Irwin Weiser |
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English 680A Seminar in Writing Assessment Spring 2004
English 680A: Seminar in Writing Assessment Spring 2004 Course Information and Policies Contact Information: My office is accessed through the door to the right of Janeen’s desk in 324. I plan to hold office hours immediately after this class, from 2:45-3:30, but I’m also available by appointment. My e-mail address is iweiser@purdue.edu; my office phone rings through Lisa Hartman’s number, 46478. I’m in the process of getting a class e-mail list set up, and I’ll let you know, via an e-mail message, when it’s ready. Description: During this semester, we’ll be reading and discussing a small portion of the vast literature on the assessment, evaluation, response to, and grading of student writing. We’ll also consider, briefly, the relationship of writing program assessment to the assessment and evaluation of student writing. While we won’t have time to consider the related topic of the assessment of teachers and teaching, that’s another area that some of you may wish to explore in one of the projects for the course. Materials: Huot, Brian. (Re)Articulating Writing Assessment. Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 2002. Coursepack. Will be available at CopyMat in a couple of weeks. Miscellaneous readings available on-line, including first two on the syllabus.
Projects: There will be three projects, similar to one another both in form and purpose. You’ll be doing some independent reading and writing and reporting to class about what you’ve learned, with the purpose being both to enable you to pursue topics that interest you and to enable the rest of us to find out more about specific texts that we won’t have time to read and discuss together. Each project is a report on a single text that is not on the syllabus. The first two will be on journal articles or book chapters from collections; the third will be a more extended book review of a book on an assessment topic. For each, you’ll give a brief oral report, submit a written report/review, and e-mail a copy of the written report to everyone else in the class. Here are the specifics: Project One: As you read Huot’s (Re)Articulating Writing Assessment, keep on the lookout for articles or chapters he refers to that are not on the syllabus. Make a list of at least three that interest you, that you’d like to read, and that are readily available to you. On February 3rd, we’ll talk about your choices, making sure that none of you are choosing the same piece, and you’ll read it, prepare a brief (5-7 minute) oral report about it—kind of an extended summary, so others in the class will know what it’s about, what you see it contributing to our understanding of assessment, etc. You’ll give that report on February 12th, and you’ll also submit to me a written report/evaluation (about 5 pages) of that article/chapter, which you also should email to the other members of the class. Your written report should not be identical to the oral report, though of course it will/can be similar in some ways. The oral report should be primarily descriptive--a summary, while the written one should be either evaluative or speculative. That is, you can write about the strengths and weaknesses of the text, its clarity, persuasiveness, usefulness, completeness, etc.; or you can speculate about the implications of the text for writing assessment, for future scholarship and research, etc. Project Two: The second project is identical to the first, with one exception: Instead of selecting a text from those Huot cites, for the second project you will identify an article or chapter that is neither cited by Huot nor on the syllabus. You can look for your text in several ways. You can pay attention to the texts that are cited by authors of the articles and chapters on the syllabus. You can also use bibliographic resources, like CompPile (http://comppile.tamucc.edu/) to locate appropriate texts. Here are the dates for these: List of at least 3 possible texts (again, be sure they’re available): February 26 Oral reports in class/Written report submitted and e-mailed to class: March 11 Project Three: The final project will be a book review of a book on writing assessment, response, or a related topic of interest to you. That review should take into account how the book fits into the literature of the field, its specific contributions to our understanding of assessment, response, grading, placement, etc., and your evaluation of the book’s strengths/weaknesses, etc. Because you may find that the book you wish to review isn’t in our library holdings or may be checked out, you’ll need to choose the book by March 9th to allow time for Interlibrary Loan or a recall. Once again, we’ll take some time during a class to be sure everyone is choosing a different book, and once again, you’ll report briefly on the book in class and send an electronic copy of the review to everyone in the class. Daily Work: Keep up with the reading; come to every class prepared to discuss what you’ve read. I strongly recommend (though don’t require and thus won’t be collecting or evaluating) that you keep a reading journal in which you write a paragraph or so of ideas, questions, etc. generated by each reading assignment and that if you do keep such a journal, you bring it to class so you can refer to your thoughts and questions during class discussions. Evaluation of Your Performance: Project 1: 25% Project 2: 25% Project 3: 40% Attendance & Participation: 10% |