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Two-Fisted Assessment Tales!!!Episode I: Winning!

I: What do we want our students to gain intellectually from our academic program?Episode I: Winning!

I: What do we want our students to gain intellectually from our academic program?II: Which of these outcomes are measurable?Episode I: Winning!

I: What do we want our students to gain intellectually from our academic program?II: Which of these outcomes are measurable?III: Prioritize the outcomes that are measurable? Which 3-5 measurable outcomes are most important?Special Bonus Round!!!!Episode II: Proving it!!!

Prologue: measures of evidence . . .

With your host Commodore David Klocek

Annual student self-evaluation and faculty conferenceFeaturing Professor McNulty!!!With Professor WeitzmanRubric Smackdown!Special Bonus Round #2SAMPLE ESSAY #1

The Women of An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

Sympathy is a powerful emotion. It can overtake a person with sadness, or make someone fight for another with their back against the wall. In the novel An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, this emotion is put on display to a high degree. Sympathy is used to provide a backstory and motivation for Cordelia Gray, as well as serve as a medium for the reader to become more involved with her. The novel An Unsuitable Job for a Woman leaves the reader sympathizing with the novels sleuth Cordelia Gray.On this novels very first page, in the form of Bernie Prydes death, James gives one a reason to sympathize with the novels heroine, Cordelia Gray. The reader begins to sympathize with Gray when she is shown cleaning her partners blood from his office Alone in the emptiness and silence. Cordelia felt the need for physical action. She began vigorously to clean the inner office, scrubbing the blood stains from desk and chair, mopping the soaked rug (James 23). James uses the emotion of sympathy to draw the reader to Gray from the very beginning. This scene also puts Cordelia in a vulnerable position. As a greenhorn, female detective undertaking her first case, the reader sympathizes with Gray and desires for her to succeed. One feels sympathy because everyone has lost someone they love and cherish, but not many have had to clean up the blood they spilled during death. That alone should make the reader feel deep levels of sympathy for Gray. The death of Bernie Pryde serves a dual purpose to this novel. It makes the reader sympathize with Cordelia, thus drawing the reader to her as the main character, as well as serving as her motivation to continue Bernies work throughout the novel. This is a powerful scene, in which sympathy plays a vital role to the novel.One sympathizes again with Cordelia when it is found out that she never got to know her mother. While Cordelia is in a bar in which she patrons, it is asked if she will find new work following the death of Bernie. Cordelia answers no, then Mavis says I shouldnt think your mother would approve of you staying on alone (James 25). When posed with this statement Cordelia answers with one of her best lines from the novel I only had a mother for the first hour of my life, so I dont have to worry about that (James 25). This is another influential scene where sympathy is used to get the reader behind Cordelia. No matter how or when it happens, the loss of a close family member affects a person in many different ways. After this dialogue, one sees Cordelia thinking of her mother Her father had never talked about her mothers death and Cordelia avoided questioning him, fearful of learning that her mother had never held her in her arms, never regained consciousness, never perhaps even known that she had a daughter (James 25-26). It is difficult for a person to grasp, more than anything about Cordelia, what it would be like to grow up without a mother. This makes the reader feel a deeper level of sympathy for Gray, more along the lines of compassion or empathy. The fact that Cordelia has so many unanswered questions about her mother leads one to wonder what it would be like if he or she didnt have a mother his or her self. James does an excellent job here of getting the reader to sympathize with Cordelia, as well as getting the reader to be on her side.The reader once again sympathizes with Gray when she gets thrown in the well. Attacked by a then unknown assailant, Gray describes falling into the well The fall was a confusion of old nightmares, unbelievable seconds of childhood terrors recalled. Then her body hit the water. Ice-cold hands dragged her down into a vortex of horror (James 179). This description details how bad of an experience this was for Cordelia. The reader sympathizes with her in this instance because they will, again, put themselves in her shoes and realize what an ordeal it would be to be trapped in a well for a considerable amount of time. Also, Cordelia details falling as old nightmares and childhood terrors recalled, this makes this description more relatable to the reader, because everyone has fallen off of something or dreamed about falling. Thus, helping paint a more personal picture for the reader. One sympathizes with Gray in this case because, in some way, everyone has felt trapped, be it literally or emotionally. Anyone who reads this scene feels, to some degree, a level of sympathy for Cordelia and wishes for her to find a way out. The last instance of sympathy surrounding Cordelia is the way in which she crawled out of the well. Gray gives a detailed account of her endeavor to remove herself from the well It seemed that she had been climbing for hours, moving in a parody of a difficult labour towards some desperate birth. Darkness was falling. The light from the well top was wider now but less strong. She told herself that the climb wasnt really difficult. It was only the darkness and loneliness that made it seem so (James 181). This passage details the difficulty, not only physically, but mentally, of getting out of the well. Gray parallels her methodical ascent from the well to the pain and suffering of childbirth. The light Gray sees at the top of the well symbolizes hope, and as a baby slowly making its way to its mother, Gray makes her climb to once again join the outside world. Taking into consideration the thoughts Gray has about the comparison of her climb to childbirth, it must weigh heavily on her mind that she has no mother. This ties together the sympathy that the reader has at the beginning of the novel to this testing event. Also, one sees Gray use the descriptive words of darkness and loneliness. These works can draw equivalents to many events in Grays or anyones life, because everyone has felt dark and alone at some juncture in their life, just as Gray was in the well.Sympathy is used very effectively throughout this novel. Detailed to the greatest extent in Cordelia Gray, sympathy is used in her case to get the reader in her corner, and to peel back some of the many layers that make her a puzzle not easily solved. In many ways, the events that convey sympathy towards Cordelia are what define her not only as a person, but as a detective as well. James does an excellent job in using such a powerful emotion to draw the reader to Cordelia throughout this novel. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman leaves the reader sympathizing with its definitive character, Cordelia Gray.

Works Cited

James, P.D. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. New York, London, Toronto, Sydney: Simon and Schuster, 2001. Print

SAMPLE ESSAY #2Gone Baby GoneThe book Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane is different than the other books we have read so far. In this book there is a clear and obvious romance between the two main characters solving the case. Angie and Patrick are two detectives from Boston that are currently in a relationship. Lionel, Amandas uncle, hired them to work with the police to find Amanda. Some would say couples who work together, stay together. But in this circumstance, the relationship between Angie and Patrick harms their ability to solve the case.The first example in Gone Baby Gone is when Patrick accepts the case but Angie tries to get him to change his mind. She tries really hard to persuade him that they dont even need to take the case. On page 22 in the book Angie says, Im not sure we need this mess right nowI like being happy (Lehane 22.) She then explains that its not just a missing child case; its a completely vanished child (Lehane 22.) This has Patrick second guess even taking the case. If he hadnt of accepted the case Amanda would have never been found because the police are the bad guys in this book and Angie and Patrick are the only people outside the police that were looking for her. This would have completely ruined solving the case but Patrick stuck to his guns and took it anyways.The second example in the book is when Angie admits to Patrick that she wants to have a kid with him. She brings it up on page 175 and says, Were capable of creating life, baby. Me and you. One pill I forget to takeone change in, what is it, a houndred thousand?and I could have life growing in me right now. Your life. Mine (Lehane 175). Angie wants to put her attention on starting a family with Patrick, which could have many negative effects on not only this case but future ones too. It would take away their focus on especially this case with her being pregnant. It would also limit them to how much time they could put into the case. Angie would need to be resting a lot so she wouldnt be able to go out and help Patrick with the investigation. Overall, Angie becoming pregnant while all of this was going on could have been a huge problem.Another example of their relationship harming their ability to solve the case is when Angie jumps into the quarry after Amanda when they see her doll in the water. This put a huge toll on Patrick because he wasnt able to think about the case at all anymore. He was completely focused on getting Angie out of there and if she was going to be alive or come out with hypothermia. He almost had a heart attack when the helicopter tried to go in and get her and almost drowned her. After he told the helicopter to go back up he thought to himself ..the pilot pulled back on the throttle and my stomach slid right into my intestines.. (Lehane 208). Angie jumping into the ice-cold water after a doll also shows that she wasnt thinking level- headedly. Instead of her jumping in without warning, they should have sent people who are experienced down to investigate. Even after she jumped in she couldnt of been able to find Amanda is she was down there anyways. It was pitch black late into the night and the water rushed her out of the area where she saw the doll. So basically she jumped into the water and risked her life over a doll. It was an overall reckless idea on Angies part. The last example, also the biggest example, is at the end of the book when Angie tries to get Patrick to leave Amanda with the couple who stole her. She literally begs Patrick and Devin not to call the State police to arrest officer Doyle. She thought it would have been best for Amanda to stay with them rather than Helene because Helene was a terrible mother. She says to Patrick, Helene is arsenic, Patrick. I told you that a long time ago. Shell suck everything bright out of that girl. Shell imprison her. Shes death. You take that child out of that home, thats what youre sentencing her to. A long death (Lehane 402). All of this might have been true, but its not her place to play God. Helene is Amandas mother and even though she probably would have been better off with officer Doyle and his wife, Amanda was not taken from her mothers home from social services. She was kidnapped; therefore she needs to be returned back to her actually home. If Patrick and Angie were not a couple they would be a much stronger team. They wouldnt have to worry about the things they did the entire time solving Amandas case. There would be no debate on having a kid and they would probably think much clearlermore clearly. Overall, Angie and Patrick are better off working together without being a couple, or working separately and remaining a couple.

Works CitedLehane, Dennis. Gone, Baby, Gone: A Novel. New York: W. Morrow, 1998. Print.Exit Examwith Professor HoytBonus Round #3: Best PlanThe Great RetrnHow to be an assessment Ubermensch!!!Episode II: Proving it!!!

I: How best to measure your 3-5 most important measurable learning outcomes? What are reasonable targets?

Bonus Round IV!Common Assessment Pitfallsfeaturing Dean Amelia Harris!!!Choose an action plan that makes sense

Collect only data that you can use and use the data that you collect

Dont choose targets that you already meet

Close the loop

Dont just move the targets to where the arrows are landing (i.e., dont use a change in your assessment as an action plan)

Are you wasting your time trying to measure outcomes that are immeasurable . . .

Tom Costa, Assessment Titan, presents an archetypal assessment planTIME for CAKE!