Do Hamp-Lyons and Condon envision student writers choosing genres to write in? How does this affect instruction? Are instructors supposed to model several genres from which students may choose?
"Appropriate" essay topics and forms is a hot topic at Kingsborough Community College, CUNY, where I teach. At our meetings (2/semester) there is evidence of sharp disagreement in the form of heated argument and stony silence. All of us feel the constraints of doing anything too experimental, for, while the professor who reads your class's work is supposed to judge it according to how well it fulfilled your assignment (no matter what s/he thought of your assignment), there is always the concern that the reader will judge your students harshly if s/he didn't approve of the assignment.
Perhaps portfolios can lead to greater freedom for students in choosing forms to write in, but the de facto process (if it involves switching portfolios with another professor for evaluation) can also lead to a policing of curricula. In the middle and at the end of each semester all writing teachers (full and part time) must attend "norming" sessions in which we discuss standards for evaluating student portfolios.
The question of whether it is appropriate for students to a) write about themselves, their lives instead of literature; b) write in non-traditional forms such as letters, reviews, etc. comes up every semester. Our Director of Freshman Writing is, fortunately, very open about various forms and topics for writing, but problems can arise when the professor reading your students' work is not.
Another problem in this kind of student evaluation is how differently people read. (Thus the reason for "norming sessions" -to establish the norm.) We are all required to look for certain traits in student writing that demonstrate readiness for the next level writing course. But what counts as analysis for me might sound like generalizations or mere personal reflections to another. (A committee of full time faculty come up with the factors that teachers are supposed to look for when evaluating portfolios.) I am writing a great deal based on my experience teaching in a program that uses portfolio assessment for all of its developmental (non-credit, requirement for Freshman Comp) writing courses.