1. Writer’s Experience with Instructor’s Assessment
I started taking composition courses in an English Department when I began my first study-abroad program in 2003. Both of my composition instructors used portfolios to assess writing. The portfolios were mostly graded based on a checklist of items, including the rough drafts, peer review feedback forms, revised final drafts and self-reflections. One thing that I wish that I had seen back then is a grading rubric for individual paper. Many professors in humanities that I had back then seemed to be not really fond of the idea of using a rubric; therefore, writing an essay and expecting a grade largely became a guessing game for the students who were new to the class.
2. Washback Results of L2 Writing Assessment
While my composition instructors were perhaps too generous to me by assigning me straight As throughout the two courses I took in college, I was not lucky to continue to be an A-level student in the eyes of my literature professors, most of whom gave me Bs for my literary analyses due to my limited language skills. I think both scores (A and B) enhanced my learning and mastery of composing skills in different ways: With the As and encouragements from my composition instructors, I acquired the multi-draft writing approach from the beginning and did well in improving my writing quality along the way. The Bs, however, were more like a reality strike on me when I continued to write in my major area. This was the time when I understood the importance of language skills and that they are often viewed as the most important thing in a piece of literary work. Thanks to all the professors who gave me Bs in my literary analyses, I learned how to edit my essays, ensuring they were not only grammatically correct but also stylistically pleasing to the readers.
3. My Greatest Challenge in Evaluating Student Writing
I often find myself in a paradox while grading students’ final drafts. Because I typically provide detailed comments on students’ rough drafts, like all teachers who do this, I expect to see students address the things I pointed out in their final drafts. Therefore, I tend to be more lenient in my grading if I see a final draft that is carefully revised based on my comments. On the other hand, I struggle to provide positive feedback and good grades to students who simply seem to ignore my comments. I think this is perhaps one of the biggest weaknesses of human raters: We are too subjective and tend to be controlled by our feelings. This paradox also connects to the on-going debate on whether teacher feedback is useful to students’ writing improvement: We all like to believe that whatever we are doing is useful to our students, but what if it’s not?
4. Formal Assessment in L2 Writing
Formal assessment should take important roles in the teaching of composition, because they are well-planned and can be used to track students’ learning progress. By providing a writing prompt and grading rubrics to our students at the beginning stage of their writing, students can use this information to guide their entire writing process. Formal assessment also creates a venue for students to discuss their writing skill improvements with the instructor because records have been kept along the way of each writing cycle. However, we must also realize that formal assessment cannot be all that we do in assessing students’ writing. Students also need spontaneous feedback from their instructors in writing tasks they do during class time, as well as peer feedback from their classmates and tutors.
5. Portfolio Assessment
Portfolio assessment is a useful tool to depict an overall picture of a student writer’s achievements throughout an entire course. It matches the principle of the process-oriented approach and tracks the individual growth of a writer. Moreover, the completion of a portfolio should make a student writer rather proud and may be used as a showcase of writing skills to school/job applications. I see more benefits and potential of using portfolios with advanced-level students than with beginners. Portfolio assessment, for example, would be more motivational to senior-level undergraduate students and graduate students because they can use the final products they have compiled for real-world purposes. (e.g., The students in ENG697 can use their final portfolio to apply for Ph.D. programs and ESL-writing related jobs.)
I started taking composition courses in an English Department when I began my first study-abroad program in 2003. Both of my composition instructors used portfolios to assess writing. The portfolios were mostly graded based on a checklist of items, including the rough drafts, peer review feedback forms, revised final drafts and self-reflections. One thing that I wish that I had seen back then is a grading rubric for individual paper. Many professors in humanities that I had back then seemed to be not really fond of the idea of using a rubric; therefore, writing an essay and expecting a grade largely became a guessing game for the students who were new to the class.
2. Washback Results of L2 Writing Assessment
While my composition instructors were perhaps too generous to me by assigning me straight As throughout the two courses I took in college, I was not lucky to continue to be an A-level student in the eyes of my literature professors, most of whom gave me Bs for my literary analyses due to my limited language skills. I think both scores (A and B) enhanced my learning and mastery of composing skills in different ways: With the As and encouragements from my composition instructors, I acquired the multi-draft writing approach from the beginning and did well in improving my writing quality along the way. The Bs, however, were more like a reality strike on me when I continued to write in my major area. This was the time when I understood the importance of language skills and that they are often viewed as the most important thing in a piece of literary work. Thanks to all the professors who gave me Bs in my literary analyses, I learned how to edit my essays, ensuring they were not only grammatically correct but also stylistically pleasing to the readers.
3. My Greatest Challenge in Evaluating Student Writing
I often find myself in a paradox while grading students’ final drafts. Because I typically provide detailed comments on students’ rough drafts, like all teachers who do this, I expect to see students address the things I pointed out in their final drafts. Therefore, I tend to be more lenient in my grading if I see a final draft that is carefully revised based on my comments. On the other hand, I struggle to provide positive feedback and good grades to students who simply seem to ignore my comments. I think this is perhaps one of the biggest weaknesses of human raters: We are too subjective and tend to be controlled by our feelings. This paradox also connects to the on-going debate on whether teacher feedback is useful to students’ writing improvement: We all like to believe that whatever we are doing is useful to our students, but what if it’s not?
4. Formal Assessment in L2 Writing
Formal assessment should take important roles in the teaching of composition, because they are well-planned and can be used to track students’ learning progress. By providing a writing prompt and grading rubrics to our students at the beginning stage of their writing, students can use this information to guide their entire writing process. Formal assessment also creates a venue for students to discuss their writing skill improvements with the instructor because records have been kept along the way of each writing cycle. However, we must also realize that formal assessment cannot be all that we do in assessing students’ writing. Students also need spontaneous feedback from their instructors in writing tasks they do during class time, as well as peer feedback from their classmates and tutors.
5. Portfolio Assessment
Portfolio assessment is a useful tool to depict an overall picture of a student writer’s achievements throughout an entire course. It matches the principle of the process-oriented approach and tracks the individual growth of a writer. Moreover, the completion of a portfolio should make a student writer rather proud and may be used as a showcase of writing skills to school/job applications. I see more benefits and potential of using portfolios with advanced-level students than with beginners. Portfolio assessment, for example, would be more motivational to senior-level undergraduate students and graduate students because they can use the final products they have compiled for real-world purposes. (e.g., The students in ENG697 can use their final portfolio to apply for Ph.D. programs and ESL-writing related jobs.)
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