Module 8: Introduction
The Assessment Roundtable (Pdf Version)

Objectives:

• Discuss primary questions about Traits assessment and classroom practice
• Submit a sample paper with complete traits rationales
• Summarize and share your Reflective Journal

"Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after." ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh, (1906 -), American Author

Introduction:

At a roundtable people sit down and talk as equals. That is how we will spend our last weeks together; discussing the primary questions:

• How will Traits Assessment effect the way I teach writing?
• Must Writing Teachers Write?
• How will I teach the Traits to my students?
• How do I reconcile Traits Based Assessment and Grades?
• How do I explain this style of assessment to Parents?
• How???

What questions do you have? What's on your mind?
For the past 7 modules we have built a place to think and share together. Now let us turn the combined power of our experiences and insights towards answering these vital questions. By being a community of practice, we can help find the understanding and courage necessary to grow as teachers and writers.

Are you worried about getting it right?
Don't be. This is not a right and wrong situation. An assessment is your best opinion, grounded in your understanding of the Traits, based on what you see in the writing. Just that. The more you practice, the more comfortable and natural this way of discussing writing becomes.

During this week we will not be scoring demonstration papers. Instead you will be preparing an original paper of your own. At the same time, we will be talking in a number of different discussions about vital issues. The Discussion will be based on the primary questions posed above, and any other questions you as a group raise.

This week's readings focus on Chapter 12, Communicating through Comments, Conferences, Peer Review, & Grades from Vicki Spandel's Creating Writers Through 6-Trait Writing Assessment and Instruction. Spandel's insights are powerful. This chapter will give you information about assessment and grading. Additionally, Spandel discusses how to help your students become assessors of their own writing. If you teach your students the language of Traits, if you help them become assessors, they will know how to revise. Being able to revise your own work is the key to independence.

Think of yourselves as freedom fighters. You work to arm your students with the intellectual tools needed to break out of passive dependency. You are helping your students find their way as writers and thinkers. All at once? No, a step, a Trait, a practice at a time. It is good work. It is why we became teachers. It is what has brought you here.