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What We Really Value traces the origins of traditional rubrics within the theoretical and historical circumstances out of which they emerged, then holds rubrics up for critical scrutiny in the context of contemporary developments in the field. As an alternative to the generic character and decontextualized function of scoring guides, he offers dynamic criteria mapping, a form of qualitative inquiry by which writing programs (as well as individual instructors) can portray their rhetorical values with more ethical integrity and more pedagogical utility than rubrics allow.To illustrate the complex and indispensable insights this method can provide, Broad details findings from his study of eighty-nine distinct and substantial criteria for evaluation at work in the introductory composition program at "City University." These chapters are filled with the voices of composition instructors debating and reflecting on the nature, interplay, and relative importance of the many criteria by which they judged students' texts. Broad concludes his book with specific strategies that can help writing instructors and programs to discover, negotiate, map, and express a more robust truth about what they value in their students' rhetorical performances.
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Value.v4 2/4/03 11:23 AM Page i W H AT W E R E A L L Y VA L U E Value.v4 2/4/03 11:23 AM Page ii Value.v4 2/4/03 11:23 AM Page iii W H AT W E R E A L L Y VA L U E Beyond Rubrics in Teaching and Assessing Writing BOB BROAD U TA H S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S Logan, Utah Value.v4 2/4/03 11:23 AM Page iv Utah State University Press Logan, Utah 84322-7800 © 2003 Utah State University Press All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America Cover design by Barbara Yale-Read Cover illustration “World Map” by Pietro Vesconte (c. 1321), courtesy of the British Library Board, London. “Vinland Map” (c. 1440) in Prologue, courtesy of Yale University Library, New Haven. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Broad, Bob, 1960What we really value : beyond rubrics in teaching and assessing writing / Bob Broad. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-87421-553-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. English language—Rhetoric—Study and teaching. 2. Report writing—Study and teaching (Higher) 3. English language—Ability testing. 4. Grading and marking (Students) 5. Report writing—Evaluation. I. Title. PE1404 .B738 2003 808’.042’0711—dc21 2002153374 ISBN 0-87421-480-7 (e-book) Value.v4 2/4/03 11:23 AM Page v for JULIE SUZANNE HILE my finest friend, partner, and teacher and for DYLAN AND RACHEL who make everything so much more worthwhile in memory of MAURICE SCHARTON teacher, colleague, writing assessment dude Value.v4 2/4/03 11:23 AM Page vi Value.v3 9/16/03 11:22 AM Page vii CONTENTS List of Figures viii List of Tables Prologue viii ix Acknowledgments xiii 1 To Tell the Truth: Beyond Rubrics 1 2 Studying Rubric-Free Assessment at City University: Research Context and Methods 16 3 Textual Criteria: What They Really Valued, Part 1 4 Contextual Criteria: What They Really Valued, Part 2 32 73 5 A Model for Dynamic Criteria Mapping of Communal Writing Assessment 119 Appendix A: Assignments for English 1 Essays 139 Appendix B: Selected Sample Texts from City University Midterm essays 142 “Anguish” 142 “Gramma Sally” “Pops” 144 146 End-term portfolios Portfolio 2 148 148 “Professional Helper” (from Portfolio 3) Portfolio 4 156 157 Appendix C: Tabulation of Votes