The Final

I just wanted to go over what I said in class. In essence your final is to read and grade 12 student papers. Using this information, you need to then give three things (or low stakes writing assignments) that you will use to improve your student's work. I suggest that you use the Elbow book (specifically Chapter 1) to help you decide on those lessons.

You may also rely on Beers. If students struggle with inferencing or summarizing, then they may not be able to develop their essays well.

This is not a knowledge test. It is a chance for you to put in writing what I already know about you -- you have strong instincts and analytical skills. Use those instincts and analytical skills to develop ways to help your students. There are not right and wrong ways of doing this, just poorly supported ways of doing this. Meaning, if you can support your argument with student work or an author, such as Elbow or Beers, you will be on the right track.

I have enjoyed watching your thoughts on education grow over the course of the last four weeks. I am certain that there will be 19 different approaches on this assignment, and it is possible that all of them makes sense and are justifiable.

Please let me know if you have questions. I will be around this evening to answer emails.