Sunday, November 22, 2015

Blog # 9 – Yancey & Straub

Looking Back as We Look Forward: Historicizing Writing Assessment by Kathleen Blake Yancey & The Concept of Control in Teacher Response: Defining the Varieties of “Directive” and “Facilitative” Commentary by Richard Straub

As I read, Looking Back as We Look Forward: Historicizing Writing Assessment by Kathleen Blake Yancey, I felt like her essay was talking about similar aspects as the one we read by her, last week. She ones again talked about the writing assessment and how it used to be testing, then turned into a holistically scored essay, and then it took the form of portfolio assessment. Although she was presenting some of the same information, I felt that the way she presented it in this essay, it was more direct, organized, and easier to read. 

From her essay, I felt like the idea of having students being involved with writing portfolios was helpful. I still understand how, at times, tests are necessary and how scoring an essay can be a helpful way of assessing students. But I feel like it is not always the best way. It is hard to really pick and choose what’s “better” for the students when so much research has been done and it seems like we are not sure about what works best for the students just yet. 

I find extremely interesting how all these readings are full of dos and don’ts when it comes to how to interact with the teaching of writing. All these essays focus on what’s the “best” way teachers should go about teaching based on research that has been done. However, while they all sound very convincing, the fact that they are always finding out new approaches or going back to old forms makes me think that there is no “right” way yet. I have my preferences based on my experience as a student, but even then, I know that other students may think differently than me and will have other preferences. 

In The Concept of Control in Teacher Response: Defining the Varieties of “Directive” and “Facilitative” Commentary by Richard Straub, he brings in the idea that teachers should comment on students writing in a facilitative way rather that directive way to allow the student to find things out on their own. He also talks about the idea of telling teachers that they must not take over when commenting on students writing or when helping students. 
In his essay it was shared that a teacher stated the following “as a teacher, I must be careful not to take over – because the minute I do, the success (if there is one) becomes mine, not his – and the learning is diminished.” I can totally agree with this statement. It sounds like the students need just that right amount of commentary to allow them to learn on their own.

Reading the essays this week made me think about what we’ve read so far this semester. I find that these essays often make me think about what I’ve gone through as a student and they make me wonder how well could teachers interact with every single student to be able to help them in just the way they need.

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