Educators strive to create "assessment cultures" in which they integrate evaluation into teaching and learning and match assessment methods with best instructional practice. But how do teachers and administrators discover and negotiate the values that underlie their evaluations? Bob Broad's 2003 volume, "What We Really Value, " introduced dynamic criteria mapping (DCM) as a method for eliciting locally-informed, context-sensitive criteria for writing assessments. The impact of DCM on assessment practice is beginning to emerge as more and more writing departments and programs adopt, adapt, or experiment with DCM approaches.
For the authors of "Organic Writing Assessment, " the DCM experience provided not only an authentic assessment of their own programs, but a nuanced language through which they can converse in the always vexing, potentially divisive realm of assessment theory and practice. Of equal interest are the adaptations these writers invented for Broad's original process, to make DCM even more responsive to local needs and exigencies.
"Organic Writing Assessment" represents an important step in the evolution of writing assessment in higher education. This volume documents the second generation of an assessment model that is regarded as scrupulously consistent with current theory; it shows DCM's flexibility, and presents an informed discussion of its limits and its potentials.

Brave and fascinating, as well as important . . . . A scholarly and comprehensive contribution to our growing knowledge of the history of homosexuality.
--Jeffrey Weeks

Recent years have seen enormous attention devoted to the history of sexuality in the Western world. But how has the West conceived of non-western societies been influenced by these other traditions? The Geography of Perversion and Desire is the first historical study to demonstrate convincingly that the representation cultural otherness, as found in European thought from the Enlightenment through modern times, is closely interrelated with modern constructions of homosexual identity. Travel reports and early ethnographic accounts of cross-gender roles in the Americas, Africa, and Asia corroborated the 18th century construction of the sodomite identity. Similarly, the late 19th-century construction of the third sex provoked much anthropological speculation on to genetic versus societal nature of male-to-male sexual relations, a precursor of current essentialist versus constructionist debates. An invaluable contribution to the ongoing debates on cultural and sexual otherness, this volume unravels how the categories of the modern sodomite and later homosexual were inextricably intertwined with essentialist definitions of racial identity. In encyclopedic detail, Bleys traces how cross-cultural records were collected, created, structured, manipulated, excerpted, reformulated, and omitted in interaction with changing beliefs about male-to-male sexuality. Focusing in such subjects as puritanism, sodomy, and ethnicity in colonial North America; cross-gender behavior and hermaphrodditism; the semiotics of genitalia; andthe parameters of sexual science, The Geography of Perversion and Desire is a breathtakingly thorough, cross cultural history of sexual categories.

Drawing on travel reports and early ethnographic accounts, The Geography of Perversion and Desire presents the first historical study to demonstrate convincingly that the representation of cultural otherness, as found in European thought from the Enlightenment to modern times, is closely interrelated with modern constructions of homosexual identity.

Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1885) published nothing in her lifetime, save short extracts from her journals and letters which her brother, William, included in his Guide to the Lakes. She spent most of her life caring for her brother and his family, working, traveling and studying with him and his friends who include de Quincey and Coleridge. This selection for the first time presents her writings as a discrete text, giving her a separate authorial voice from that of her brother and bringing her to a new generation of students, scholars and enthusiasts.

Wordsworth's journals, analyzed and set into context by Paul Hamilton's insightful introduction, chronicle the hardships and indispositions, the comings and goings, the windfalls and losses of those around her, both at home and during her many travels, revealing a relish for the experiences of others distinctly free from Romantic egoism. Most significantly, in her Grasmere Journal, she tells her own story, imposing her own narrative structure on events and discovering the plot of her own life.

This updated guide provides the latest findings about the biology and ecology of the Gulf of Mexico. It reflects the effects of recent storms and hurricanes, and includes an expanded chapter on sea turtles. Hundreds of detailed drawings introduce you to more than 300 marine creatures commonly found along the beaches and bays of this area. Easy-to-read descriptions explain the taxonomic feeding, mating, and migratory habits of these coastal residents. In addition, this guide tells you about many offshore creatures, such as oysters, shrimp, and lobsters, and the numerous animals that inhabit the subsea oil platforms.

It was the decisive eighteen-minute Battle of San Jacinto where the famous words "Remember the Alamo " were first shouted. In Eighteen Minutes, Stephen L. Moore describes the momentous battle that established the independent Lone Star Republic. Told largely through the eyes of the participants, the recollections included here are words from over 120 Texan and Mexican soldiers. The book follows General Sam Houston as he takes command of the Texas Volunteers to lead them to victory six weeks after the fall of the Alamo at San Jacinto, the town since known as the birthplace of Texas liberty. The battle and its aftermath are covered in great detail and include the capture of Santa Anna, the "Yellow Rose" controversy, and the death of a woman on the battlefield. Special features include rosters of all Texans involved in the battle, a list of casualties, and the details on other companies involved in the campaign. Eighteen Minutes is a comprehensive history of how revenge for the defeat of the Alamo was at last achieved.