Evaluating Children's Writing: A Handbook of Grading Choices for Classroom Teachers

An introduction to and explanation of a wide range of specific evaluation strategies used by classroom teachers to arrive at grades for children's writing, giving explicit instructions for implementing them. Samples of student writing accompany the instructions to illustrate the techniques, and an appendix of additional student writing is provided to allow readers to practice particular evaluation strategies. More than just a catalogue of grading options, however, this is a handbook with a point of view. Its purpose is to help teachers become intentional about their grading practices. Along with recipes for grading techniques, it offers a philosophy of evaluating student writing that encourages teachers to put grading into a communication context and to make choices among the many options available by determining the instructional purpose of the assignment and considering the advantages and disadvantages of particular grading strategies. Specific grading techniques are integrated with suggestions about the craft of evaluation - guidelines for instructional objectives, for student audience analysis, and for teacher self-analysis that help define communication contexts. This second edition includes: a new chapter on state standards and assessments; a re-organization of the chapter on approaches to grading; additions to the chapter on management systems; additions to the chapter on teaching yourself to grade; additions to the annotated bibliography; and updated references throughout the text.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface. Part I: The Objectives of Evaluation. In the Background: How We Feel About Grading. Specific Situations: Putting Evaluation Into a Context. The Pieces of the Grading Puzzle. Part II: Evaluation Options. Approaches to Grading. Response Strategies. Management Systems. Evaluation Styles. State Standards and Assessments. Part III: Using Grading as a Teaching Tool. Tools of the Trade: Choosing Evaluation Options in a Communication Setting. Transcending the Red Ink, or Making Grading Serve Teaching. Teach Yourself to Grade, or the Grading Process in Action.Appendices: Sample Papers. Annotated Bibliography. State Scoring Guides.

About the Author :
Suzanne Bratcher, Linda Ryan, Linda Ryan

Review :
"This book fills an information void in the writing workshop literature. Bratcher and Ryan provide an extremely useful handbook for preservice teachers, educators new to writing workshop instruction, or veteran teachers wanting to grade in a more systematic and thoughtful way". —Language Arts "This book is finely grounded in composition scholarship and accomplishes the difficult act of taking on evaluation issues from the angle of writing-to-learn and learning from/with evaluation. It is clear, concise, and offers excellent student samples and exercises." —Wendy Bishop Florida State University "No other book on the market does what this text does. The layout is appealing and easy to follow. The tone strikes just the right balance of professional expertise and human concern. I encourage students to keep this book, because there is so much material that will be of use to them when they are in their own classrooms." —Jena A. Burges Longwood College