Laura Purdie Salas

Small Reads for Brighters Days

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Mission Accomplished! (Passage-Writing for Assessment Materials)

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Whew! I am breathing a sigh of relief and satisfaction. Over the course of a month, I wrote 10 nonfiction passages and 6 poems for an assessment company. Friday, I turned in my final four passages. I had to propose and get approval on topics and?meet readability and length requirements, etc. I was working on materials mostly for upper elementary, and it’s always a nice change of pace to get to write a bit older but not longer (than my book projects, I mean). My longest passage was 797 words, I think. Anyway, I’m doing a happy dance this morning. All that’s left is to send in my invoice:>)

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Comments

  1. As a recently retired elementary teacher it does my heart good to think that a writer of your stature and gifts would be creating passages and poems that children might actually enjoy on these assessments. The “devil” , though, ” is in the details” and by this I mean the questions they come up with about the work………testing is a multi-layered conumdrum for kids and teachers, parents and test-makers. Sometimes the questions are “good” and fair and sometimes….well, not so much and the brighter kids can see the “loophole” and their ability to extrapolate might cause them to select a perfectly understandable answer that is not the correct one. Supposedly test-makers allow for this. And I can’t say enough for field-testing. But I am so wary of these high-stakes tests narrowly defining learning, competency and good teaching. I don’t have the answer and I don’t believe there is ONE answer, but I know that reading poetry and books in general is so important. The more we read and even as we go more and more digital…..hopefully the better we all will become as competent readers. Then there is the critical thinker piece, the engagement piece, the creative piece and all the other subject areas that require their own vocabulary and literacy. I could go on and on, but hooray for you, Laura! Your work speaks so beautifully for you.

    • Jane, thanks for your thoughtful comment. I am a former teacher (though I only taught for 2 years 20+ years ago) and the sister of a 24-year teacher, and I am not a fan at all of what they’ve done with standardized assessment. I wish this job possibility would just disappear, basically.

      I personally loved these tests when I was a kid, but they were few and far between and didn’t carry the burden of determining so much about the students, the teachers, the schools. Sigh.

      I do mostly passage writing, though I have also done item writing on occasion. I can say that the large company I’ve done it for as well as the small one was EXTREMELY aware of the issue you’re talking about. But the bottom line is, how can one test possibly equally evaluate the skills and knowledge of kids in such disparate situations as we have in our country? I think it’s just impossible. (I’m no expert on standardized assessment, of course. That’s just my gut reaction.)

      I do my passage writing with a touch of guilt. I try to concentrate on finding fascinating topics and writing about them in a clear, enjoyable manner. But if these writing jobs disappeared because standardized tests disappeared or were greatly reduced, I would do a happy dance (along with just about every teacher in the country, I imagine:>)

  2. As a recently retired elementary teacher it does my heart good to think that a writer of your stature and gifts would be creating passages and poems that children might actually enjoy on these assessments. The “devil” , though, ” is in the details” and by this I mean the questions they come up with about the work………testing is a multi-layered conumdrum for kids and teachers, parents and test-makers. Sometimes the questions are “good” and fair and sometimes….well, not so much and the brighter kids can see the “loophole” and their ability to extrapolate might cause them to select a perfectly understandable answer that is not the correct one. Supposedly test-makers allow for this. And I can’t say enough for field-testing. But I am so wary of these high-stakes tests narrowly defining learning, competency and good teaching. I don’t have the answer and I don’t believe there is ONE answer, but I know that reading poetry and books in general is so important. The more we read and even as we go more and more digital…..hopefully the better we all will become as competent readers. Then there is the critical thinker piece, the engagement piece, the creative piece and all the other subject areas that require their own vocabulary and literacy. I could go on and on, but hooray for you, Laura! Your work speaks so beautifully for you.

    • Jane, thanks for your thoughtful comment. I am a former teacher (though I only taught for 2 years 20+ years ago) and the sister of a 24-year teacher, and I am not a fan at all of what they’ve done with standardized assessment. I wish this job possibility would just disappear, basically.

      I personally loved these tests when I was a kid, but they were few and far between and didn’t carry the burden of determining so much about the students, the teachers, the schools. Sigh.

      I do mostly passage writing, though I have also done item writing on occasion. I can say that the large company I’ve done it for as well as the small one was EXTREMELY aware of the issue you’re talking about. But the bottom line is, how can one test possibly equally evaluate the skills and knowledge of kids in such disparate situations as we have in our country? I think it’s just impossible. (I’m no expert on standardized assessment, of course. That’s just my gut reaction.)

      I do my passage writing with a touch of guilt. I try to concentrate on finding fascinating topics and writing about them in a clear, enjoyable manner. But if these writing jobs disappeared because standardized tests disappeared or were greatly reduced, I would do a happy dance (along with just about every teacher in the country, I imagine:>)

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