Rethinking the achievement of the student writer.

Rethinking the achievement of the student writer. Despite over 90 years of research into the means of devising andimplementing testing procedures and scoring rubrics, the assessment ofstudent writing remains problematic (White, 1990; Rothery & Macken,1991; Cox & Haynes, 1991; Freebody, 1992; Johnston, 1992; Elbow,1993). There is continuing uncertainty about how grading ought to occurand also about the ways raters arrive at grading decisions, includingthe use they make of available scoring rubrics in the reading and ratingprocess (Huot, 1990; Wyatt-Smith, 1996). A contention currentlyproffered by educational linguists A linguist in the academic sense is a person who studies linguistics. Ambiguously, the word is sometimes also used to refer to a polyglot (one who knows more than 2 languages), or a grammarian, but these two uses of the word are distinct. and other researchers working in thefield of literacy assessment is that defined criteria and standards areneeded to demystify de��mys��ti��fy?tr.v. de��mys��ti��fied, de��mys��ti��fy��ing, de��mys��ti��fiesTo make less mysterious; clarify: an autobiography that demystified the career of an eminent physician. the assessment process (see, for example, Macken,1989; Macken & Slade, 1993; and Gipps, 1994). One of the premises of this work concerns the benefits to studentsand teachers of setting and making available those criteria to be usedin assessing student performance. Drawing on Sadler's (1992)insights into assessment criteria, Gipps (1994) presents the ethicalargument that it is only fair for students and teachers to have accessto published statements of criteria. She also strengthens the fairnessand equity argument with claims that an assessment approach that makesavailable relevant criteria has `the potential for providing motivationand a clear sense of direction particularly since all pupils who meetthe criteria are eligible to receive recognition for this' (p.145).Advocates of a genre-based linguistic approach to assessment, includingMacken and Slade (1993), similarly present an ethical argument for usingexplicit or sharply defined criteria written in linguistic terms. Theyclaim that criteria of this type provide students with a coherent,public description of the characteristics of particular contexts and ofthe texts that are constructed within them. From this genre-basedlinguistic perspective, specified criteria serve the dual purposes ofsupplementing teachers' `gestalt' intuitions about quality ofstudent writing, and of making teachers accountable for their judgementsin terms of stated performance expectations. In this article I wish to introduce a further consideration intothis line of argument, and consider the possible ways in which teacherscan produce readings of school writing and the various forces that mayserve to shape how readings actually occur. The starting point Noun 1. starting point - earliest limiting pointterminus a quocommencement, get-go, offset, outset, showtime, starting time, beginning, start, kickoff, first - the time at which something is supposed to begin; "they got an early start"; "she knew from the is thatwhile there is a considerable body of literature on the evaluativecriteria of good writing, some dating from the early 1900s (see, forexample, Colvin, 1902; Rice, 1903; Diederich, 1974; Smith, 1989), it isnot yet known whether any stated or defined criteria mirror the actualcriteria used by the teacher to award grades (Gilbert, 1989). Alsounknown is whether the teacher's use of set criteria when readingis implicated im��pli��cate?tr.v. im��pli��cat��ed, im��pli��cat��ing, im��pli��cates1. To involve or connect intimately or incriminatingly: evidence that implicates others in the plot.2. in other practices that involve talk, values, beliefs andinteraction. As Huot noted:... other than results that measure the importance of content andorganization in rater rat��er?n.1. One that rates, especially one that establishes a rating.2. One having an indicated rank or rating. Often used in combination: a third-rater; a first-rater.judgment of writing quality, little is known aboutthe way raters arrive at these [grading] decisions. We are aware thatrater variability is linked to the importance of expectation in thefluent reading process, but we have little or no information on whatrole scoring procedures play in the reading and rating process. This observation points to the problematic nature of theassumption that any set of stated criteria necessarily turns ateacher's private practice with student-produced text into apublicly accountable procedure for judging achievement. The concern in what follows is less with the question `Whichcriteria?' than with the connection between defined criteria andother kinds of assessment insights that writing teachers may draw on andcombine when reading and appraising student writing. Specifically, thearticle exposes some of the interpretive in��ter��pre��tive? also in��ter��pre��ta��tiveadj.Relating to or marked by interpretation; explanatory.in��terpre��tive��ly adv. issues surrounding anassignment task sheet and the accompanying statement of criteria, asdistributed in a final year secondary English classroom. Beforeproceeding, it is worth emphasising that while the term `criteria'(singular: criterion) may be used in many different ways, it is definedhere and understood throughout as follows:criterion: A distinguishing property or characteristic of any thing,by which its quality can be judged or estimated, or by which a decisionor classification may be made. (From Greek kriterion, a means forjudging.) Task and criteria specifications: The explicit agenda forreadingThe assignment specifications shown on the next page were supplied tostudents at the beginning of a four-week poetry unit that drew on arange of British, American and Australian poems from different eras. YEAR 12 ENGLISH -- RESPONSE TO POETRY TASK: Poetic writing GENRE: Poetry PURPOSE: To entertain and express feelings AUDIENCE: Teacher STATUS: Summative Adj. 1. summative - of or relating to a summation or produced by summationsummationaladditive - characterized or produced by addition; "an additive process" LENGTH: 300-500 words TASK TOPIC: Choose one poem studied that you particularly liked or found presented interesting ideas. You must write a pieceof poetic prose as response to this poem. This could be done in acouple of ways: * Use the first line of the poem as the first line of writing. * Use a powerful image from the poem as a starting point. * Use a theme from the poem to focus your writing. FORMAT: On your assessment, please either rewrite re��write?v. re��wrote , re��writ��ten , re��writ��ing, re��writesv.tr.1. To write again, especially in a different or improved form; revise.2. the poem you are using or paste a photocopy. Write a short passage where youdiscuss the poem, explaining what aspects of the poem you are using to focusyour writing (50 words). A distinct feature of the task specifications is the emphasisgiven to outlining the range of approved ways for students to displaythe inter-relatedness of their poetic writing and the chosen poem. Someof these ways (for example, re-using the studied poet's image ortheme) could be subtly suggestive of suggestive ofDecision making adjective Referring to a pattern by LM or imaging, that the interpreter associates with a particular–usually malignant lesion. See Aunt Millie approach, Defensive medicine. the relationship between what thestudent wrote and the studied poem, while others were expected to bedirect and obvious. In this second category was the teacher'srequirement that student poems be accompanied by a copy of the stimuluspoem and a statement of how it had acted as a focussing device. Collectively, these requirements point to the teacher'sdesire to read individual student's writing as being intertwinedwith the writing of at least one other published poet. What isnoticeably missing from the specifications and the accompanyingstatement of criteria (see Table 1) is any mention of the activity ofreading or, more specifically, of the possible multiplicity mul��ti��plic��i��ty?n. pl. mul��ti��plic��i��ties1. The state of being various or manifold: the multiplicity of architectural styles on that street.2. of readingsthat could be made of the stimulus poems. Also missing is any indicationof preferred readings or of how any variations in readings are to bereceived by the teacher-assessor. [TABULAR tab��u��laradj.1. Having a plane surface; flat.2. Organized as a table or list.3. Calculated by means of a table.tabularresembling a table. DATA NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII ASCIIor American Standard Code for Information Interchange,a set of codes used to represent letters, numbers, a few symbols, and control characters. Originally designed for teletype operations, it has found wide application in computers. ]Before commenting on Table 1, some mention should be made of theassessment system in which it has its origin. In December 1970 theJunior Public Examination was held for the last time in Queensland, tobe replaced by a system of moderated school-based assessment. Sincethen, radical and clearly observable ob��serv��a��ble?adj.1. Possible to observe: observable phenomena; an observable change in demeanor.See Synonyms at noticeable.2. changes have occurred in thestate's secondary education. School-based assessment wasintroduced, firstly, in a form which followed the recommendations of theRadford Report (1970), and then in the form of ROSBA, so named after theScott Committee's report (1978) entitled A Review of School-basedAssessment in Queensland Secondary Schools. While a comprehensiveanalysis of these changes is beyond the scope of this article, it isworth mentioning that a major distinction between the Radford and ROSBAschemes is that teacher judgements about student work no longer rely ondirect inter-student comparisons, ranking of student performances, orthe aggregation or weighting of scores. The comparisons rather betweenthe work to be assessed (either a single piece or a representativesample) and defined criteria and standards. It is widely recognised that secondary teachers have been diligent dil��i��gent?adj.Marked by persevering, painstaking effort. See Synonyms at busy.[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin d in the implementation of the Queensland model of wholly school-basedassessment, reported to be `long-known for its radical approach toassessment' (Broadfoot, 1995: p. 5). The approach taken tospecifying criteria and standards shown in Table 1 is only one of manydeveloped by teachers in the state. While an examination of the range ofso-called `criteria sheets' currently in use is not appropriatehere, four points are worth mentioning. Firstly, Queensland secondaryschool teachers of all subjects are required to make available thosecriteria to be used in judging performance prior to students commencingwork on an assessable task. Secondly, there is no official requirementthat English teachers English Teachers (airing internationally as Taipei Diaries) is a Canadian documentary television series. The series, which airs on Canada's Life Network and internationally, profiles several young Canadians teaching English as a Second Language in Taipei, Taiwan. adopt a particular approach or format whendeveloping criteria statements. Thirdly, since the mid-80s, there hasbeen no systematic, ongoing professional development program to assistEnglish teachers in producing criteria- and standards-specifications andin examining their nature and function. Fourthly Fourth´lyadv. 1. In the fourth place.Adv. 1. fourthly - in the fourth place; "fourthly, you must pay the rent on the first of the month"fourth , underlying the variousapproaches that have been adopted to formulating such specifications isthe analytic assumption that tasks can be accurately decomposed de��com��pose?v. de��com��posed, de��com��pos��ing, de��com��pos��esv.tr.1. To separate into components or basic elements.2. To cause to rot.v.intr.1. to allowthe identification of discrete criteria and the nomination of a set ofstandards on each criterion along the continuum from lowest to highestproficiency. Consider how there are eight criteria identified in Table1, each one being chunked along the continuum of A+ to E-, withqualitative descriptors ranging across five levels. The criterion,`writing style', for instance, is chunked along a continuum thatranges from use of extensive discriminating and imaginative vocabularyclearly expressed' to `very restricted vocabulary very poorlyexpressed'. The teacher who developed the criteria statement above reportedthat specifications such as these have the advantage of freeing studentsfrom the need to `second-guess' teacher expectations. Their value,the teacher said, lay in making explicit (and hence available forscrutiny) those features or characteristics that `counted' in thesense that they contributed to the overall grade awarded to the piece.From this position, the set of stated criteria in Table 1 is understoodto provide the student with essential information about a qualityperformance, and the teacher with a regulatory, constraining con��strain?tr.v. con��strained, con��strain��ing, con��strains1. To compel by physical, moral, or circumstantial force; oblige: felt constrained to object.See Synonyms at force.2. templatefor reading that is applicable across readers and across texts. The merit of attempts to wholly pre-specify all criteria relevantto a future appraisal remains a hotly hot��ly?adv.In an intense or fiery way: a hotly contested will.Adv. 1. hotly - in a heated manner; "`To say I am behind the strike is so much nonsense,' declared Mr Harvey heatedly"; "the disputed issue and it is one I donot wish to take up here. Similarly, there is no suggestion of achallenge to the ethical argument developed by Sadler (1992) andsupported by Gipps (1994) that:... once the criteria and standards are set they are available to theteachers and pupils which is only fair. This has the potential forproviding motivation and a clear sense of direction particularly sinceall pupils who meet the criteria are eligible to receive recognition ofthis. By contrast, norm-referenced grading is a `hidden' processwhich, if seen as unfair, can be demotivating. Gipps' point about the potential usefulness of criteria tomotivate and to provide a sense of direction is widely accepted amongassessment researchers, as is the need to demystify the assessmentprocess. However, it seems that Gipps has assumed that there is a directcorrespondence between defined criteria as the official account ofreading and assessment practice, and the actual practice that assessorsrely on to determine achievement. As applied to student writing, theassumption is that stated criteria represent a tool that can be appliedindependently of judgements about the institutionally bound contexts ofauthorship and readership, and about the ideological content of thewriting in question. From this perspective, as mentioned earlier, there is a tellinggap in the criteria supplied in Table 1. What is omitted is any cluethat there may be differences in how teacher and student read the`source poem `or writing stimulus. This omission hints at an unstated,but nevertheless powerful, assumption that teacher and student will (orshould) adopt the same reading position, or at least that the studentwill willingly occupy the reading position that is modelled by theteacher and endorsed in classroom talk. The significance of thisassumption becomes clear when one considers the gradings awarded to twopieces of writing, both being responses to Randall Jarrell's poem,`The Death of The Ball Turret Gunner'. Each student complied withthe format requirements and provided (i) a handwritten hand��write?tr.v. hand��wrote , hand��writ��ten , hand��writ��ing, hand��writesTo write by hand.[Back-formation from handwritten.]Adj. 1. copy of the poem;(ii) an explanatory paragraph outlining how the chosen poem was used tofocus the writing; and (iii) the `original' piece of poetic prose.Jarrell's poem (in Heaney & Hughes, 1982: p.125) is reproducedhere by way of introduction to the students' writing. The Death of The Ball Turret Gunner From my mother's sleep I fell into the state, And I hunched hunch?n.1. An intuitive feeling or a premonition: had a hunch that he would lose.2. A hump.3. A lump or chunk: "She . . . in its belly till my wet fur froze froze?v.Past tense of freeze.frozeVerbthe past tense of freezefroze, frozen freeze . Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. What writing (or is it what reading) is rewarded? Text 1 (written by a male student)' Poetic prose Over the moor, an' through the glenn, twisted and tormented, Came the Beastie from hell's end. Silent but screaming, Violent but kind, Cold yet it's steaming, It shall look but not find. The children skating skating:see ice skating; ice dancing; roller skating. skatingSport in which bladelike runners or sets of wheels attached to shoes are used for gliding on ice or on surfaces other than ice. , now under the ice, died a death, of the Beastie's device. Death doth doth?v. ArchaicA third person singular present tense of do1. dwell, On the old, soon to be dead. A dusty, creased face, forms a front, for the dull knotted head. The sand of the hourglass hourglass,glass instrument for measuring time, usually consisting of two bulbs united by a narrow neck. One bulb is filled with fine sand that runs through the neck into the other bulb in an hour's time. , In his head, Is time useless to the bones of the dead. Into the city of razors he came, I come for your little ones young children.See also: Little , Don't try to resist, for in my wake you will fail to exist. Fat little pigs, spoiled and pampered pam��per?tr.v. pam��pered, pam��per��ing, pam��pers1. To treat with excessive indulgence: pampered their child.2. , eating fine food, living the fat life, The Beastie sees, strikes like the plague. A little fat man, cries for his dead wife. I am the hermit hermit[Gr.,=desert], one who lives in solitude, especially from ascetic motives. Hermits are known in many cultures. Permanent solitude was common in ancient Christian asceticism; St. Anthony of Egypt and St. Simeon Stylites were noted hermits. whom you keep, at the back of your mind, when you cannot sleep, The devil has died and taken a new force, I am the hobgoblin hobgoblin:see goblin. who stands in his place. Explanatory paragraphI chose Jarrell's poem because it was short and violent. Thisreflects the imagrey [sic] of pilots `they were mere numbersetc...' Another reason was it seemed to be alot [sic] morerealistic than many of the others. I felt no grief for the unfortunategunner. In fact, I laughed. There is a fantasy-like, nightmare quality about thestudent's poetic prose that is achieved, in part, through severalpowerful, even brutal images. The reader is introduced, for example, tothe children skating/now under the ice; the Beastie from hell's end[that] strikes like the plague, the city of razors, the hermit, thedevil [that] has died and taken a new force, and the hobgoblin whostands in his place. While these images could be read as indicators ofthe `originality' of the writing (criterion 2), they could also beinterpreted as the student's efforts to pick up on the nightmarequality of Jarrell's poem and its references to waking from a dream- `I woke to black flak and nightmare fighters'. Also, in both thepoetic-prose and the explanatory paragraph, the student-writer relied,as did Jarrell, on the first person form of address to evince e��vince?tr.v. e��vinced, e��vinc��ing, e��vinc��esTo show or demonstrate clearly; manifest: evince distaste by grimacing. a tone ofthe personal. Taken together, these features could be read as adding tothe overall impact and effectiveness of the writing. However,undercutting this is the student's revealing claim that he `felt nogrief for the unfortunate gunner'. These words give a hint of anunauthorised, even unanticipated reading of Jarrell's poem in whichthe pilot is both murderer and victim. Whereas the student chose tocharacterise the pilot as a figure of laughter, perhaps even of scorn --`I laughed' -- the teacher had spoken of the pilot's bravery BraverySee also Heroism.Achillesforemost Greek hero of Trojan War; brave and formidable warrior. [Gk. Hist.: NCE, 12]Adrastuscourageous Indian prince; Rinaldo’s enemy. [Ital. Lit. and self-sacrifice, describing him during class discussion as `a victimof the state' and `deserving of sympathy'. Of the eight criteria listed in Table 1, only the first one refersto the student's explanation of how the chosen stimulus poem wasused to focus the writing. The influential nature of the explanation asa `surrounding' text and the teacher's reading of it shouldnot be understated however. In relation to Text A, it was theexplanation that highlighted an apparent discrepancy in how the teacherand student `read' the stimulus poem and, more specifically, theidentity of the pilot and his fate. This observation gains significancewhen it is considered in conjunction with the composite assessmentpicture of five D+s and three C-s that appeared on the criteriastatement, the overall grading of C-, and the teacher's writtencomment on the returned script: This [the explanation) needs to be clearer. You need to showdirectly the relationship between the chosen poem and your writing. This is notshown. Both the letter-grading outcome and the comment could beinterpreted as signalling the limited success of the student'swriting in allowing itself to be read as an authorised Adj. 1. authorised - endowed with authorityauthorizedlawful - conformable to or allowed by law; "lawful methods of dissent"legitimate - of marriages and offspring; recognized as lawful or acceptableresponse to Jarrell's poem. The awarding of an overall A- gradingto Text 2 (see below) indicates that it was more successful in thisregard, the performance pattern on the criteria ranging from A to B+.Text 2 (written by a female student)Poetic prose They carried him home in a preserving jar. Small bits ofthe young hero, floating in The formless form��less?adj.1. Having no definite form; shapeless. See Synonyms at shapeless.2. Lacking order.3. Having no material existence. mess that used to be human. Hissocketless eyeballs The number of users. "There are 110 eyeballs" means there are 110 users currently online. See eyeball hang time. , pupils dilated dilateda state of dilatation.dilated cardiomyopathysee congestive cardiomyopathy.dilated pupil syndromesee feline dysautonomia (Key-Gaskell syndrome). , float in the chunky chunk��y?adj. chunk��i��er, chunk��i��est1. Short and thick; stocky.2. Containing small thick pieces: chunky peanut butter; chunky soup. fluid, lockedin the expression of death. No longer seeing the present they fill withimages of the past.A woman, face lined with age, bathed in love, waving goodbye. A greatsilver bird, soaring in the sky, Pursued by a flock of spittingvultures, the nightmare fighters, their talons digging into metal, theirhoarse hoarseadj.1. Rough or grating in sound, as of a voice.2. Having or characterized by a husky, grating voice. cries, gunfire.A hand, his hand, a dealer of death Bent like a claw claw(klaw) a nail of an animal, particularly a carnivore, that is long and curved and has a sharp end.cat's claw? a woody South American vine, Uncaria tomentosa it sinkslifeless life��less?adj.1. Having no life; inanimate.2. Having lost life; dead. See Synonyms at dead.3. Not inhabited by living beings; not capable of sustaining life.4. to the bottom of the jar. Iridescent white, it glows throughthe crimson liquid that surrounds it. Its fingers, which once held aweapon now uselessly attached to the palm of the hand.Pieces of the airman, parts of himself, all that remains of his lifeform. Sinewy sin��ew��y?adj.1. a. Consisting of or resembling sinews.b. Having many sinews; stringy and tough: a sinewy cut of beef.2. Lean and muscular. See Synonyms at muscular. feet, which once carried him with dignity, are now carriedthemselves in the liquid. Tawny taw��ny?n.A light brown to brownish orange.[Middle English, from Anglo-Norman taune, variant of Old French tane, from past participle of taner, to tan; see tan hair, which once blew in the breeze movewith the currents in the vessel.Ears, which once heard the birds sing, the planes roar, theexplosions of bombs now hear gentle splashing.Cold, still life, which once erupted with a cry of pain now whispermutely mute?adj. mut��er, mut��est1. Refraining from producing speech or vocal sound.2. a. Often Offensive Unable to speak.b. Unable to vocalize, as certain animals.3. `When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose'.Explanatory paragraph I mainly focus my writing on the last line of the poem: `When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.' This line, I felt, conveyed the feeling of a loss of dignity. Itgave to me the feeling of inhumanness as well as being a stark, powerful image of thecarnage of war. I tried to focus my writing on the fact that after all he haddone, the ball turret gunner, after death, was just a dead body to the military. He wasno longer a person in their eyes. There are three features in Text 2 which make apparent how it wasembedded Inserted into. See embedded system. in and arose out of Jarrell's poem. These are (i) themention of a mother-figure; (ii) the adaptation of the poem's waterimage; and (iii) the repetition of Jarrell's words. The followingdiagram sets out how the careful embedding 1. (mathematics) embedding - One instance of some mathematical object contained with in another instance, e.g. a group which is a subgroup.2. (theory) embedding - (domain theory) A complete partial order F in [X -> Y] is an embedding if was achieved and displaysmore effectively the interconnectedness of the two texts.Selected extract from source text Student responseFrom my mother's sleep I feel A woman, face linedinto the state with age, bathed in love, waving goodbyeThey washed me out of They carried him home in a preserving jar/small bits ... floating in the formless mess his hand ... it sinks lifeless to the bottom of the jar it glows through the crimson liquidWhen I died they wash When I died they washed meme out of the turret with out of the turret witha hose a hose What comes to light here are fairly obvious similarities betweentwo texts, similarities that demonstrate how the student's writingwas cued into the authorised reading. Consider, for instance, how thepilot is portrayed by the student as a victim worthy of sympathy andnot, as suggested in the preceding text, a figure of scorn or laughter.Also evident is the student's strategic approach to limiting thepossibilities of her `new' text. There are no newly' createdcharacters and places such as the Beastie from hell's end, the cityof razors, the devil, and the hobgoblin who stands in his place, asmentioned in the C- text. The rewarding of the rewriting' approach with a high overallgrading (A-) indicates that the achievement of the student writer reliedon the construction of a text that permitted itself to be read asconstructed in accordance with the demands of form (poetic prose), ofdiscourse (wartime sacrifice and bravery), and of intertextuality Intertextuality is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. It can refer to an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another. (linkswith the wording of Jarrell's poem). From this perspective, thereis an irony surrounding the teacher's comment recorded on thestudent's criteria sheet -- Well done. I enjoyed this -- youmanaged to convey your message clearly. These words beg the importantquestion about whose meaning was being conveyed in the student'swriting. They also make it possible to consider the extent to which anindividual student's perceived compliance (or in the case of Text1, non-compliance) with an authorised reading predisposed pre��dis��pose?v. pre��dis��posed, pre��dis��pos��ing, pre��dis��pos��esv.tr.1. a. To make (someone) inclined to something in advance: the teacher toread the writing as more (or less) successful.Where to from here? This article shows that while the set of definedcriteria could in principle, and may in practice, have formed the basisof an evaluative reading, the criteria alone did not explicate fullywhat the teacher took into account while reading. In this way thearticle makes the point that while defined criteria and standards maymaintain the guise of assessment as orderly, even objective, they do notnecessarily prevent other unstated considerations from coming into playas classroom writing is read and appraised. Further, it provides supportfor Sadler's (1985) observation that a possible lack of directcorrespondence may occur between the experience or act of appraising,and the words used to account for any outcome of the appraisal process. Despite appearances, the article does not devalue the usefulnessof criteria statements as tools to communicate teacher expectations of aquality performance and to aid students in learning how to self-assess.Several notable researchers, including Beach (1986) and Sadler (1985,1989), have argued the case in favour of teacher and student applicationof assessment criteria as a valuable means of improving performance.While the article does not challenge this earlier work, it does indicatethat wholly anticipated criteria may provide only a partial account ofthose factors that influence teacher appraisal of student writing. Similarly, it is not suggested that teacher autonomy in designingand publishing criteria should be reduced, or that a standardised Adj. 1. standardised - brought into conformity with a standard; "standardized education"standardizedstandard - conforming to or constituting a standard of measurement or value; or of the usual or regularized or accepted kind; "windows of standard width"; formatshould be uniformly adopted. Teachers are well placed to practise prac��tise?v. & n. Chiefly BritishVariant of practice.practis��er n. authentic criteria-based assessment, given that they have theopportunity to couple together instruction and assessment tightly andeffectively. The article does make clear, however, the need to develop afully articulated and theorised model of criteria-based assessment inwhich attention shifts away from the constraining, regulatory nature ofcriteria to an awareness of their highly intersubjective, social nature. The potential of such a model is threefold. Firstly, it couldprovide a basis for teachers to consider the important distinctionbetween how stated criteria function in the appraisal process and theirusefulness in justifying and defending outcomes of that process.Secondly, it could provide an opportunity for beginning and experiencedteachers to reflect on how any set of defined criteria remainsconstantly open to negotiation, and open to the changes that a recursive See recursion. recursive - recursion process of teaching, learning, and assessment necessarily involves.Consideration of the malleability malleability,property of a metal describing the ease with which it can be hammered, forged, pressed, or rolled into thin sheets. Metals vary in this respect; pure gold is the most malleable. Silver, copper, aluminum, lead, tin, zinc, and iron are also very malleable. and negotiability ne��go��tia��ble?adj.1. Easy or possible to negotiate or be negotiated: negotiable demands; a negotiable road.2. of defined criteriaalso paves the way for teachers to examine the part that criteria playin maintaining power relations in the classroom. Thirdly, the modelcould offer encouragement to teachers and researchers to move beyond thetraditional distinction between objective and subjective judgments andto reject, once and for all, the longheld superiority of the former.This move is of fundamental importance if teachers are to stop lookingto defined criteria for true or self-evident assessments and bring acritical eye to bear on the connections between themselves, what happensin the classroom world, and the positions and practices that they adoptas readers of student writing. REFERENCESBeach, R. (1986). Demonstrating techniques for assessing writing inthe writing conference. College Composition and Communication, 37, 1.pp. 56-65.Board of Secondary School Studies. (1978). A Review of School-basedAssessment in Queensland Secondary Schools. (E. Scott, Chair.) Brisbane.Broadfoot, B. (1995). Editorial. Assessment in Education: Principles,Policy & Practice, 2, 1. pp. 5-7.Campbell, W., Archer, J., Beasley, W., Butler, J., Cowie, R., Cox,B., Galbraith, P., Grice, D., Joy, B., McMeniman, M., Sadler, R. &Wilkes, R. (1983). Implementation of ROSBA in schools. Unpublishedreport to the Minister for Education, Brisbane.Campbell, W., Basset, G., Campbell, E., Cotterell, J., Evans, G.& Grassie, M. (1975). Some consequences of the Radford scheme forschools, teachers and students in Queensland. Final report of Project.Brisbane: Australian Advisory Committee for Research and Development inEducation.Carey, R. (1988). Evaluations and whole language Paper presented tothe New York State Education Department The New York State Education Department is the state education department in New York State. 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