When I first started teaching middle grades in 2000, I was thrown into the world of standardized testing. As somebody who had just completed her certification and already taught composition at a university, I thought that continual feedback on student writing meant grading whatever students wrote.
Now I have my students hold on to their timed essays until they have written two or three pieces, which takes about a week or two during test prep. Although I confer with my students as needed while they are writing, I have them choose only their best piece to be graded. They do, however, submit the entire group of essays. Consequently, my students get to exercise their self-evaluative skills, exercise choice, and prevent their less-than-stellar written works from counting toward their grades.
Stacy Goldberger
Memorial Middle School
Cedar Grove, New Jersey
16 years of teaching
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