Research in English: Research Briefs.

10-second review: Writing assessment. Peer wring response groups. Interpreting literature.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” RL Larson and A Bechan. Research in the Teaching of English (December 1992), 446-465.

Writing Assessment. “Concludes, based in interview data obtained from English department chairpersons, testing officials, and managers of assessment centers, that colleges that included a multiple-choice test together with an holistically scored essay were using the most reliable, valid and appropriate method of English testing available.” SW Cummings. P. 457. 1991. [Comment: Of course that’s how the SAT measures writing. RayS.]

Peer Writing Response Groups. “Within groups guided by response sheets, which were more productive than groups not guided by response sheets, students focused 60% of their talk on these sheets.” “For other 40% of their talk, for the most part, they spontaneously and informally discussed the content of their writing.” SW Freedman. P. 447. 1992. [Comment: To guide or not to guide peer responses to writing: I’m for the “guiding” point of view. RayS.]

Interpreting Literature. “High school students in the experimental group analyzed examples of…dialogues in order to identify strategies they used to understand the dialogues. They then applied these strategies to answer complex inferential questions about two novels. CO Lee. P. 448. 1992. [Comment: Not much explanation of method in this abstract, but I would apply it to my classroom by excerpting complex passages from literary works and have students analyze how they understood them. Key word is strategy. RayS.]