Entry #6

          For class we had to read Tompkins (2012) chapter 4, which is all about assessing writing.  I have found that assessing writing can vary depending on the topic and the purpose of the assignment.  My cooperating teacher during my second student teaching placement, he explained to me that he finds it best to create the rubric as you are creating the assignment.   This way you can gives the students clear guidelines of what you are expecting and they know what they are focusing on as they complete the assignment.  For a content piece I was focusing on the ideas on the paper with a small emphasis on grammar and mechanics, while for a ELA piece the rubric focuses on the conventions more than what is being written about. 

            After reading chapter 4 I think that Tompkins (2012) would agree with my cooperating teacher,  in the chapter they gave the students checklists to follow as they were completing and assignment which is also something he did.  I found this to be a very useful tip for myself.  In undergrad I we are taught how to make a quality rubric for a hypothetical assignment but being able to use on in student teaching with his suggestions made it clear to me helpful a good rubric can be for myself as well as for my students.  How we used the rubistar in class also helped to solidify my belief in quality rubrics make everything clearer for students as they work on assignments and they will know what is expected of them in their piece.  

            Rubrics are only one way to assess writing,  I like how Tompkins (2012) presents writing conferences as a way to check in with students as well as self-assessment through checklists.  These assessments seem to give students scaffold lesson while also giving them as much independence as possible where they can grow and be creative on whatever piece they are working on.  As I have said in previous posts I have never seen writing workshop as presents in Tompkins (2012) or Hicks (2008) and I would really like to use it in my future classroom.  With that being said, I was struggling with the idea of giving students the freedom of writers workshop and fit it into the new common core standards and teacher evaluations.  Once I read chapter 4 however, I have a few more ideas on how writing workshop can be used to really show student growth over the course of the year.  Within that growth I would hope that students would perform better on standardized tests because they have developed their own thinking skills, their own writing process and know how to apply it without the teacher holding their hand throughout the whole assignment.  I wish that I had been a part of this type of writing workshop when I was in school, I really didn’t enjoy writing at all and maybe if I had some freedom I would have enjoyed writing more as child.