Assessment is a topic I know so little about and is so important that I worry about starting as a teacher and just not knowing what all of my options are or what to expect. I am a little disappointed that these two chapters only gave two pages to authentic assessment and then the rest is on portfolio assessment and the 6 Trait Model. I'm understanding that a lot of assessment my first few years will be trial and error to figure out what tells me the most about what my students are learning.
Before this semester, I was unfamiliar with portfolios as a type of (authentic) assessment. I think it sounds like a really great idea and am looking forward to trying it in my classroom. I'm glad chapter six included surveys and rubrics. These are so helpful and many books will provide examples of student writing, but never how to assess student writing. I'm kind of curious how useful portfolios are to all students. Would they work in writing classrooms filled with students who did not plan on furthering their education? What do you do with kids who are extremely unorganized or often lose things?
I also had no idea what the Six-Trait Model was before this class. Chapter seven really sold the concept to me. It makes so much sense that providing students with the same terminology to discuss writing will help them learn to revise effectively. Some of the steps (like connecting writing to literature and providing time and resources) are similar to other advise we've received in the past. I like how this gives you a step by step guide to teaching students the correct way to revise. I think so many teachers assume that students know how to do this, when few do much more than proofreading. I feel like these two chapters were extremely helpful. I do wish they covered a broader range of assessment tools, however.
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I agree with you. Although I feel I am gaining a better understanding of assessment, I don't think I'll be comfortable with it until that trial and error stage. Then, we can see the hard facts of what is working an what is not.
You brought up a good point about how well portfolios would go over in a class where students may not value writing or see how it will be a part of their future. I think that they would still be effective in the classroom. They give students something individual to them that allows them to be creative. I think a lot of students are usually proud of how they turn out. Maybe for students who are somewhat resistant we could get them going in a journal and eventually do a Seeds activity (like Barri showed us) that would develop one of those journal entries into something stronger. Rather than doing an entire portfolio, they could focus on one piece and its transformation.
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