EDITOR'S NOTE: Two years ago, Washington's Kent School District began working with the Northwest Laboratory to develop alternative assessments to be used at both the classroom and district levels. Tackling writing assessment first, the district brought in Laboratory staff to train teachers, administrators, and community volunteers to use the six traits of effective writing (ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions) in scoring student work. Parent Tom Tomfohr, who took part in a March training and scoring workshop, shares his impressions. Tomfohr can be reached by phone at (206) 631-1945 or by e-mail at tomtomfohr@aol.com.
KENT, WASHINGTON--IN MARCH OF THIS YEAR I PARTICIPATED AS A VOLUNTEER in a writing assessment program developed by the Northwest Laboratory and sponsored by the Kent School District. Admittedly, my motives for participation were somewhat less than altruistic.
Last year I had the good fortune to retire from my position as marketing director for a medical equipment manufacturer at the age of 51. Two of my three daughters are graduates of Kent public schools. A third daughter is a second-grader, and I have a son in seventh grade, as well. With time on my hands, I felt it was about time to support a program that already had admirably prepared two daughters for college. Guilt is a powerful motivator.
With the guilt gear firmly in drive, I started volunteering my time at Grass Lake Elementary School, reading to kindergartners and third-graders, plus tutoring a few students individually. Taxi Cab Dog by Sal Barracca and Airmail to the Moon by Northwest writer and teacher Tom Birdseye are a couple of books that really turned the kindergartners on.
Much to my delight, I found the classroom experience rewarding. I've been approached more than once by six-year-old children tugging at their parent's sleeve, indicating, "There's the man who reads to us at school!"
IT WAS ABOUT THIS TIME THAT SANDY SCHMELLA, DIRECTOR OF THE READING AND WRITING PROGRAM AT GRASS LAKE, ASKED IF I WOULD BE INTERESTED IN ATTENDING AN EVALUATION WORKSHOP ON STUDENT WRITING. I'm not sure whether she felt that I needed help (I write a guest column for our local newspaper) or that I might be suited for the task. In any case, I said, "Yes." It's hard to turn down Sandy's requests, which are delivered with a sunny smile. Besides, I think she had tuned into my guilt channel.
So there I was two weeks later at the district offices, sitting amongst a group of about 50 teachers and a handful of volunteers. The first order of business: a review of the criteria used in the evaluation. Review?! Didn't anybody realize this was my first time through? However, after a few hours of skillful direction by the program leader and with the help of dedicated teachers, I was primed.
Our task was daunting: to read, reread, and appraise more than 3,000 papers submitted by selected classes in grades four through 12. The object was to evaluate each writer's ideas, voice, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, and grammatical conventions.
One of our responsibilities was to submit to arbitration discrepancies that occurred in the judgments made by two readers.
I was not surprised but was somewhat intimidated when my friend Pat DeWitt, a fifth-grade teacher at Grass Lake, and I reached conflicting conclusions about one student's work. This particular essay was so grammatically flawed it was almost impossible to read. The way I saw it, the grime and dirt on the canvas hid the beauty of the colors beneath. Maybe it was because I am the world's worst speller. Maybe it was because those essays I submitted in high school and college suffered from grammatical troubles. I felt this essay deserved additional reward. With the help of a very adept interpretation by an assistant junior high principal, we came to a consensus. The composition deserved far more than the grammar alone would allow.
THIS IS THE BEAUTY OF THE PROGRAM. IT ALLOWS EVALUATORS TO LOOK AT ESSAYS THROUGH A PRISM. Judgments are not the property of the white light entering but reflect the multitude of departing colors.
The rewards of the program did not end here. As we sifted through endless papers, many touched on themes as routine as a quarter-pounder with fries. Others had us laughing, crying, and wishing we had 10, 30, 100 more pages to read. Then there were those that touched us with simple elegance and depth of understanding.
I particularly remember two essays with divergent yet related themes. The first was submitted by a recent immigrant from the Ukraine. Although grammatical conventions suffered and sentence fluency lacked, the writer's voice glowed. Her passionate, touching, and poignant description of the abandonment of grandparents, family, and friends left me numb in her grief. The tale of this girl's departure from homeland and embrace of a new country left me energized.
Then there was the telling essay of a young woman of Chinese ancestry. Her parents had immigrated to the United States as students, never to return home. The day came when the grandmother living in China died. With her grieving parents, the girl traveled to her ancestral homeland for the Buddhist funeral. Through most of the three-day ceremony, the writer remained cold and distant, unable to feel grief until confronted by a cousin she had never met. Finally, she opened her heart to the realization that her loss was the greatest. She had missed all that her grandmother had to give.
LIKE MY CHINESE AMERICAN FELLOW WRITER I, TOO, HAVE COME FULL CIRCLE. What began as an exercise in guilt reduction has become a renewed admiration for a school district and the educators who make this writing program work. This perceptive assessment program works because it draws upon the talent, dedication, and professionalism of our teachers. The license-plate frame on Grass Lake teacher David Staight's car offers a simple yet profound message: "l am a teacher. I touch the future."
| 
| 
|
|
This document's URL is: Home | Up & Coming | Programs & Projects: Northwest Education | People | Products & Publications | Topics © 2001 Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Date of Last Update: 9/28/01 
|