation, exit examination, programmatic assessment, and faculty evaluation. Most of all, the argument of this book is that creating the conditions for meaningful college writing assessment hinges not only on understanding the history and theories informing assessment practice, but also on composition programs availing themselves of the full range of available assessment practices.