The assessment institute went well today! We started out the day with sessions on statistics and rhetorically based writing assessment from Diane Kelly-Riley and Bob Broad, then moved into our breakout sessions. I ran my first two sessions on race, culture, and identity in writing assessment, and we had really good discussions. The first session group emphasized the importance of recognizing language variation in the classroom, and we discussed the ways that we could help students recognize the value in that difference as well. In the second group we discussed more specific assessment strategies for looking at race and culture in writing assessment.
Laurenn and I ran the third breakout session on our Initial Genre Assessment. I really enjoyed this discussion. Many of the participants had really good questions about student reactions as well as how we implemented the assessment in our course. They also offered some really great suggestions for us to consider for the future of our assessment and publications.
The afternoon session was spent in smaller work groups. There were some really great some discussions in these sessions as well as the participants shared their various assessment and program needs and views. The following list encapsulates some of the discussion items and questions raised in this session:
* Learning objectives versus rubrics
* What do we want our writers to be able to do?
* The program profile must ask: what do we value?
* In workshops we must demonstrate how assignments meet outcomes
* What's best to assess?
* Assessment needs to be part of the curriculum
I enjoyed the opportunity to be an associate institute leader at the CWPA. It challenged my thinking and perceptions on many assessment issues.
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