ABSTRACT
Even though most students are on “best behavior” when writing for large-scale assessments, from our years of experience reading test responses we recall memorable exceptions, including the ones that follow. In response to a prompt to write about a school improvement, one student suggested that students and administrators establish a “teacher torture room”; in response to directions to write an advertisement for a service teens might offer, another student offered a jaunty ad for “PetKillers” to ensure neighborhood quiet and cleanliness; and in response to an open-ended prompt to write a story, poem, or play about a topic of the students’ choice, we saw a plethora of poems on the order of the following: The state test Is an awful tragedy Third and fifth grades take it And they both hate it The only people who like it are eggheads though To all the other people it’s their worst foe I’m taking the state test and I hate it a lot I’d rather be left in a dumpster to rot
