V's Pick #26: (Re)Articulating Writing Assessment for Teaching and Learning by Brian Huot

This book is a nice companion to White; this was actually the first thing I read for the exam because I was just starting to grade student papers and as I've admitted, felt I needed all the help I could get.

While I would say that White had a more practical approach and thus, was more helpful to me in the moment, Huot provides the theory behind such shifts in assessment practices.

A few things he brought up which have stayed with me:

When teachers ask other teachers to grade for them, they put students at a disadvantage because even though we don't like to admit it, part of our grading process is informed by our background knowledge of the student. We grade students based on progress (and he argues, we should) so if we don't have the context of their work throughout the semester, we loose that edge.

Also, for non-native speakers, we need to know them as writers, which only the instructor is capable of. They often make very specific types of "errors" and in order to best instruct them, we need to be able to measure their work. He argues that background knowledge of students can help to grade more reliably, which at first, confused me...shouldn't each assignment be based only on what's on the page? However, as I've tried a handful of different grading approaches this semester, I'm acutely aware that if I wasn't the one doing the grading, there would be a lot of important information left out of my actual grades.

I think this book poses some interesting theories for all teachers, but for anyone grading student writing, it's a safe bet you'll come away with a better understanding of why you make the choices you do with the pen...and maybe even some new things to try.