Deborah Crusan

As workloads and work responsibilities continue to increase, assessment often causes teachers anxiety. Rubrics: What Every Teacher Needs to Know is a handbook that combines theory and pragmatism in clear language to help pre- and in-service teachers and teacher trainers obtain assessment information quickly and efficiently. While many teachers do not realize that creating an assignment is creating an assessment, they should go hand in hand. This book highlights both the value of rubrics and the value of assessment literacy, which is the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to create, administer, and understand the results of assessments to improve student learning. Rubrics provides new and experienced teachers with the tools to become more transparent assessors of their students’ writing, reading, listening, speaking, grammar, and vocabulary. Authors Deborah Crusan and Robyn Brinks Lockwood bring their expertise in assessment and English for academic purposes to address the challenges teachers face in writing clear assignments and grading them fairly. They emphasize that teachers need to think about what they want their students to be able to do, clarify their expectations to their students, and convey those expectations on a rubric/scoring guide. While transparent, step-by-step instructions are included in the book to help teachers create their own assignments and assessments, the appendix materials containing ready-made assignments and their accompanying rubrics will be sure to delight busy teachers.

Linking Assignments to Assessments is designed for teachers in training in TESOL programs, future preK–12 teachers, and practicing instructors who need to integrate assessment into classrooms. Educators seeking fair and accessible assessment practices for English learners will find helpful information on language acquisition and differentiated instruction. The book shares foundational information on the importance of assessment literacy and on how language acquisition, student backgrounds, and language standards need to be considered. Linking Assignments to Assessments offers step-by-step instructions on creating effective assessments for listening and reading, speaking and writing, grammar and vocabulary. Teachers are provided context for understanding standardized assessments and strategies to advocate for and prepare English learners in high-stakes assessment contexts. Each chapter includes activities, discussion questions, and strategies for developing an assessment philosophy to help educators link their theory and practice.

Assessment in the Second Language Writing Classroom is a teacher and prospective teacher-friendly book, uncomplicated by the language of statistics. The book is for those who teach and assess second language writing in several different contexts: the IEP, the developmental writing classroom, and the sheltered composition classroom. In addition, teachers who experience a mixed population or teach cross-cultural composition will find the book a valuable resource. Other books have thoroughly covered the theoretical aspects of writing assessment, but none have focused as heavily as this book does on pragmatic classroom aspects of writing assessment. Further, no book to date has included an in-depth examination of the machine scoring of writing and its effects on second language writers.Crusan not only makes a compelling case for becoming knowledgeable about L2 writing assessment but offers the means to do so. Her highly accessible, thought-provoking presentation of the conceptual and practical dimensions of writing assessment, both for the classroom and on a larger scale, promises to engage readers who have previously found the technical detail of other works on assessment off-putting, as well as those who have had no previous exposure to the study of assessment at all.