2 Narratives about Teaching Writing - National Council of Teachers ...

Narratives about Teaching Writing 67tasks in particular language situations and into portfolios showing studentperformance on a range of tasks over time. Levels of performanceare described through (a) descriptions of on-demand tasks, which representone or more of the principles in the content standards and whichhave been tried out in many classrooms; (b) grade-level exemplars ofstudent work on specific tasks requiring particular kinds of knowledgein the English language arts, such as writing reports or responding toliterature; (c) rubrics describing the different achievement levels for agiven task and situation; and (d) commentaries showing the relationshipof each sample to the rubric. Three achievement levels—high,middle, and low—are presented for each on-demand task. This bookcan be helpful to beginning teachers in determining standards of evaluationon particular assignments and in providing examples andnonexamples of previous students’ work on such assignments.For Further Discussion1. What is the difference between grading and response? Is thisdifference significant? How could an awareness of such a differenceaffect a teacher’s writing pedagogy?2. If you were this teacher’s mentor, what advice would you givehim to help him at the end of the next grading cycle? Howcould he set up his class to allow for both effective responseand the necessary grades?3. What are the pros and cons of using a rubric or scoring guide?How can a rubric help students and teachers? Can you thinkof any situations in which a rubric might be problematic?Learning Activities1. In a small group, brainstorm a list of types of writing thatshould be graded and a corresponding list of writing that youthink should not be graded. Then begin to discuss why youhave placed the types of writing in the categories that you did.2. Many teachers create a philosophy of teaching, and in this bookyou are urged to create your own. Part of such a philosophyoften concerns grading issues. Write a short grading philosophythat describes your views of grading in the secondaryEnglish classroom, including a definition of grading, whyteachers do it, and what connection it has to student learning.Writing Narrative 4A staple of good writing instruction is often the use of peer reviewgroups. The purpose of such groups is twofold: (1) to demonstrate to