What We Really Value by
What We Really Value traces the origins of traditional rubrics within the theoretical and historical circumstances out of which they emerged, then holds rubrics up for critical scrutiny in the context of contemporary developments in the field. As an alternative to the generic character and decontextualized function of scoring guides, he offers dynamic criteria mapping, a form of qualitative inquiry by which writing programs (as well as individual instructors) can portray their rhetorical values with more ethical integrity and more pedagogical utility than rubrics allow. To illustrate the complex and indispensable insights this method can provide, Broad details findings from his study of eighty-nine distinct and substantial criteria for evaluation at work in the introductory composition program at "City University." These chapters are filled with the voices of composition instructors debating and reflecting on the nature, interplay, and relative importance of the many criteria by which they judged students' texts. Broad concludes his book with specific strategies that can help writing instructors and programs to discover, negotiate, map, and express a more robust truth about what they value in their students' rhetorical performances.
What We Really Value: Beyond Rubrics in Teaching and Assessing Writing is an open access book in .pdf format, made freely available and downloadable by the Utah State University Press and the DigitalCommons at Utah State University. Click on the top link to access the book in .pdf format. The second entry for this book, shown just below, is a print copy, which is available on the 5th floor of Axinn Library.
What We Really Value by
What We Really Value traces the origins of traditional rubricswithin the theoretical and historical circumstances out of which theyemerged, then holds rubrics up for critical scrutiny in the context ofcontemporary developments in the field. As an alternative to the genericcharacter and decontextualized function of scoring guides, he offersdynamic criteria mapping, a form of qualitative inquiry by which writingprograms (as well as individual instructors) can portray theirrhetorical values with more ethical integrity and more pedagogicalutility than rubrics allow.To illustrate the complex and indispensable insights this method canprovide, Broad details findings from his study of eighty-nine distinctand substantial criteria for evaluation at work in the introductorycomposition program at "City University." These chapters are filled withthe voices of composition instructors debating and reflecting on thenature, interplay, and relative importance of the many criteria by whichthey judged students' texts. Broad concludes his book with specificstrategies that can help writing instructors and programs to discover,negotiate, map, and express a more robust truth about what they value intheir students' rhetorical performances.
Building Writing Center Assessments That Matter by
No less than other divisions of the college or university, contemporary writing centers find themselves within a galaxy of competing questions and demands that relate to assessment--questions and demands that usually embed priorities from outside the purview of the writing center itself. Writing centers are used to certain kinds of assessment, both quantitative and qualitative, but are often unprepared to address larger institutional or societal issues. In Building Writing Center Assessments that Matter, Schendel and Macauley start from the kinds of assessment strengths already in place in writing centers, and they build a framework that can help writing centers satisfy local needs and put them in useful dialogue with the larger needs of their institutions, while staying rooted in writing assessment theory. The authors begin from the position that tutoring writers is already an assessment activity, and that good assessment practice (rooted in the work of Adler-Kassner, O'Neill, Moore, and Huot) already reflects the values of writing center theory and practice. They offer examples of assessments developed in local contexts, and of how assessment data built within those contexts can powerfully inform decisions and shape the futures of local writing centers. With additional contributions by Neal Lerner, Brian Huot and Nicole Caswell, and with a strong commitment to honoring on-site local needs, the volume does not advocate a one-size-fits-all answer. But, like the modeling often used in a writing consultation, examples here illustrate how important assessment principles have been applied in a range of local contexts. Ultimately, Building Writing Assessments that Matter describes a theory stance toward assessment for writing centers that honors the uniqueness of the writing center context, and examples of assessment in action that are concrete, manageable, portable, and adaptable.
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