Alternatives to Grading Student Writing

  • Writing Assessment, Student Writing, Teaching strategies, personal essay

Edited by Stephen Tchudi
Digitized by the Colorado State University Libraries

CoverEvaluating a student's progress as a writer requires striking a delicate balance between the student's needs and the school's needs. This collection of essays offers several innovative options, concluding with ideas for formulating plans of action for introducing grading alternatives in classrooms, schools, and districts.

Table of Contents

Open the entire book: 17 Megs

Front Matter

Introduction: Degrees of Freedom in Assessment, Evaluation, and Grading, Stephen Tchudi

I. Background and Theory

1. It's Broken-Fix It!, Liesel K. O'Hagan

2. Growth-Biased Assessing of Writers' More Democratic Choice, Marie Wilson Nelson

II. Responding to Student Writing

3. Writing Students Need Coaches, Not Judges, Lynn Holaday

4. Response: A Promising Beginning for Learning to Grade Student Writing, Carol Beeghly Bencich

5. Can You Be Black and Write and Right?, Elaine B. Richardson

6. Alternative Assessment of Second-Language Writing: A Developmental Model, Janis Massa

7. Scribliolink: Inviting Parents to Respond to Their Children's Writing, Joyce C. Fine

III. Classroom Strategies and Alternatives to Grading Student Writing

8. Student Attitudes toward Grades and Evaluation on Writing, Jean S. Ketter and Judith W. Hunter

9. Writing at Reading: How a Junior Year in England Changes Student Writers, Mary B. Guthrow

10. Assessment through Collaborative Critique, Sarah Robbins, Sue Poper, and Jennifer Herrod

11. What Grades Do for Us, and How to Do without Them, Marcy Bauman

12. Seeing How Good We Can Get It, Kelly Chandler and Amy Muentener

13. Grading on Merit and Achievement: Where Quality Meets Quantity, Stephen Adkison and Stephen Tchudi

14. Total Quality: A Farewell to Grades, Charles McDonnell

15. Using a Multidimensional Scoring Guide: A Win-Win Situation, Gail M. Young

16. Students Using Evaluation in Their Writing Process, Jacob S. Blumner and Francis Fritz

17. Unlocking Outcome-Based Education through the Writing Process, Rick Pribyl

18. Portfolio Assessment as an Alternative to Grading Student Writing, Kathleen Jones

19. Issues to Consider when Scoring Student Portfolios, Anne Wescott Dodd

IV. Faculty Workshops in Alternatives to Grading Student Writing

Developing Intrinsic Motivation for Students' Writing, Immaculate Kizza

Weighing and Choosing Alternatives, Stephen Tchudi

Contract Grades: An Agreement between Students and Their Teachers, Lynda S. Radican

Using Rubrics and Holistic Scoring of Writing, Jean S. Ketter

Alternative Assessment Methods across the Disciplines, Pamela B. Childers

Communicating with Parents and the Public, Marilyn M. Cooper

About the Editor

Publication Information: Tchudi, Stephen, & NCTE Committee on Alternatives to Grading Student Writing. (1997). Alternatives to Grading Student Writing. National Council of Teachers of English.  https://wac.colostate.edu/books/ncte/tschudi/  

Publication Date: March 15, 2011

NCTE on WAC

Books in this series are presented on the WAC Clearinghouse courtesy of the National Council of Teachers of English. This book can be purchased in print from the NCTE online bookstore.

Acrobat Reader DownloadThis book is available in whole and in part in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF).


Copyright © 2001 National Council of Teachers of English. 308 pages. ISBN ISBN 0-8141-0130-5. Available in print from NCTE. Available in digital format for no charge on this page at the WAC Clearinghouse. You may view this book. You may print personal copies of this book. You may link to this page. You may not reproduce this book on another website. For permission requests and other questions, such as creating a translation, please contact the copyright holder. For permission to use materials from this book in other publications, please contact permissions@ncte.org.