Potential+Common+Assessments

In a course that offers teachers significant choice and independence in terms of text selection, we will unify student and faculty experience through the development of one common writing assessment. We will design this assessment so that it allows students the opprtunity to demonstrate learning in the following areas:


 * The practice of writing as a craft
 * The development of voice
 * The explicit or implicit exploration of self and other

Here are examples from other independent schools of some common writing assessments and projects that provide students the opportunity demonstrate learning in the the aformentioned areas:

Seniors at the Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School dedicate the final eight weeks of their senior year to The Author Project, an intensive and ultimately self-relefctive study a single author of the student's choice.
 * 1. The Author Project:**

Seniors in "Writing and Publishing" program at Walnut Hill School (MA) sustain an online literary publication with an ambitious mission: "To publish the best of literary work in English by young writers around the world ages 12-18."
 * 1. "The Blue Pencil" Online Project:**

[|NAIS article about "Blue Pencil Online" Project] [|The Blue Pencil Website]

All Phillips Exeter (MA) juniors complete the RaL project, a 10-15 page profile of a person "on the job," based loosely on the weekly //New Yorker// profile of the same name.
 * 2. The Reporter-at-Large Project:**

[|Exonian Article about RaL Project]