With writing about feelings and opinions under fire in parts of the country it is difficult to think about what will be taught in the English classrooms of America. It is difficult to think about a way to teach the CAPT exam (especially the interdisciplinary part) because the exam asks for a student to evaluate his/her feels and state an opinion. But as it will be shown, even though these solutions raise privacy concerns, this topic is a good way to get students thinking about the sacredness of privacy.
E.D. Hirsch, Jr. of the University of Virginia states, “writing is difficult no one will deny” (Hirsch, 39). Students need to be taught the writing process before mastery can be achieved. There are many steps involved with the process and handing the paper to the teacher for a grade is not the final step. For a simple explanation of the writing process that is accessible to students see This Book Is Not Required by Inge Bell (pages 128-144). This paper utilizes the John Collins’ method of writing, which is similar to that explained in Bell’s book. Collins’ books are readily available as Bell’s book is not. All of the material presented below on the writing method came from a seminar given by John Collins on April 4, 2000 and can be found in Developing Writing and Thinking Skills Across the Curriculum: A Practical Program for Schools. For the purpose of this unit, it is presumed that students know some grammar and spelling rules, which the John Collins method dismisses as a blockade to student writing. Teachers who wish to emphasize spelling and grammar may do so in an FCA (for example, one FCA, worth low points, may be no more than 5 spelling errors. Then have the students check each other’s spelling.)
The first step is to introduce the FCA's (Focus Correction Areas, later explained). The next step in the writing process is to brainstorm on a "general" topic. For example, the students will be writing about privacy in school. They may be given the topic of PRIVACY and asked to brainstorm or web. The teacher webs out on the board the ideas generated by the class. Then the students are asked to write freely about "What does privacy mean to you?" In this stage the students are free to draw, doodle, write without worry of mistakes. Next, the students are asked to share ideas (In keeping with the topic of privacy, the students are asked to volunteer information.) Then, the words "Should students expect privacy in school?" are written on the board and the teacher asks students to brainstorm on that subject. The first two exercises get the students to concentrate on PRIVACY. The third exercise asks the students to narrow their focus. Now, the students are asked to organize their ideas--put the most important first and think of three supporting details. Then continue with the other two ideas. Soon, a first draft is completed.
Now the students are ready to get busy. Have them read their paper aloud in a one-foot voicea voice that can be heard from one foot away-- (see John Collins Program) looking for the FCA's. They can also take this time to correct any thing else in the paper. They will find errors naturally as they read aloud. Next, have the students exchange papers and read the paper they have to the author. They are to comment on the FCA's. Then the student is asked to take the paper home and type it out with the revisions. The paper is handed in and the teacher grades only according to the FCA's. This saves much time. The paper is returned with a second draft grade and comments. The student is asked to revise one more time and hand in the final, "to be published" paper. Then, when returned to the student, it is placed in the cumulative writing folder to be revisited upon learning a new FCA.
More often than not the students are asked to turn in work that has not been revised. The unrevised paper may be so due to a number of factors: laziness, forgetfulness or "just wasn't told to revise." Moreover, students were never taught HOW to revise. Students generally hand in their work; their work is graded using some obscure grading system; they receive the paper back with a grade and lots of red marks; they look at the grade and may read the comments; then, the paper ends up in one of two places, stuffed in the notebook forgotten or in the trash. However, the John Collins writing program promotes revision and particularly the improvement of past works.
An essay is an easy thing to write once one has mastered the basic form: topic sentence, three supporting details, and a concluding sentence. Sometimes, however, it is a frightening thing to revise. Revision is just that--looking at it again. With the John Collins method, students learn to look for specific areas of improvement called FCA's (focus correction areas). Before beginning this unit the students are expected to have mastered basic writing skills such as forming complete sentences, staying on topic, the five-paragraph essay form, etc. Three basic FCA's will be used in completing the five paragraph persuasive essay: Did the writer clearly state his/her position? Did the writer use at least 3 supporting details that originated in the source material? Did the writer have a strong introduction and strong conclusion? These will be the areas assessed when the work is revised and then when the work is graded. These will be the only areas that are of concern to the student and to the teacher. The FCA's will unbind the student from the tediousness of "fully" revising his/her essay. The student will focus on the main areas of writing and still have time to actually write (without worrying about spelling, punctuation, etc. unless the teacher wishes to make these part of the FCA’s. Then, the teacher must introduce a rule that he/she wishes to focus on. For example, subject/verb agreement may be an FCA after the subject/verb agreement rule has been taught. Then, the FCA for subject/verb agreement may be worth 10 points if the student has no more than 2 s/v errors.)
CAPT assessment is based on the idea of holistic scoring. The scorers will be looking at the work as a whole--not the little pieces that might receive red ink in a school (spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc). The scorers are highly trained individuals. Two people using a range of 1 - 6, with 6 being exceptional, score each answer. The student receives a total score of 2 - 12, with 8 currently being a passing grade. The scorers utilize anchor sets (what a 1 looks like, what 4 looks like, what a 6 looks like, etc.) to gauge what the student will receive. The second-generation interdisciplinary test assessment has added that the students must utilize information from the three sources in order to pass.