Quick & Dirty

A Quick & Dirty Assessment of
The SOUND of Assessment

Hegemony:

When Ways-of-Talking from one “discipline”
colonize another or more, crossing state borders
for immoral purposes—invading foreign territory
with totalitarian bombast and reducing diversity
to the sound of mucus. .

Assessmentalism:

the lingua franca of hire education.

Dear Colleagues,

Listen to the SOUND. The SOUND of assessment.



Like smoke, like smog, like patience etherized across
a towering Babel: fog on cat’s feet, the make-sure
accountability settling on our environ mental readership
programs so as to guarantee time well spent reading,
writing, talking great books, huge thought, big ideas,
life-changing fictions palpable and mute as globed fruit,
dumb as old medallions to the thumb, silent as the sleeve-
worn stone of casement ledges where moss has grown –
wordless as the flight of birds motionless in time as the
moon climbs; be equal to: not true— for all the history
of grief, an empty doorway and a maple leaf. For love:
the leaning grasses and two lights above the sea—should
not mean
but be

Ripping off Archibald MacLeish, sure: a crime, but LISTEN:
hear the greater violence below & if it don’t make your ears
weep, your college GEN ED literature requirement was a failure.
.
$$$$$$$$$$

Teams will move through guided work on
exploring English as a framework for student
learning; creating assessments that enhance student
learning; using electronic and other portfolios; teaching
students to be more analytical readers; and addressing
the issue of coverage in the English major.

All English Education major students will:
1. demonstrate knowledge of a variety of
literary genres, including an understanding
of literatures’ historical, intellectual, and
cultural contexts.
2. illustrate awareness of the cultural and
literary traditions of diverse peoples from
the United States.
3. apply a variety of writing theories,
including classical and contemporary rhetoric,
to the teaching of writing.
4. synthesize best practices in the methods
of teaching the English language arts and
formulate their own teaching methodologies.
our curricula, facilities, and faculty/staff.

The Learning Story
The report will include a curriculum map as
well as the sequence and strategy of how
the English Education majors will develop
and fulfill the learning outcome goals.

The curriculum map provides an indication
of points of engagement in relation to each
learning goal, but our assessment of student
learning is based on review of artifacts in the
English Education major’s electronic
portfolio.

Assessment Methods
After the Spring semester, English faculty
on the English Education Major Committee
review the English Education electronic
portfolios rating the quality of learning
demonstrated for each learning goal, using
the portfolio review rubric.

ASSESSMENT: The UW Colleges-wide
assessment program was established to enhance
the quality and effectiveness of the curriculum,
programs, and services of the institution. The
institution-wide assessment activities focus
on analytical, quantitative, communication, and
aesthetic skills because they are of primary
importance in the general education of our students.

This semester, students in composition will be
assessed on communication skills, specifically
the ability to demonstrate a large and varied vocabulary.

Each department also conducts assessment activities
that address discipline-specific learning goals. This year,
the English Department is researching the effectiveness
of the English placement exam.

As a part of this project, students may be asked to
complete one or two impromptu writing assignments.

Departmental Assessment Graduating majors will be
able to write clearly, cogently, and correctly, with a good
command of organization, English grammar, mechanics,
and style.

Column 3: Assessment Means and Results Means of
Assessment : The Department will use the senior exercise
to evaluate goals 2 and 3. Subcommittees of two department
members each (other than professors for whom the exercises
were written) will evaluate blind copies of the exercises of
majors in English and Creative Writing according to the
following scale:

4 Excellent; 3 Good; 2 Satisfactory; 1 Unsatisfactory.

Intended Student Outcomes : 70% of the Students will
score an average of 3 or better.

&&&&&&&&&&&

It’s possible only present and passed EngMajors
will find this kind of Way of Talking threatening.
Or at least amusing. Possibly they can patronize—
practice some noblesse oblige & tolerance which
liberal art promotes. More than me. I hate it.
It represents the mentality of corporate jets and
wall street banking. Assess Mentalism Account Ability.

xxxo oo, Sam