Resource Topics

Research - Assessment

On the Verge of Understanding: A District-Wide Look at Student Writing

April 2008
Kathleen Reddy-Butkovich
In this chapter from Writing Intention: Prompting Professional Learning through Student Work, the author and colleagues from Michigan writing projects use an examination of student work to discover what it is that student writers are "on the verge of understanding." They apply these observations to arrive at some implications for teaching and learning in their school district. More ›

Linking Genre to Standards and Equity

The Quarterly, 2004
Tom Fox
Fox describes the work of three teachers who have successfully linked genre and purpose and provided evidence that "a thoughtful pedagogy of genres can bridge the gap between disenfranchised students and communities and schools." More ›

Works in Progress: First-Year College Students after EN101

The Quarterly, Spring 2001
Helen Collins Sitler
Sitler wonders whether her first-year college students are transferring the writing knowledge they take from her class when they leave it. Her study concludes that they are making appropriate transfers. More ›

TR 41. Evaluating Text Quality: The Continuum from Text-Focused to Reader-Focused Methods

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, March 1990
Karen A. Schriver
Schriver discusses three methods for evaluating text quality: text-focused, expert-judgment-focused, and reader-focused, and concludes that reader-focused approaches offer the best opportunity for detecting problems in a text. More ›

TR 23. Students' Self-Analyses and Judges' Perceptions: Where Do They Agree?

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, May 1989
John Ackerman
This report summarizes student accounts of how they composed a first draft and then compares and contrasts how students and teachers evaluated the same essay. More ›