Learning to write, writing to learn: Cedar Valley high school teachers\u27 use of formative assessment

My goal for this thesis, as well as for my time at UNI, was to examine pedagogies that will inform my future practice as an English teacher, enabling me to provide a better learning environment for my future students through various means of assessment. In this study high school English teachers in three towns in the Midwest were interviewed to find out: (1) What is really going on in the writing classroom in terms of writing assessment? (2) How is formative assessment specifically being used in the writing classroom? And (3) Does the teacher find these methods effective? Speaking to professionals currently in the field gave me a taste of the real-life challenges I may encounter in the writing classroom. This research is intended to arm me with concrete methods to most effectively support my students as growing writers and also to increase my flexibility of methods when attempting to reach struggling writers. This paper is organized in the following parts: (1) literature review; (2) methodology; (3) interview questions; (4) results; (5) discussion; and (6) works cited