Anne Ruggles Gere, a nationally known expert on composition and English education, will give a presentation on writing instruction and state standard assessments, based on a book she recently co-wrote with Kelly Sassi, assistant professor of English and education at NDSU.
Gere is scheduled to present “Writing in the era of Common Core state standards and assessments” on Monday, March 31, from 6:30-7 p.m., at the Plains Art Museum. A book signing by both authors will follow.
Sassi and Gere’s book “Writing on Demand for Common Core State Standards Assessments” was recently published by Heinemann. The book, geared for secondary teachers of all subject areas, provides principles of effective writing and shows how to apply the principles in the Common Core State Standards assessments, which begin in the 2014-2015 school year.
The Common Core is a set of standards for grades K-12 in reading, writing and mathematics. North Dakota has adopted the standards, and Minnesota has adopted the English language arts standards. Sassi and Gere’s book focuses on supporting students on the written portion of the test.
“While it is important to prepare students for the Common Core State Standards assessments, it is even more important to help them become capable and confident writers for whom writing on demand is just one of the many writing challenges they can meet,” wrote Sassi and Gere.
Sassi coordinates the English Education program at NDSU and recently became director of the Red River Valley Writing Project, a professional development and support network for teachers. It focuses on improving the teaching and use of writing across all grade levels and subject areas. Among Sassi’s areas of research are writing assessment and the transition from high school to college writing.
Gere is director of the doctorate program in English and education at the University of Michigan. She founded and directed the Puget Sound Writing Program, which has become the University of Washington's single most successful humanities-based K-12 partnership. She also directed a National Endowment for the Humanities-sponsored program on writing across the curriculum, from which her book “Roots in the Sawdust: Writing to Learn Across the Disciplines” emerged.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation’s top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.