The Wilds of Writing Assessments

“The five-paragraph essay does not exist in the wild,” writes Barry Gilmore in Is it Done Yet?: Teaching Adolescents the Art of Revision. But as early as the wild days of seventh grade, we teach our students the form of five-paragraphs and assess them on their ability to perform it. As a writing tutor at Vanderbilt’s Writing Studio and a preservice teacher, I struggle to make sense of the conflicting messages we send to students about how to write well:

• Expository writing omits the first-person article, but authorial voice is one of the most essential components of effective writing.

• Revision is where a writer truly exercises her craft, but you must learn to write a cogent essay in a limited time frame for important state assessments. You will never see this essay again.

• Writing is a truly collaborative act between a writer and her audience, but you must demonstrate an ability to construct an argument or expository piece without a deep understanding of your reader.

• Good writing has authentic purpose – to convince, explain, or move an audience – but you must learn to write an essay for the purposes of a timed test.

I wonder: What do we truly want to teach students about writing, and how can we best communicate that message? What kinds of writing do we find most valuable in our own work and lives? What are the priorities of good writing for us, and do our assessments communicate those priorities to our students?

As Literacy Education Advocacy Month approaches and mandatory writing assessments continue to impact Language Arts instruction in profound ways, we must consider our answers to these questions.

- Rachel Bowers