A Think-Aloud Approach to Writing Assessment

The think-aloud approach to classroom writing assessment is designed to expand teachers’ perspectives on adolescent students as writers and help them integrate instruction and assessment in a timely way. Emphasizing learning over evaluation, it is especially well-suited to revealing students' strengths and helping them overcome common challenges to writing such as writer’s block or misunderstanding of the writing task. Through classroom examples, Sarah Beck describes how to implement the think-aloud method and shows how this method is flexible and adaptable to any writing assignment and classroom context. The book also discusses the significance of the method in relation to best practices in formative assessment, including how to plan think-aloud sessions with students to gain the most useful information. Teachers required to use rubrics or other standardized assessment tools can incorporate the more individualized think-aloud approach into their practice without sacrificing the rigor and consistency more regulated approaches require.

Book Features:

• Introduces a new method of writing assessment that is more effective and flexible for differentiating instruction than assessments based on rubrics.
• Emphasizes equity for all learners, including English learners and students with specific learning challenges.
• Offers recommendations and guidelines based on research-based best practices in all aspects of writing: process, instruction, assessment, and development.
• Designed to be used by individual teachers as well as teachers working collaboratively to develop their pedagogical content knowledge for teaching writing.

Sarah W. Beck is an associate professor of English education at New York University, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

"This book could easily find its place on the bookshelves of practicing teachers, preservice teachers, and English education scholars, and should be required reading for any Approaches to Teaching Writing course. The think-aloud writing assessment approach she has developed is relatively groundbreaking in its commonsensical simplicity coupled with its possibilities for teachers attempting to navigate increasingly standardized writing instruction and assessment." —Teachers College Record

“Sarah Beck’s rich and extensive exploration may well be the most comprehensive and detailed account of the role of think-aloud methods in writing assessment. She takes readers through a process for enacting this approach and explores its possibilities in a variety of settings, detailing how both students and teachers can benefit from engaging in this practice, and doing so in ways that allow readers to adapt it to their own situations. This definitive volume should have lasting value to writing teachers and students who may benefit from reflection on their thought processes during the act of composition.”
—Peter Smagorinsky, University of Georgia

"Beck's approach usefully blurs the distinction between teaching and assessment, and describes ways to support writers as thinkers, as well as producers of text. This is the first truly new way of thinking about assessing writing that I have encountered in a long time."
—Heidi L. Andrade, University at Albany-SUNY

"Sarah Beck has written an invaluable guide for using think-aloud formative assessments to gain insight into student writing development. With examples from real high school classrooms and clear explanations, Beck makes a compelling argument for why talking while writing is so valuable to teachers and students. Beck shows how think-aloud assessments support process approaches to writing, independent planning and goal setting, and student ownership of their own writing. This is a book that every high school and college writing instructor should read!"
—Amanda J. Godley, University of Pittsburgh

Tentative Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword by George Newell

Chapter 1. Introduction: Thinking Aloud as an Assessment Opportunity
   Informing Instruction with Diagnostic and Formative Assessment
   Dialogic Writing Assessment: A Conceptual Framework
   Diagnostic and Formative Potential of Think-Aloud Assessment
   Setting the Stage for Think-Aloud Writing Assessment
   Conclusion

Chapter 2. Interacting with Students in Think-Aloud Writing Assessment
   Enacting Dialogue Through Interaction
   The Legacy of Dynamic Assessment
   What Does Interactive Think-Aloud Assessment Look Like?
   Linking Assessment and Instruction with Think-Aloud Writing Assessment
   Think-Aloud Assessment Versus Writing Conferences
   Planning and Record-Keeping
   Questions Teachers May Have
   Conclusion

Chapter 3. What Can Teachers Learn from Think-Aloud Writing Assessment?
   A Focus on Individual Student Needs
   Learning About Students' Writing Processes
   A Refined Understanding of Students' Challenges
   Learning About Strengths Within the Writing Process
   Using Think-Aloud Assessment to Inform Instruction
   Conclusion

Chapter 4. Aligning Think-Aloud Assessment with Instructional Goals
   Goal-Setting Is Essential in Formative Assessment
   Goal-Aligned Teacher Questions and Prompts
   Aligning Think-Aloud Assessment with Instructional Goals
   Think-Aloud Writing Assessment Within a Comprehensive Assessment System
   Conclusion

Chapter 5. How Think-Aloud Writing Assessment Can Benefit Students
   Putting Students at the Center of Formative Assessment
   What Students Can Learn from Think-Aloud Assessment
   Supporting Students' Learning Through Think-Aloud Assessment
   Conclusion

Chapter 6. Think-Aloud Assessment for Teacher Development
   Think-Aloud Writing Assessment in Preservice Teaching Experiences
   Using Think-Aloud Writing Assessment for Collective Professional Growth
   Conclusion: The Dialogic Evolution of Teacher Knowledge
   Note

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

References

Index

About the Author