Maja Wilson shows us that by replacing the scales embedded in rubrics with new tools -- an array of interpretive lenses designed to observe and describe growth -- we can create healthier readers and writers who are more proficient in the long run and more motivated to read and write. She reminds us that "assess" in its Latin derivation means "sit beside." In this book she models new ways of "sitting beside," listening to student stories of the writing, respecting the writer's intentions, and telling stories of our reading. Taking the form of conversations, Maja's new definition of writing assessment is not an outcome or final evaluation: it is an ongoing process in which writers and readers make meaning from texts and attempts, from intentions and effects. In this process, teachers come to understand how to teach and talk with each student about writing differently. And students learn to understand and take control of their own development as decision-makers.

Feedback is the answer: "But wait, what do you mean by feedback?" -- Our tools, ourselves: hammers, scales, and writing assessment factories -- Swapping scales for stories -- Toward a new theory of formative assessment: healthy and sustainable growth in the right direction -- Assessment phoropters: interpretive lenses that illuminate growth -- Voices that help and haunt us: the enabling, paralyzing paradox of audience -- Writers are people, not Pac-mans: the stories of one writer's growth -- How the growth lenses can help us teach.