Reflection

NIWP
Emily Duvall
Thriving as Writers in a Writing Test Culture

I loved what Emily had to say about writing and high-stakes test taking:

• Writing-Test writing is different than regular writing
  
• Find humor in the test prompt
• Don't bare one's soul in response to the prompt
  
• Keep stickies around for brainstorming notes
• Test wiseness of students by giving them lots of writing-test writing practice
• Self-mediation: what are the choices for the test
• Reading-test reading
• Giving students power over the test

Wow, is this an eye-opener! I had never thought about analyzing writing test questions like this! This coming year I will be able to direct my students to write in a totally different frame of mind when it comes to May and the new WASL, and their responses. In the past, I reminded my students about neat handwriting, conventions, completes sentences, and, of course, to do their best. But I had never stopped to reanalyzed older prompts in a way that Duvall talked about in her presentation to our group! Brainstorm on stickies, look for humor, remember what our favorite authors have written about a related subject, encouraging their own wiseness to arise to the prompt without bearing their soul!

In the handout that Duvall gave us, Teaching to the test...not!, there are a number of resources to further investigate about test taking and the writing process. As the authors, Betty Higgins, Melinda Miller, and Susan Wegmann, of the article state, "...through excellent instruction that prepares students to be full, literate members of our society, and not just people who can pass a test." We need to have authentic instruction and learning, not just regergitateable information that has no meaning or relevance to our students!