Teaching to the Test…Not! Balancing Best Practice and Testing Requirements in Writing

Abstract

High‐stakes testing and accountability in the United States cloak the real purpose of assessment—diagnosing learning to inform instruction. Standardized testing drives curricula in many states. Teachers may feel pressured to “teach to the test,” although they know it is not best practice. The authors discuss how using several evidence‐based approaches to writing instruction—writing workshop and the witing process, 6 + 1 Traits, and modes of writing—can accomplish two goals: providing high‐quality instruction, and preparing students for success in standardized writing tests. They stress that assessment is a component of instruction, not an end unto itself, and that the goal of instruction is to produce lifelong learners, not test takers.

Syntactic complexity as a predictor of adolescent writing quality: Which measures? Which genre?

“…A text relying exclusively upon simple sentence structures is unlikely to leave a favorable impression. For sentences to ''vary in length and style,'' or to begin in different ways, the writer must make use of a variety of syntactic structures (Higgins, Miller, & Wegmann, 2006;Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2004).…”

Interactive Whiteboards and Elementary Students' Writing

“…The Six Traits writing model was created by teachers in the midst of the 1980s at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, NWREL (Higgins, Miller, & Wegmann, 2006;Jacobson, 2005). Six Traits was developed to find an easier way to get information about students' performance in writing than from a single standardized test (Higgins, Miller, & Wegmann).…”

An Effective Framework for Primary‐Grade Guided Writing Instruction

“…If teachers present an immediately useful and well-contextualized way of thinking about writing, the stage is set for students' success. Writing is a cognitive process (Flower & Hayes, 1981), requiring instruction in how to think and act (Higgins, Miller, & Wegmann, 2006). When Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies.…”