"There is lots of writing assessment going on these days, but little of it actually improves the quality of students' writing." (pg. 238)
"In too many places students are being "rubricized": every piece of writing is scored against a rubric, sometimes even in first grade." (pg. 243)
"Expect your students (from grade one on) to be able to write a whole page of text in twenty or thirty minutes.
"When we put too much emphasis on grading, we spend our time looking to justify the grade rather than helping students learn how to become better writers." (pg. 252).
Do we really expect our students to be able to write a whole page of text in 20-30 minutes? We often talk about fluency in reading, but how often do we talk about fluency in writing? Can students fluently write? If we give them ample opportunities to write and support them at their developmental stage, then I believe they should be able to. Without the support in place, there is no way that students should be expected to do this. High expectations with teacher support = SUCCESS. High expectations without teacher support = FAILURE.
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3 comments:
I agree that high expectations with teacher support equals success! Most of my students can write in their journal for 20 minutes, but I'm not sure they could as easily if it wasn't a free write. Requesting a specific type of writing is often more difficult.
I know that when we write next week, I will have high expectations and I have the great feeling that I will not be disappointed! :)
I expect that first graders will write for 20 minutes or longer. They love to do this and don't want to quit when it is recess time.
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