Response to “Evolving Technologies and Standardized Assessment”

While reading Anne Herrington and Charles Moran’s “Evolving Technologies and Standardized Assessment,” I laughed out loud at this:

The rubric for a 6 includes the following explanation:

You have put together a convincing argument. Here are some of the strengths evident in your writing:

Your essay:

• Looks at the topic from a number of angles and responds to all aspects of what you were asked to do
• Responds thoughtfully and insightfully to the issues in the topic

Why is this funny? First of all, it didn’t help that Dr. Crovitz wrote “Ha” next to it. Mainly, it was because this describes a standardized test that is essentially graded by a robot. Which for some reason makes me think of this: 

It was so hilarious, I had to tell my boyfriend. He chuckled, then launched into a diatribe about how much he hated the 5 paragraph essay. This surprised me because:

• I didn’t even really mention the 5 paragraph essay part.
• My boyfriend is an engineering student.
• Because of this, all he cares about is math and science.
• He hates reading, writing, grammar, spelling, and anything else English-related.

We’ve been going back and forth about the issue of formulaic writing in our composition class. That class has a handful of M. Ed. students who all seem to be in agreement that the writing formula is a good thing–because it makes grading easier. No offense to these students, but I have to disagree.

Now, I’m not in a classroom, I’ve not tried to teach writing to students, I have no experience…But I will do my very best not to fall back on this “science.” Clearly, the formulaic approach doesn’t work. Anyone recall the definition of insanity?

Yes, it has one thing going for it: It’s good as an introduction for younger students. That’s it. I remember using it in middle school, but I don’t recall being able to use it after that–we were discouraged. I do remember using it on standardized tests though, because I knew that was what they wanted–and I always tested very strongly, so clearly it’s the system that’s broken (duh.)

My boyfriend said he even used it on the SAT, but I didn’t, and I scored QUITE well if I do say so myself. 🙂

I think it’s more important to encourage kids to just WRITE, then teach them organization without telling them exactly where everything belongs, how many sentences they need in each paragraph, etc. I know I still sometimes have trouble completing paragraphs (scroll up), but if you’re told you have to have eight sentences, you’re going to just write anything to reach that minimum.

That seems like a good place to stop, since I started this post seven hours ago, had to stop, and now Stella is having trouble getting her groove back (I’m too young for that reference, but watch me go.)