Assessment

This year I gave only my own self-made tests.  I do not like multiple-choice English tests: I do not see English's primary purpose--to teach one to analyze, interpret, and express oneself competently--well served by having students choose among some pre-made responses.  I also love teaching grammar, and enjoy having students explain spatially the way sentence parts interact: this sort of testing is impossible with multiple-choice.  I can have students identify the correct of four sentences with M-C, but they cannot draw arrows from modifiers to nouns/verbs, cordon off unnecessary phrases, and trace the causation of verbs in a multiple choice format.

I should make tests that look like the SATP since I will be teaching English II next year; I should make a greater effort to ask questions on a higher DOK level; I should probably focus more on commonly-accepted aspects of English than those that I believe are the most interesting or enlightening. 

Example: I think poetic meter--and the notation of it--is what makes poetry fascinating, but the State of MS. shovels meter under the ambiguous term "Rhythm", and places no emphasis on being able to notate the flux of iambs and anapests and trochees.  Perhaps I shouldn't test that skill.

At some point it's about my kids and not about me, so I'll grudgingly change the way I test--sometimes.  Their tests may have an SATP multiple-choice section, but they will not be able to totally escape my goading them into expansive and nuanced written responses.