Keeslers Writing World

I agree with Casey that I would like to see tracking go away. I also do believe that a lot of things at the national and state level would have to change drastically in order for that to happen. In order to get rid of tracking the changes would need to trickle down from the top at the national level all the way down to the schools and teachers. This is a lot of change to take place and i'm not sure if i'll ever see it in my life time. I hope to, but don't think I will. I also think that the state mandated portfolio's would be an interesting concept. I do think though that could take some freedom away from the teacher though. The teacher would probably have less say in what the students writing assignments were because certain types of writing would be required in the state portfolio's. Interesting as I find the concept I definitely am all for teachers have freedom in their teaching methods and assignments. I think that this kind of freedom is important in teaching because your dealing with all different kinds of students who learn different ways and are from different backgrounds and you need to be able to find a way to reach each and every one of them.

I agree with Kristy that the meap seems to be doing a horrible job of assessing students. I really don't think that by assessing only one kind of learner that you can get an accurate assessment of students abilities. I also don't think that standardized tests are a good way to assess students. Who decides what students need to know? And why should ESL students have to take the same test as those that have spoken english all their life? I really think that standardized tests are in no way helpful and that they don't take into account those students living in Urban areas, speaking other languages, and that learn from untraditional methods. I do understand that it's important to assess what students are learning and how schools are doing, but I think there needs to be another way to do it. I don't know what that way is, so i'm not claiming to have the answers. However, there has to be a better way to check on the teachers and school systems to make sure their doing their jobs. I really hope that at some point in my teaching career a more effective and accurate way will be found.

I agree with DJ that grading papers is totally subjective. It's hard to give someone with bad structure and spelling a lower grade when they are passionate about the subject and really got into the writing. It seems to me almost like at times teachers punish the students who are passionate about writing by giving them a lower grade because of superficial errors in the paper. While at the same time they reward the student that could care less about their writing and are just better students as far as structure and grammar goes. I personally believe that with writing it's the content that is the most important. We shouldn't be destroying a students paper just because they might not spell so well. In my own classroom I hope to provide all my students with the necessary structure and grammar that they need, but I don't want those things acting as some sort of wall that keeps passionate writers who can't climb that wall out. I intend to teach my students that both are important, but that content is what I really want to see. From there we can work on structure and grammar, but first we need to tackle the content of the students writing. I think that this should be the views of every teacher. Writing is a major method of communication these days and I think that the content of the writing will trump the structure of it.