Writing Skills Teaching the Test:

Writing Skills

Teaching the Test: Implications on Multiple Levels

Most writers agree that test taking and writing do not necessarily mesh. Traditionally, college writing professors have attempted to emphasize the importance of critical-thinking, voice, and self-expression in their classrooms, as a writer is not just one who can use mechanics proficiently, but is also a person who has something important to say. But the academic world is structured around assessments, tests that students must take in order to prove their writing ability. A major source of contention among many teachers of college writing has been identifying methods to teach these students how to pass the required examinations while still helping them develop into writers who have something to say.

Aaron Barlow's article "Leading Writers, Teaching Tests," which appeared in the Basic Writing E-Journal attempts to answer this question. Primarily, Barlow proposes that a curriculum that both teaches students how to take the test and acquaints them with the higher order concerns in writing, such as developing their own voices, and finding that they do have something to say

. In his article, Barlow details his own curriculum for juxtaposing these two goals. He begins by assessing the students through a diagnostic in-class writing that looks nothing like the writing examination that they failed in order to be placed in his class. Then, he spends time teaching students how to follow directions, an area in which he found them seriously lacking, in addition to having them compose opinion pieces in response to school and community issues, the two topics he identifies as options for composition on the test that the students will have to take in order to be promoted to basic level writing courses. Finally, Barlow stats that he does not assign practice tests or assess students mechanical skills until near the end of the course, though he does pay significant attention to mechanical skills, as they are a major component of the standardized test his students must pass at class completion, according to university policy. Barlow's curriculum, then, certainly attempts to bridge the gap between teaching the test and teaching the writing skills that most college professors deem most important. An examination of both the importance of Barlow's curriculum to college writers and its significance on an overarching academic scale will suggest that Barlow's attempt must be the first of many to try to reconcile these issues.

For beginning college writers, Barlow's teaching method is of vast importance; he attempts to encourage them for the next level -- basic college writing -- while still helping them to get to that level by passing a standardized test. Because many beginning college writers are unprepared for the testing and college writing environments, Barlow's attempt is necessary. For example, Barlow considers' students inability to follow directions when he writes: "Perhaps in their high schools, any effort was considered better than nothing; whatever students handed in may have been accepted as sufficient" (para. 23). His observation, then, is of great importance to beginning college writers, as they must understand that what was accepted in high school is not necessarily what will be accepted in college. Because Barlow understands that students come into basic writing courses with this mindset, however, he aims to help them overcome it rather than condemning them for it. Further, Barlow's teaching method involves using journals comparing the "Standard Way" of employing grammar and usage to "My Way" (or the student's way) of employing grammar and usage (Para. 23). Thus, Barlow comes to the student's beginning writer level and attempts to help them improve their skills, something that will be of ultimate importance to the student, still showing the student that content is more important than mechanics

Thus, for beginning college writers, Barlow's course provides an effective bridge from high school to college for those courses that require students to pass a standardized examination. Still, the significance of his work for the entire academic community can be gathered from Barlow's uncertainties. Barlow writes that he has searched the literature for an effective way of incorporating both the skills required for students to be good writers and teaching the test. Still he found that "they assume a greater control of the academic environment external to the particular classroom than I, as a part-time teacher, can possibly maintain" (para. 12). Thus, the question becomes, why are such outdated methods of testing still being used when they fly in the face of everything progressive writing teachers are arguing? Why do universities and colleges continue to force basic writing students to pass these tests when professors, like Barlow, continually stress that taking time to teach the test takes away from the teaching methods that they think will most benefit the students? Barlow does not have the answer to this, nor do most teachers of college writing

. Still, Barlow's unflinching attempt to teach the test and help the students, in addition to devoting time to developing their skills that he thinks will actually help them in a Composition I course, is admirable. Its significance can be summarized in two sentences: Barlow shoes that universities are still employing inappropriate measures to test beginning students' writing. In addition, Barlow argues that writing teachers can prosper and help their students flourish as real writers even in light of this oppressive situation