Gorman Writing Program Teacher/IST Submission Guidelines
The Process
What We Do and Don't Do---or, Assessing vs. Grading
One-draft-writing
The Process
The process is fairly basic. In short, you postal-mail or e-submit student essays to the program, we and our team assess and evaluate them, and then the essays along with assessments are mailed back to you. If you postal-mail the essays, be sure to provide a cover sheet, something as basic as a photocopy of a student-roster with your name and return address on it and names and grade-levels of students whose essays are included highlighted. The intent of the cover-sheet is to ensure that essays are recorded accurately and can be returned to the proper person should a computer failure or some other unforeseen mishap result in a loss of records. Whether postal-mailing or emailing essays, please be sure that each essay includes a student name, grade-level, prompt code, and your (the IST's) name.
The Writing Program is supervised and administrated by Greg Grewell and Eric Magrane. Working with them is a team of roughly a dozen trained evaluators, all of whom at least hold a Masters degree in English or in an allied field such as rhetoric and composition, literature, or creative writing, and all of whom have teaching experience.
The essays are managed according to student grade-level. Eric handles essays for students in grades K through 8, while Greg handles essays for students in grades 9 through 12. Once Eric and Greg receive the essays, they then either assess the essays themselves or disperse the essays to the additional evaluators. If evaluated by one of the team evaluators, once returned to them Eric and Greg then go over each essay to ensure quality control and accurate assessment and to make certain that all commentary is appropriate and constructive, in terms of content and tone.
Following is information for contacting and for getting essays to Eric and Greg for evaluation. Please be sure that the essays go to the appropriate person. Again, K-8 to Eric, 9-12 to Greg. If postal-mailing essays, the envelope may be addressed simply to Gorman Writing Program or either to Eric or Greg by name (depending on the grade-level of essays in the envelope, that is). If e-submitting essays, students may submit directly by using the e-submit form. Your students will need to know your IST Number to submit with the e-submit form. The form will then automatically generate confirmation emails to both the student and to you.
To contact Eric and Greg, use the following.
Eric can be reached via email at writingk-8@gormanlc.com
Greg can be reached via email at writing@gormanlc.com
For students in grades K through 8, the postal-address is:
1745 East Grant Rd.
Tucson, AZ 85719
For students in grades 9 through 12, the postal-address is:
150 North Highland Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85719
The submission periods for the current year are posted on the Writing Program Home Page.
What We Do and Don't Do---or, Assessing vs. Grading
The way we treat and respond to student essays is based on several pedagogical and theoretical assumptions. As we see it, we are not in the business of grading student-writing; rather, we assess it to determine as accurately as we are able the specific strengths and weaknesses of a particular writing, with the expressed aim of offering advice for improving that writing. In treating writing as a process, not a product, our intent is to help all student-writers improve their ability to write. To do so, we endeavor to encourage students to think of themselves as writers engaged in the writing process.
The grading system as it now exists was established at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century to respond to increasing student enrollment and interest in higher education. As more people recognized that a degree from an institution of higher education gave them access to better-paying, more secure employment, more people began to apply to colleges and universities than space permitted. Hence, the present grading system was implemented as a way of tracking students to determine who should and should not have access to higher education. In short, the grading system exists primarily for administrative convenience. Moreover, the act of grading is too often received by students as a punitive measure. That is, they tend to take it personally, absorb it psychologically. One effect of this is that they come to feel that their person, not their writing, is being graded. Another undesirable effect is that too often their willingness to perceive of writing as a process is stifled as they begin to focus on the product that will be graded. In order to keep the focus on writing, not on the student doing the writing, and on ways to improve writing, we do not grade student-writing. We assess it.
As we understand it, writing is a process, and all writing can be improved. Our assessments, then, are merely one more step in the learning process, one which hopefully engenders life-long learners. To grade a writing, in contrast, implies that the writing is complete and that the grade is somehow telling of the final quality. But grades can be as misleading as grading can be subjective. By not grading, by instead offering assessments of myriad aspects of an essay - from structural and developmental to grammatical and mechanical aspects - we are identifying what is and is not effective concerning a given writing. Additionally, by outlining several ways any one writing can be improved, we are offering suggestions that the writer can then use in future writing situations as well as emphasizing what is arguably the most important element of producing quality writing--revision (see discussion of revision in the Student Guidelines). Moreover, the introduction of the Portfolio submission will further emphasize the revision process. Once a student is able on his or her own to revise effectively any piece of writing, then we as educators are done and can move on to the next student. In the end, that is our primary goal: by assessing the present strengths and weaknesses of a writing while offering suggestions for improving it, as well as by engaging the student with constructive yet personal commentary, we mean to emphasize the importance of the writing process, especially revision, while encouraging a student to care about and enjoy the process as well as enable that student's educational evolution. When or if this is accomplished, then we are obsolete, at least for that student.
Because we do not grade but assess essays, it is important that two factors be observed. One, it is imperative that students submit clean copies of essays only. An essay that has a grade on it or has previous commentary is problematic on several levels. On the one hand, we then run the risk of contradicting the previous commentary, which may confuse students if not result in cognitive overload. On the other hand, not all grades are of equal weight nor all graders consistent or objective; if a student is informed an essay is an "A," for example, but given few or no reasons to justify or explain why that writing earns that grade, then the student will not necessarily understand how to earn that mark again. By instead assessing various elements of an essay while offering suggestions for improvement, we mean to teach a student a process for improving writing that will have bearing on future writings. Two, it is important that each essay submitted to the Writing Program has not been submitted elsewhere. This not only results in a number of the contradictions and confusions stated above; it is also a form of academic dishonesty. A writing that is copied and submitted more than once is essentially a plagiarized writing. A writing may of course be submitted to an IST for evaluation and grading before being revised and then submitted to the Writing Program for assessment. But an essay submitted to a high school or college classroom, returned to the student, and then submitted to us is unacceptable. However, a student may repurpose that writing; if the initial writing can be revised in some way to fit the parameters of an approved Gorman prompt, then that writing may be submitted to the Writing Program. After all, in such a case a student is practicing one of, if not the most important facets of the writing process, revision, as well as learning to shape a writing to meet an audience's needs and expectations, learning to be rhetorically savvy. To sum, all essays submitted to the Writing Program must be clean, without previous markings or a grade, and must be written, or at least revised, to the prompts (an exception, of course, is when the IST or student has devised his or her own prompt).
The Portfolio
The final submission of the year is the Portfolio submission, applicable as a requirement to students in grades 5 through 12 only. In terms of submitting the Portfolio, the process is the same as for the earlier three submissions as outlined above. The Portfolio is to include seven documents: a Cover Letter; originals or copies of the three regular essays submitted for evaluation during the year, with evaluator commentary readable and rubrics attached; a Revised Essay, a revision of one of the three essays submitted earlier; a Reflective Essay on the revision process; and a copy of the evaluator-narrative produced the previous year. Details on the portfolio process can be found at the Portfolio Information link on the Resources page. In brief, the student is to choose one of the three previously submitted essays in consultation with you and then revise it, also in consultation with you; the student will also draft a Cover Letter and write a Reflective Essay on the revision process. In addition, a copy of last year's Evaluator-narrative assessment of the Portfolio submission will also need to be submitted with Portfolios.
One unique advantage of the Portfolio system, accounting for its popularity among some of the more rigorous writing programs across the nation, is that it is to represent a student's best work, best ability. Although timed-writing is a common means of assessing student ability, most know from experience - and numerous studies have shown - that timed-writing is a hit or miss affair: the cramped, limited conditions imposed by timed-writing do not usually result in a writer's best work or reveal a writer's ability. A Portfolio, in contrast, has none of the limitations of timed-writing: a writer has plenty of time to mull over and revise a piece, when and where he or she feels up to it.
Because a Portfolio piece is to represent one's best ability in writing, the assessment of the piece also offers a unique situation. Unlike most writings, a Portfolio submission is not a work in progress; it is a product. As a product, then, it reveals what the writer is able to do well and needs to improve. The Portfolio, then, will not be assessed as a regular submission, with rubrics and on-text written commentary. Instead, evaluators will write back, producing a full one-page narrative outlining the strengths and weaknesses of the product that is the Portfolio, with an eye on identifying specifics that need to be improved. This document will then serve several significant purposes: it will become an ongoing record of a student's educational trajectory, and it will outline exactly what the student should be improving throughout the coming year, till the next Portfolio submission. This document, then, should be made available not just to the student but also to the student's parent(s) and/or guardian, and it should be used by ISTs to help the student improve as well as to hold the student responsible for that improvement. In subsequent years this document will also be required to be submitted with the Portfolio. That way, future evaluators can point to it as a record of what should have improved as well as what has improved, maintaining as much consistency as possible.
One-draft-writing
One-draft writing is applicable as a requirement to students in grades 4, 7, and 10 only. The primary purpose of the one-draft submission is to prepare students for the California-state writing-exam - that is, allow them an opportunity to practice. Since testing occurs in early March, the one-draft writing should be practiced in the fall or winter. The timed-writing practice may be submitted in lieu of a standard prompt-derived essay, during the first or second submission period. The one-draft-writing will then be assessed according to California state standards, and evaluator commentary will be aimed at suggesting ways the student can improve his or her ability to perform on a one-draft-writing test. You will be responsible for administering the one-draft-writing practice test to ensure that the student both produces the work on his or her own and does so within one sitting; should you be unable to be present when the student writes, then please arrange with a parent or guardian to assume the responsibility. To maintain the element of surprise, the prompts are only available to you through Gorman's Teacher Tools online (click here to go to the Teacher Tools login page).
We understand that the time alotted for the state tests at these grade levels is somewhat flexible; students may take more time than the suggested time, if needed. However, learning how to plan and write an essay under time-constraints is a very useful skill to have. Please assure the prompt is completed under conditions similar to those of an actual one-draft writing situation - in a quiet space, without distractions such as music or television, a telephone or people talking. Although a student may desire to revise the one-draft writing for the Portfolio submission, it is to your discretion whether to allow him or her to do so (most likely the length of a one-draft writing will come up far short of what is expected for a Portfolio submission). Again, the one-draft writing practice-test requirement applies only to students in grades 4, 7, and 10.
The requirements for each grade level are as follows:
Grade 4
Students in grade 4 can submit a minimum of one one-draft writing, and a maximum of three one-draft writings. Students in grade 4 will be prompted to write in one of the following modes: narrative, summary, or response to literature. (For a grade 4 state teacher guide, go here:
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/documents/cstgr4writing.pdf.)
Grade 7
Students in grade 7 can submit a minimum of one one-draft writing, and a maximum of four one-draft writings. Students in grade 7 will be prompted to write in one of the following modes: narrative, summary, response to literature, or persuasion. (For a grade 7 state teacher guide, go here: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/documents/cstgr7writing.pdf.)
Grade 10
Students in grade 10 can submit a minimum of two one-draft writings, and a maximum of five one-draft writings. Students in grade 10 will be prompted to write in one of the following modes: biographical narrative, response to literature, exposition, or persuasion; additionally, students in grade 10 may also be asked to produce a business letter (in which case, the skills learned to write the Cover Letter for the Portfolio submission will be germane). (For a grade 10 Study Guide, go here: http://www.englishcompanion.com/pdfDocs/CAHSEEStudyGuideRev.pdf.)
The minimums are based on the number of essays students will have to complete as part of their writing tests, the maximums are based on the number of modes in which they may be asked to write on those tests. Whatever number of one-draft writing essays are submitted, one-draft writing should take the place of one of the regular ten prompts for the year.
Because the tests rely on the element of surprise, students will not have an opportunity to see the prompt before the test nor be aware of what mode they will be prompted to write in. (One of the most important skills a student can learn from this practice is how to read and understand what the prompt is asking.) To simulate the conditions of the practice-test, an IST will need to access the prompts online in Teacher Tools, selecting an appropriate one from the collection to use to test the student. All practice prompts will be similar to those the state uses.
Feel Free to Contact Us
Should you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions for improving the present Writing Program, please feel free to contact us by email. For grades 9-12, email Greg. For K-8, email Eric. Thank you.