Office hours: MTW 9-12 342 Davis Hall,
Phone: 272-3121
Meets: Th 6-9 pm
email: woodnv@utarlg.uta.edu
Phone: English Dept. 272-2692
Course goals: 1. To understand various ways of evaluating student writing 2. To examine methods for evaluating writing programs 3. To evaluate standardized measurements of reading and writing particularly as they are used in state and national testing programs 4. To explore ways of evaluating writing instruction in the computer classroom
Readings:
1. Chris M. Anson, ed., Writing and Response: Theory, Practice, and Research 2. Charles R. Cooper and Lee Odell, eds., Evaluating Writing: Describing, Measuring, Judging 3. Lawrence W. Levine, The Opening of the American Mind 4. Susan Miller, Textual Carnivals: The Politics of Composition 5. Mina P. Shaughnessy, Errors and Expectations, A Guide for the Teacher of Basic Writing 6. Edward M. White, Teaching and Assessing Writing: Recent Advances in Understanding, Evaluating, and Improving Student Performance, 2nd ed. 7. Stephen P. Witte and Lester Faigley, Evaluating College Writing Programs 8. Material on file at the University Fast Copy Center
(1) Bibliography on Assessing Writing (2) Breaking the Social Contract: The Fiscal Crisis in Higher Education (3) Returning to Our Roots: The Student Experience (4) Report of the ADE Ad Hoc Committee on Assessment (5) CCCC Committee on Assessment, Writing Assessment: A Position Statement (6) Assessment: What It Is and What It Isn't (7) Portfolio-Based Exit Assessment: A Progress Report (8) Writing Assessment as Values Clarification (9) Reading Tests and Reading Assessment (10) Standardized Reading Tests and the Postsecondary Reading Curriculum (11) Codifying Literacy: Identifying and Measuring Reading Competencies in Statewide Basic Skills Assessment Programs
Writing and Reporting:
l. Each student will regularly report, summarize, or write questions for class discussion on various of types of readings during the course 2. One 15-20 page term paper on an evaluation topic . Or, an equivalent computer project with a hard copy explanation of it. These will be presented orally to the class. 3. Final exam
Basis for Grade:
l. Class participation 1/3 2. Term paper and presentation 1/3 3. Final examination 1/3
January 22 - Introduction to course. Issues in evaluation. Bibliography.
January 29 - The context for evaluation: higher education in America.
Read: Levine, The Opening of the American Mind Breaking the Social Contract (packet) Returning to Our Roots: The Student Experience (packet)
February 5 - Professional position statements on evaluation. Introduction to evaluating student writing.
Read: Cooper and Odell, Evaluating Writing ADE Committee on Evaluation (packet) CCCC Committee on Assessment (packet) Terenzini, Assessment: What It Is and What It Isn't (packet)
February 12- Evaluating student writing
Read: Shaughnessy, Errors and Expectations Sharton, Writing Assessment as Values Clarification (packet)
February 19 - Evaluating student writing
Read: Anson, Writing and Response
February 26 - Evaluating student writing
Read: White, Teaching and Assessing Writing Lieber, Portfolio-Based Exit Assessment (packet)
March 5 - Standardized testing and the curriculum: reading, writing, critical thinking. State and national assessment programs.
Read: Wood, Reading Tests and Reading Assessment (packet) -- , Standardized Reading Tests (packet) --- , Codifying Literacy (packet) Report: on an assigned standardized reading, writing, or critical thinking test
March 12 - No class
SPRING BREAK
March 26 - Writing programs: current context
Read: Miller, Textual Carnivals
April 2 - No class: 4Cs.
April 9 - Current state of evaluation in the profession (reports from 4Cs)
April 16 - Evaluating computer-based writing. Guest professor, Beth Kolko
April 23 - Writing program evaluation
Read: Witte and Faigley, Evaluating College Writing Programs Evaluation of the Writing Program at North Carolina State U.
April 30 - Present term papers
May 7 - Present term papers
May 14 - Final exam. Questions:
l. Describe and justify your personal method/s for evaluating student writing. Put everything you describe in the context of teaching writing and quote generously to show that you have internalized and can apply what you have read in the course. Explain how your method/s will benefit students. Explain also the benefits to yourself and to the program in which you imagine yourself teaching.2. Describe a hypothetical writing program--one you would like to design and run or one you would like to teach in. Design a program assessment model for this program. Describe it in detail. Include what would be assessed, why it would be assessed in this way, who would assess it, how much the assessment would cost, how much time it would take, and what you would do with the results. Think in terms of benefits and burdens and how you would actually make this work. Refer to what you have read and learned during the semester as you write your answer.
Rhetoric Seminars
Rhetoric, Composition, Critical Theory HP & Program
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