Browsing by Subject "Writing assessment"
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Item Design and implementation of appreciative writing assessment in secondary English Language Arts classrooms(2016-08) Warrington, Amber Sharron; Skerrett, Allison; Bomer, Randy; Worthy, Mary Jo; Martínez, Ramón; Roberts-Miller, PatriciaThe purpose of this dissertation was to explore with English Language Arts (ELA) teachers how to design and implement appreciative (Bomer, 2011) approaches to writing assessment in secondary ELA classrooms. This study aimed to counter deficit (Paris, 2012; Valencia, 1997) approaches to assessment that focus on perceived errors in students’ writing. I drew on theories that explain the ways discourse shapes knowledge (Foucault, 1970; Gee, 2014) and identities (Gee, 2014; Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 1998) in powerful and often hidden ways. These theories facilitated my analyses of the ways in which discourses around writing assessment positioned (Davies & Harré, 1990; Holland et al., 1998) students in deficit (Paris, 2012; Valencia, 1997) or appreciative (R. Bomer, 2011) ways. This research was guided by formative experiment design (Reinking & Bradley, 2008) and case study methods (Yin, 2014). The study consisted of two phases: Phase 1: Collaborative design between the researcher and teacher-participants of an appreciative writing assessment; Phase 2: Teachers’ implementation of the writing assessment in their classrooms. Making use of qualitative, ethnographic methods (Marshall & Rossman, 2011), I collected data around teachers’ design within an inquiry group as well as two teachers’ implementation of the design within their ELA classrooms. I analyzed all data using an inductive approach of qualitative data analysis (Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña, 2014). Analysis revealed that the inquiry group of teachers and myself approached the task of design by constructing a shared repertoire (Wenger, 1998) of concepts, texts, tools, and discourses that served as resources for the negotiation of meaning around appreciative writing assessment. The inquiry group elaborated on appreciative discourses to design a writing assessment that positioned student writers as knowledgeable, in a process of growth, and authorities capable of assessing their own writing and growth. The inquiry group also used physical tools to reify the discourses upon which teachers drew and visualize how these larger discourses could shape classroom practice. To explore the ways in which teachers implemented the writing assessment in their classrooms, I focused on the case of one teacher. As the teacher implemented the inquiry group’s framework document, she redesigned related classroom practices, specifically, writing instruction that focused on student-led genre study, increased peer dialogue within the classroom community, and students’ roles as co-designers of assessment. This study contributes to the literature on classroom writing assessment as well as literature on resource pedagogies (Paris & Ball, 2009) and a multiliteracies pedagogy (New London Group, 1996) that demonstrate ways that teachers can draw on students’ strengths and resources in curriculum and instruction. Furthermore, this study points to teachers’ roles as designers of curriculum, instruction, and assessment in both formative experiment research studies and in schools.Item Outcomes and assessment for undergraduate technical communication programs(Texas Tech University, 2008-08) D'Angelo, Barbara J.; Rickly, Rebecca; Kimball, Miles; Lang, Susan; White, Edward M.The 1983 publication A Nation at Risk exemplified ongoing and heightened concern related to achievement in schools and universities in the United States. Increasingly, schools and universities are facing demands to demonstrate what and how well students are learning. Outcomes assessment is one way for academic institutions, departments, and programs to demonstrate learning achieved by their students in response to increasing demands for accountability. The research for this dissertation aimed to contribute to understanding the constructs incorporated into programmatic learning outcomes for undergraduate technical communication programs. My research sought to answer how the constructs are addressed and demonstrated by students as outcomes for assessment. Further, I identified a framework to begin to contextualize the constructs of information literacy (IL) and technology as technical communication learning outcomes. I conducted a case study of the Multimedia Writing and Technical Communication (MWTC) Program at Arizona State University (ASU) using grounded theory to analyze texts in student capstone electronic portfolios from three semesters. The MWTC Program uses a modified version of the Writing Program Administrators’ Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition (WPA OS) as programmatic learning outcomes. The modified version incorporates IL and technology, constructs that are not well-defined as learning outcomes for rhetoric and composition, in general, and technical communication specifically. My research aimed to understand how students claimed and supported achievement of outcomes embedded within the WPA OS as modified for a technical communication program. Further, my research contributes to and builds upon studies which have begun to identify information literacy as task- and context-oriented. In addition, this research contributes to the knowledge base related to pedagogy and assessment of electronic portfolios within the field of technical communication.