Evaluating Children's Writing: A Handbook of Grading Choices for Classroom Teachers

by Suzanne Bratcher, Linda Ryan

Overview

Evaluating Children's Writing: A Handbook of Grading Choices for Classroom Teachers, Second Edition introduces and explains a wide range of specific evaluation strategies used by classroom teachers to arrive at grades and gives explicit instructions for implementing them. Samples of student writing accompany the instructions to illustrate the techniques, and an appendix of additional student writing is provided to allow readers to practice particular evaluation strategies.

More than just a catalog of grading options, however, this is a handbook with a point of view. Its purpose is to help teachers become intentional about their grading practices. Along with recipes for grading techniques, it offers a philosophy of evaluating student writing that encourages teachers to put grading into a communication context and to make choices among the many options available by determining the instructional purpose of the assignment and considering the advantages and disadvantages of particular grading strategies. Specific grading techniques are integrated with suggestions about the craft of evaluation--guidelines for instructional objectives, for student audience analysis, and for teacher self-analysis that help define communication contexts.

New in the Second Edition:
*a new chapter on state standards and assessments;
*a reorganization of the chapter on approaches to grading;
*additions to the chapter on management systems;
*additions to the chapter on teaching yourself to grade;
*additions to the annotated bibliography; and
*updated references throughout the text.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781135627355
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/12/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	520
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Suzanne Bratcher, Linda Ryan, Linda Ryan

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface. Part I: The Objectives of Evaluation. In the Background: How We Feel About Grading. Specific Situations: Putting Evaluation Into a Context. The Pieces of the Grading Puzzle. Part II: Evaluation Options. Approaches to Grading. Response Strategies. Management Systems. Evaluation Styles. State Standards and Assessments. Part III: Using Grading as a Teaching Tool. Tools of the Trade: Choosing Evaluation Options in a Communication Setting. Transcending the Red Ink, or Making Grading Serve Teaching. Teach Yourself to Grade, or the Grading Process in Action.Appendices: Sample Papers. Annotated Bibliography. State Scoring Guides.

Editorial Reviews

"This book fills an information void in the writing workshop literature. Bratcher and Ryan provide an extremely useful handbook for preservice teachers, educators new to writing workshop instruction, or veteran teachers wanting to grade in a more systematic and thoughtful way".
—Language Arts

"This book is finely grounded in composition scholarship and accomplishes the difficult act of taking on evaluation issues from the angle of writing-to-learn and learning from/with evaluation. It is clear, concise, and offers excellent student samples and exercises."
—Wendy Bishop
Florida State University

"No other book on the market does what this text does. The layout is appealing and easy to follow. The tone strikes just the right balance of professional expertise and human concern. I encourage students to keep this book, because there is so much material that will be of use to them when they are in their own classrooms."
—Jena A. Burges
Longwood College

From the Publisher