| Heeding the call of Murphy (2000) and Mathison-Fife and O'Neil (2001), this dissertation sets out to address the elephant in the room, the students, and their views of formative classroom writing assessment. Using the theoretical framework of Shirley Brice Heath's (1983) "literacy events", this research considers the college classroom and teachers' response as a literate activity, worthy of study. "Literacy events" are about interactions; however, in typical classrooms where grades are used, the interactions are generally one-sided. To understand student interactions with response, this study looks at data collected from three different classroom sites for one semester utilizing an ethnographic approach, interviewing students and observing classes to learn how response functions in a class with portfolios and delayed grading. In the three classes, teachers used formative assessment, which, like "literacy events", focus on interactions. Using the students' voices from the interviews, this research focuses on the types of interactions students have with teachers' response. This study furnishes evidence that students who can assume "situated identities" (Gee, 2007) as writers are able to read and engage with teachers response easier than students who see themselves only as students. Assessments, when performed as a summative activity, insulate agents from one another often isolating students from teachers, writers from their writing; whereas formative assessments mitigate such insulation allowing students to engage with response that lets them know "where you are trying to go?, where are you now?, how can you get there?" (Shepard, 2006) so that students are encouraged to interact allowing them to harness the power of assessment to learn and reach a higher level of achievement. By taking the students' perspective and literacy into consideration with response/portfolios, we are able to develop a fuller narrative. |
