English 403: Lesson 8

Lessons: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

< Back | Next >

8: Responding to Writers and Writing

Overview

Remember that draft that came back bloodied with red pen, or littered with little symbols in the margins ("Awk," "frag," "coh")? Think back on what teachers did with your writing in progress, and what kind of feedback you liked to get. What worked for you? As a prospective teacher, think about the many ways can and should teachers respond to students’ writing during the writing process. In this lesson you will focus on effective methods of responding to students’ writing either through written comments or through conferences. In the next lesson we focus on evaluating/ grading writing; but in this lesson, the topic is not how to grade, but how to give students constructive, meaningful feedback. What roles can students play in responding to the writing of their peers? What kinds of comments give support and guidance? How can we help students become good assessors of their own writing? Because this topic and the topic of grading and evaluating are related, you may wish to do this and Lesson 9 simultaneously.

Activities To Do:
See detail instructions in the Activities list below.
	1.	Read Z&D 14, 16, and 17 up to p. 231
	2.	Blackboard: Practice responding to student writing
	3.	Interview your mentor teacher and/or other English teachers
	4.	Interview some students
	5.	Blackboard: Discuss
	6.	Blackboard: Reflection Paper
	7.	Blackboard: Remember to post to the "Bibliography of Great Resources" discussion topic instructions in requirements
	8.	Blackboard: Remember to post to the "Idea Exchange" discussion topic instructions in requirements

Activities

1. Read Z&D 14, 16, and 17 up to p. 231 (the rest of the chapter is for Lesson 9).

2. In chapter 17, Z&D describe some of the roles teachers play as responders to writing. Another description of these roles is “Hats Readers Can Wear” . In this lesson we’re concerned not with teacher as judge, but as coach, encourager, guide, expert, and copyeditor. Too often, teachers jump too quickly to the guide-expert-copyeditor roles without stopping to respond to the content as one human being to another. If we want students to care about what they write to others, we have to take what they write seriously; we have to be those interested readers the writers envision. Just for practice, read [STUDENT ESSAY DRAFT POSTED ON DISCUSSION SITE]. Post two comments you might make to the student, at least one of which must be human-to-human. Do this at the start of the week. Remember, these are comments you might make while the essay is in process. These are not comments you would make after the essay is complete. The subject of grading and evaluating will be taken up in Lesson 9.

3. Interview your mentor teacher and at least one other teacher about how they give students feedback during the writing process, either through conferences or in written comments on drafts. In addition, observe writing in progress in at least one class. If possible, review some drafts the teachers have made comments on and/or sit in on a teacher-student writing conference or peer conference. Take notes in your journal.

	Do the teachers confer with students when they are writing? What is the nature of the conference?
	What do the teachers see as their role in giving feedback?
	What is the nature of the feedback the teachers give? Using Z&D as a model, what role do you think the teachers are taking?
	Do peers confer in class, in groups or pairs, during the writing process?
	Do teachers or peers use guidelines or rubrics?
	Do writers have “conferences with themselves”?

4. Interview students: what kinds of comments, response to their writing do they find the most useful, written comments? What kind? Oral feedback? What kind and when? What kinds of feedback do students find particularly unhelpful?

5. Discussion: Based on your reading and observations, what are the roles teachers and students play in the responding process? What is the nature of feedback student writers get? What kind of feedback do students find most useful? Share your information in discussion labeled "Lesson 8" in Blackboard by mid-week. Post at least one response to someone's posting.

6. Reflection Paper: From what you’ve seen and read, what mechanisms for responding will you build into your class? What will you do the same or different from the teachers you’ve seen? Refer specifically to strategies in the readings and that you’ve observed. Turn this one-page paper into the Assignment Dropbox on Blackboard under "Lesson 8 Reflection" by the end of the week. The document should be a Word97 or higher format, 12 point legible text.