“Grading papers today? Don’t confuse the job of a writing
teacher with that of a copy editor.”
--Carol Jago[1]
The message in the twitterverse is clear. How much work are we doing as teachers? How can we foster metacognitive students who
self-assess their own writing needs and create a plan for growth? While
students may note strengths or weaknesses in the writing of others, many
students still make the same rhetorical choices and grammatical errors in their
own papers. If students are to succeed
as college writers and in the workforce, a teacher can’t be, as Carol Jago
terms it, “a copy editor.” As the quarter draws to a close, it is time to make
a plan for students to evaluate their writing, apply their writing practice and
learning, and set goals for writing growth through a Writing Analysis Portfolio.
The Writing Analysis Portfolio is a combination of a
Diagnostic Portfolio designed by AP Institute Consultant, Sharon Johnston, Ed.D.[2], and
a Rhetorical Rationale I used as an English 1010 concurrent enrollment instructor. The
Diagnostic Portfolio requires students to analyze their grammar and style. The Rhetorical Rationale requires students to
evaluate themselves on how well they met the college’s composition outcomes by
providing evidence from essay drafts and finals written during the term. As an AP Lang instructor, I use the Chief Reader Challenge Areas[3]
and Core Intro to Comp Skills presented at the 2015 AP Reading Open Forum for
student self-evaluation. Both methods require
students’ metacognitive reflection and goal setting to increase performance by focusing
on specific writing outcomes based on their analysis of work. The Writing Analysis Portfolio utilizes both
assignments to help students become more conscious the errors they make and
provides ways for students to improve their writing.
The first step in a Writing Analysis Portfolio is for
students to gain knowledge of their grammar and syntax knowledge and
practice. Students take a diagnostic
grammar assessment to test their knowledge.
I use either an assessment I create on noredink.com or an online
assessment designed by Dr. Kristi Siegel for this purpose. Students will use these results to later
compare knowledge with practice in a reflective analysis of writing. Next, students evaluate their grammar usage
by completing an Error Chart and their syntax by completing a Grammar Grid for
a timed essay and a process paper. While
I mark one of the essays as if I were a copy editor, the other essay must be
evaluated by a student for grammar errors.
I allow students to use the Writing Reviser by sascurriculumpathways.com
or the error information from turnitin.com to help students locate errors.
The student’s Error Chart shows the reflection made during
this process:
The student Grammar Grid allows student to note sentence
structure and verb choice:
Finally, students collect all prewriting and drafts for
their process essay and any evaluation information for their timed essay. Using this information and the data collected
from the test and grids, students are ready to write a reflective analysis of
their writing in a cover letter.
Students will compare their writing with AP rubrics, the Chief ReaderChallenge Areas[4]
and Core Intro to Comp Skills in order to assess current skill levels and
create goals for improvement.
Here is a section of a student cover letter that demonstrates
the power of self-reflection and goal setting:
Depending on where students are in writing, a teacher can
modify the analysis to include items that fit the writing needs of the
student. Maybe your students need to
eliminate dead words or they need to “verb loudly” as Crys Hodgens tells her
students. Other students may need to use
more complicated sentence structure to improve the style of writing, so one may
need to include a syntax analysis with model sentences that they could emulate
in their papers. The options are yours
to create a writing analysis assignment that meets the needs of your writers.
Note: Files are available using the hotlinks or on google drive.
[1]
@CarolJago. “Grading papers today? Don’t confuse the job of a writing teacher
with that of a copy editor.” Twitter, 16
Oct. 2016. 7:44 a.m., https://twitter.com/CarolJago/status/787650316380569600.
[2]
Johnston, Sharon, Ed.D., “Diagnostic Writing Portfolio Assignment.” 2008.
Print.
[3]
Rice, Jodi. “Slides from Open Forum at Lang Reading.” AP Teacher Community English. 13 June 2015. The College Board. https://apcommunity.collegeboard.org/group/apenglish/discussion-boards/-/message_boards/view_message/64736048#_19_message_64736048.
Accessed 14 June 2015.
[4]
Please note an updated Challenge Area slide is available online for members of
the AP Teacher Community. See Rice,
Jodi. “Presentation from AP Lang Open Forum at Reading.” AP Teacher Community English. 14 June 2016. The College Board. https://apcommunity.collegeboard.org/group/apenglish/resource-details?p_p_id=contentItem_WAR_aptccontentitemportlet&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_col_id=column1&p_p_col_count=1&p_r_p_1243656882_resourceId=92798848&pageQueryString=p_l_id%3D2954628%26p_v_l_s_g_id%3D0%26p_p_id%3DSearch_WAR_aptcsearchportlet%26_Search_WAR_aptcsearchportlet_pageName%3DresourceLibrary%26backToSearch%3Dtrue
. Accessed 18 October 2016.
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