In the Yancey article, it characterized the assessment of writing in three different waves. The first wave is characterized by objective grading, the second, validity and reliability, and the third, personal portfolio interpretation. The article emphasizes that as we progress, each of the waves are meshed into what we use today to grade writing. At the end of the article, it makes a few suggestions for what the fourth wave could consist of. One of the interesting suggestions made was considering “non-canonical” texts such as e-mails, blog posts, etc. to include in assessing.
After reading this, I was shocked that schools of the future may teach computer literacy skills like writing e-mails. In a sense, computer blogs and e-mails are just typed short-hand verging on non-standard English, right? Why would schools ever want to teach this type of writing which could essentially add to the literacy crisis?
However, after second thought, other subjects are advancing with new technology like science, so why shouldn’t writing? Cursive isn’t taught in school anymore to leave more time to learn how to type. So why not go the extra step and teach kids what to type in certain literary situations on the web?
So, I ask you: Is writing focused on technology the “fourth wave” of assessment? Will the literacy of the future rely on how students can express themselves on the Web?
If the fourth wave does not include technology, than what is it?
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5 comments:
I agree that the fourth wave is writing in technology and fully support it. Email has been around long enough now that there are certain "norms" that are starting to be followed. I think teaching to write emails/blog posts would fall under the same category as learning how to properly write a resume. Lets be realistic here, the average person will find much more use in knowing how to write an email/blog/resume than a fictional essay. Which just made me realize how small the scope is for the writing tests administered. Most of my friends who have graduated from college have not needed to write a fictional or even non fictional article of creative writing. short journalism stories, blog posts, emails, and even updating twitter accounts are the writing needed in these entry level jobs. One last quick thought, is being able to put together a good powerpoint a sign of literacy since it is fairly crucial in many college classes and business scenarios?
Conor I agree with you completely on the functionality of writing in technology. In scanning job applications for qualifications, no where yet have I seen requirements to write a creative fictional essay, unless of course you are a freelancer who needs to submit writing samples. But still I think this goes back to what I was saying on another post about how teachers are only teaching to a test. Everyone asks of their education at some point, "Why do I need to know this?" e.g. an engineering student who has to take freshmen English. I don't think many of us can answer that question until much later in life when we've actually used the skills we've acquired through our education.
As far as your question on PowerPoint, I think that this is just another shift in technology, since in the past I can remember the typical presentation consisting of a speech with non-technological visual aid, like a poster or a picture. I think PowerPoint is just another medium at which to better present the material you're covering, and falls under the same category as blogs posts and emails, perhaps even at a lower standard than those. The reasoning is because normally for PowerPoint presentations the author truncates the text to fit slides with visual elements to make it more aesthetically appealing to the eye. So, I don't really see the PowerPoint as an accurate sign of literacy since most of slides won't even contain full sentences. Yes, the author is required to use language as an element, but not to the same extent that it can be compared to a formal essay.
You both brought up valid points as far as technological literacy, and I do think the curriculum is shifting; however, as I was thinking about the elimination of creative or fiction writing in the curriculum to make room for other computer literacy, I got very sad. I get the idea that computer literacy is important in today’s society and job market, but I never want to see old-fashioned, pen to paper fiction writing lost. Like you said Conner, a student would probably find resume writing instruction more important than fiction writing, but where is the art and creativity in that? I don’t want future students to lose their creative edge and become like robots spitting out short-hand Power Points and blogs. I think it is important for all students to develop imagination and ingenuity for any career they have in the future. Like you said Sarah, until students get out in the real world, they won’t know if what they learned in school will have any benefit to them.
In talking about what the fourth wave of assessment should be, we're talking here about assessing literacy related to employment. (Sarah and Kelsi note this point in their responses here). Does assessment of literacy need to be tied to its functions in the job place? What about if we assessed literacy related to you creativity? Your civic engagement? What would those kinds of assessments look like and might they actually be better indicators of future performance that a narrow test on writing a resume?
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