Assessing Competence, Chapter 8

In The Discovery of Competence, Kutz, Groden, and Zamel redefine literacy, learning, language, and how we teach composition. Accordingly, how we assess student's writing must necessarily change as well. Based on their sociocultural approach to student competence and the emphasis on discussion, Kutz, Groden, and Zamel view teachers and students as part of a inquiry-based learning environment that necessitates assessment as a continual conversation between teacher and student. 

Assessing students through authentic communication:

1. Students write "to" their teacher, not simply "for" the teacher.
2. Teachers respond to student writers as listeners respond to speakers in normal conversation: synthesizing, restating, inquiring, suggesting, and understanding ideas.
3. Introducing and including students in academic discourse by encouraging conversations about composition between teacher and student.
4. Using letters! Students writing to teachers and teachers writing to students. 
5. Also, students writing and responding to other students. Exchanging letters that analyze writing and increase students' metacognition of their composition strategies.
6. When teachers respond as readers, they create a shared understanding with students.
7. Discussing learning objectives of specific assignments with students, acknowledging and incorporating students prior knowledge by talking about each composition's goals and how we might approach the writing task. 
8. Negotiating the course's learning goals. Students may expect teachers to assess and focus on correct grammatical and structural forms. Instead, sharing the view of learning language as learning how to communicate.  
9. Negating traditional roles of teacher and student: viewing teachers and students as collaborators in the knowledge construction. 
10. Using portfolios: a collaborative, conversational form of assessment that increases engagement with learning. Allows students to view composition as a continual, conversational, and creative process.