Forgive me, bloggers. It has been over 6 months since my last post! It's not that I haven't thought about posting... It's not that I haven't been working on my goal (looking critically at different ways I can give feedback on student writing)... It's just that I've been feeling rather disheartened all year, and haven't really had the gumption to write. But it's been 6 months, so I figured I'd better write something!
When I last wrote, I had been experimenting with giving students written responses in bullet points, focusing on what is working. Since then, I have gone to a checklist with three columns: "Excellent," "You're on the right track," and "Needs improvement," and I modify the specifics of the criterion depending on the assignment. (I have also used a similar checklist with questions like "does the writer..." and "yes" or "not yet" as the possibilities.) This lets me focus on issues of content, organization, style, mechanics, etc. At the bottom of the checklist, I try to write a few sentences that respond to what the student has said, and not how they have said it. (For example, on their "This I Believe" essays, I wrote a few sentences in response to the belief itself, or the personal anecdote they told to illustrate the belief. Instead of assessing their writing, I reacted as a reader.)
As far as teacher-friendliness, this system is working pretty well. It's efficient, and helps me focus on the elements of an assignment for which I most want to hold students accountable. I like that the categories are consistent and on a continuum, and that I can change the specific criterion. What I am still struggling with, as I have been all year, is how to assign a number (or letter) grade to their writing. Actually, that's not true... I have no problem giving a point value to each category ("Excellent" = 3, "Needs improvement" = 1, etc.) The problem is that the kids only notice the grade and ignore the written comments and the checklist. No matter how hard I try to stress the content of the feedback, they are only interested in the grade. I have, at times, left the grade off, and just recorded it in teacherease. This only serves to postpone their grade-focused response until the end of the day when they jump on a computer to see their "real" grade.
I have also had a few unpleasant instances of students who are so mad about their grade that they don't/can't pay attention to the actual feedback I have given them. This feels like a missed educational opportunity. Instead of being a writing teacher, I become the enemy who has failed them. That's incredibly frustrating.
So perhaps you can see why I haven't posted too much this year... I haven't seen the progress that I had hoped for when I set this goal. I still think it's a worthy goal, and maybe one I can continue to work on next year. When I have the answer, I will be very happy to share it!
Tamar
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At the beginning of the school year, I didn't have any reservations about assigning letter grades to students' writing pieces. After attending an Atwell workshop, reading In the Middle, and reflecting on the purpose of teaching writing, I've changed my position.
ReplyDeleteWe want students to become effective communicators and storytellers, and I don't see how a letter grade helps accomplish that goal. In fact, it seems to be counterproductive. Tamar is right. Students immediately see the letter grade and the comments, the relevant feedback, is overlooked. A system of approaching, meets, or exceeds the standard is probably more beneficial, but, in students' minds, they would probably still attach A, C, and F letter grades to those categories.
Students need to see what worked and what didn't in a piece of writing. Our comments should make it clear to them. The goal is for students to internalize the elements of good writing in a variety of genres and to look for those elements in published works, their own writing, and other student's pieces.
Keep working through it Tamar! It sounds like you already provide the kind of feedback that will help students become better writers.
I'm, just writing this short comment to see if I can figure out where my first one went....if anyone "sees" it let me know. Maybe I chose the wrong "select profile". DC
ReplyDeleteSince I was so thoughtful this morning with my comment & then so frustrated that it "went away" I'll try to summarize...
ReplyDeleteI used the same type of rubrics you're using and felt they were good for me, the students & writing mentors when I had some. Everyone could focus on what we were trying to do.To help students who want ( or may not want) to produce better writing, I gave them the rubric with circled evaluation and no grade, although it was pretty easy to figure out where they stood. If they WANTED to improve their writing they would use the the rubric & comments to do so, and then receive their final evaluation with their grade, which would hopefully be better than their first attempt. Students who did not want to improve their writing received the original evaluation with a grade...their choice, not mine. DC