“Self-assessment as Identity Formation in Novice College Writers”
Presenter: Judith Goleman -- University of Massachusetts, Boston
Description: Based on a close analysis of sample self-assessment essays by first-year students, I will explore the following questions: To what extent can self-assessment essays consolidate key elements of academic writing? Enable students to recognize the degree to which college writing involves a new repertoire of critical capabilities? Start a process of building new aspects of students' identities as readers and writers?
“Mapping Out Classroom Conversations on Assessment: Beyond Handouts and Rubrics”
Presenter: Mike Garcia -- University of New Hampshire
Description: Recent work on writing assessment suggests that classroom practice must become more student-centered: it should evolve to include dialogues in which students and teachers consider value judgment, evaluation and grading together from various perspectives. What should these dialogues consist of? To answer this question, I'll describe my dissertation research, in which I'm working with instructors to prepare their students to write thorough, honest self-evaluative cover essays. Our course design posits the act of self-assessment as the most important learning outcome of the course: an act of learning itself rather than merely a self-serving attempt to quantify one's learning.
“Assessing for Understanding and Interpretation: Performance Portfolios”
Presenter: Anthony Petruzzi – University of Massachusetts, Boston
Description: The present situation of writing assessment as a field is that we are caught between two equally unsatisfying methodologies: “Neo-empiricism,” which remediates empiricism in an effort to preserve the “relative objectivity”; and, “Constructivism,” which redefines the key terms and methods of Neo-empiricism to accommodate educational assessment. I will propose a third approach to writing assessment— based on hermeneutics and performative assessments— arguing that writing proficiency assessment can use humanistic models, goals, and justifications to evaluate: a) deep understanding; b) reading sequences that use disciplinary or primary texts; c) performance assessments of cognitively complex interpretations; and, d) writing portfolios that are formative and performative. |
