The discussions were particularly rich last week. Maybe you are all inspired by testing! Continued your conversations about the Six Traits,assessments, and grading practices. Consider posting a writing/project rubric, idea for approach to grading, or a successful strategy for responding to student work. Share what works for you.
Thinking ahead....We will save our online discussion of student work until next week. Be thinking of a piece of student writing you might like to share with the class for discussion or guidance. Next week, each of you will post a anonymous piece of student writing including an explanation of your criteria for the assignment and the method of evaluating that piece. If you have a rubric, include that.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
16 comments:
Hi!
here is one idea for peer revision that i found on the read-write-think site and altered to suit our needs. we use it for improving word choice and clarifying ideas. it is by no means "perfect" but it gives me a concrete piece for evaluating both the writer and the editor in the process of revision. before i throw this into the open classroom it is an anchor mini-lesson for my work, then several students use me as their editor, in fish bowl sessions and finally it goes into the workshop tool box.
i hope the form will be useful as i paste it into this post. (i tried just copying the section below onto a word doc. and it worked, with minor formatting changes.) certainly you'll get the general idea. the form i've made is in two columns -- one for the "Idea Editor" and one for the "Writer" -- here they show up in a list:
IDEA EDIT:
Idea Editor
MAIN JOBS:
* Listen with care
* Improve this writer’s work
1. Do not interrupt the writer’s
reading.
2. Give full attention with eye contact & body
language.
3. As the piece is read: Write simple questions that the writer can answer IN THE WORK.
• ___________________________________
• ____________________________________
• ____________________________________
• ___________________________________
4. List some words they can use to spice up this piece.
• ____________________________________
*__________________________________
• __________________________________
5.. AVOID!!
• Killer comments - be kind & smart
• Automatic stamp of approval
• Getting off track
• Monopolizing the discussion
Writer
MAIN JOBS:
* Read your work with pride
* Listen for improvements
* Make changes
1. Read your own work.
2. Direct the focus of your editor to listen for problems or dull writing.
3. Ask for help from idea editor.
4. Listen to the editor.
5. Do not interrupt the editor, use your empty spaces or a sticky note to write answers or add “golden” words.
6. Be open to the possibility off change. Keep track of the ideas your editor suggests and use them to strengthen your work.
7. Keep this paper with all your drafts
One of the things that really has worked well for me this year is using rubrics that address only the 6-trait portion we have worked on and talked about. The students know what the expectation is and as we learn and try out all of the 6-traits throughout the year I have added more to the rubric. It has made it more meaningful for them and I can see if they understand and can articulate in writing the trait I am looking for.
Over the years I always tried to grade one piece of writing for everything - this just makes more sense to me.
Molly, I share your need to help the peer revision process become more concrete and specific. I have a similar "jobs" list that works well at the high school level. Such clearly defined objectives for both the writer and editors really slow down and add depth to the revision process, as kids are no longer just completing their revisions in a haphazard manner.
I like the idea of having not only a rubric for students' essays, but also a rubric for editing. Essentially, the editorial rubrics I use are derivatives of the editorial activity Molly presents in her post (incidentally, Molly, I like it!). Of course to some extent, even the most well designed guide to editorial analysis and input is only as good as the motivation of the editor using it. The "automatic stamp of approval" listed in Molly's activity under the ominous 'AVOID' heading is unfortunately all too common among my students.
Consequently, I've contemplated implementing a separate grade for editors to 'discourage' rubber stamp editing. One would hope that a solid guide for editors coupled with some measure of accountability might spur them on to greater editorial heights, meaningful input. Unfortunately, it is difficult for me as their teacher to determine whether poor editing is a result of a deficiency of editorial skills, language skills, both of these, or apathy. I'll hope for the best.
Having said this, I'm spurred to address the concept of accountability in a broader sense; most likely, this discussion will come at the sacrifice of great ideas concerning writing instruction (quite frankly, I've a dearth of ideas in this department anyway, which is why I decided to take this course!)
I finished reading the Perchemlides/Coutant article "Beyond Grades". The blurred PDF reproduction of the article almost deterred me, but I popped a few Tylenol to ward off an eye-strain induced headache and set off to digest this fine piece of writing. Once again, I found myself feeling like a sham of a teacher after reading it because I agree with the authors' arguements, but I don't actually follow them in practice. I concur with the authors' wisdom that assigning a single grade to a composition is counterproductive and misguiding. It is counterproductive in the sense that it fails to encourage students to engage fully in the recursive editing/revision stages of the writing process. Once students see the grade, they're done. Attaching a final grade is misguiding in the sense that students are implicitly taught that the quality of their writing, perhaps even their ideas, is quantifiable. Certainly, it is not. And even if it were, would we want to quantify it? Would we want to reduce art and human truth to a cold rating system? Imagine the conversations which might ensue over the literature we teach? "I'm not sure what this Catcher in the Rye business is all about. This guy can't articulate himself at all. His conventions and sentence fluency scores are abysmal, and this scatter brained narrator has no unity of thought. What did grade did this book get anyway, Mr.Campbell?"
Yet, I give grades on final papers, so if I'm so against it on principal, I suppose I've got a bit of cognitive disequilibrium to reconcile. I'll try to muster some rationalizations with regard to this ill-advised approach. First, and perhaps I'm alone here, but I feel somewhat obligated to attach grades to major assignments, or more to the point, assignments that consume a great quantity of instructional time. I hate the idea of grading writing in the traditional sense (e.g. letter grades), but I can't exactly stomach the notion of awarding the everybody-is-a-winner gold star to a student who squanders his class time. This speaks to the true nature of grading - accountability. In education, accountability is commensurate with measure-ability, which brings me to my second excuse; we operate in a system, arguably a modern reality, that demands ostensible benchmarks and measures for progress. The hot words of the day are data-based assessments, and well...benchmarks. This educational jargon is code for "give me something I can hold people accountable by." This is not to say that educators (or any rational being) should balk at data merely because it offends our romantic or Bohemian sensibilities. I tirelessly advocate for standardized assessments, measurable and potentially data-friendly goals, as a core for my English department's mission to improve the literacy in our school. The problem I face is extricating our assessments from our need for accountability. NCLB mandates assessments that equate with accountability. Too many students fail the test and the Fed breaks yanks funding. Our students produce poor writing, whether as result of poor effort or insufficient skills, and we give them a bad grade. Parents, administrators, and students focus on grades as the measure of progress in education, not necessarily because it reflects a commonly agreed upon conception of what progress actually means, but because it is the standard. The motivation behind our common conceptualization of both assessments and grades is the same - fail to meet our standards of progress and be held 'accountable' (e.g punished) for your shortcomings.
Accountability is necessary, and I'm not advocating a classroom nor a world without it. One only need pause to look at the current economic environment - predatory lending, deregulation, AIG, bailouts - to see that a lack of accountability does not exactly engender positive human behavior. Still, if the end goal of assessment and accountability is progress, measurable or not, a deliberate approach to both concepts must be taken.
Wow, rubrics are a serious weakness of mine. We used to attach them to lesson plans while I was still in school and I think I may have grown to hate the idea of always creating a rubric. I know they're necessary for effective and efficient grading and reflection on student work.
I have found for me that meeting with students individually and reading through their peice together proves to be helpful. We also often work with key questions or a focus from the start. For example, if sequencing or organization is our focus, during the meeting the student and I will discuss whether or not they have met that objective. I ask a lot of questions and they have to think about their work and whether or not they feel they did an adequate job of explaining each step. I know I'm not giving a ton of specific feedback or linking what they're doing to a rubric, but it's great at this age to experience them thinking deeper about their writing.
I know it's not much, and it's definitely not great, but that's why I'm here - to learn!
I am a first grade teacher and struggle with teaching my students editing, especially peer editing. I don't know how to make peer editing appropriate for first grade. One thing that really does hold me back on writing is having the revision all fall on me. I know the importance of prompt meaningful feedback for revisions but then I get overwhelmed doing so each time I want to give a writing assignment. Has anyone else on here handled this situation? I took an assessment class this year that dealt with the importance of creating reliable, comprehensive rubrics and that has helped a lot but there also needs to be some teacher bias allowed as well. My two SpEd kids cannot fulfill the full point value requirements and then there is the student who I am so focused on getting him even to write anything that I feel like I am shooting myself in the foot every time I conference with him regarding his paltry writing. I looked over your form Molly, and I really like it. I wonder if it is too late in the year to implement this with my kids...perhaps it can be something for my implementation paper instead.
Creed, the points you raise are ones I struggle with myself. I know that at the HS level it's a bit different but at the end it's all the same struggle. I, too, agree that assigning a single grade to a comprehensive piece of writing almost trivializes the true art form of writing. I see it in my own students, once they get their grade, they throw their papers. I have dumpster dived within my own room as I retrieve a paper that has been scored and acknowledged by the student. But then, what do I do? I am not at a Waldorf school. I have to assign grades, including in writing.
I worked with first, second, and third grade students in a multi-age class using a writers workshops model.
I went back and found my Rubrics. It was nice to find the rubrics among other forms I used in the classroom, but that coupled with classroom snapshots, left me certainly feeling melancholy.
The form content may need some work, I changed a few things for this posting so that it would be more general.
Self Conference- Before Peer - Read it to yourself
Does it make sense?________
Is there a Beginning, Middle, and End?________
Does anyone think, see, or say?_____
Have I circled words I need help with and added punctuation?____
Peer Conference - Read it to Someone Else
My partner for a peer conference was____
One thing my partner liked about my piece was ____
Some questions my partner asked about my piece were ____
I revised some things to make mypiece sound better_____
Self Edit - Check the paper yourself
__ I checked the spelling
__I checked the Capitalization
__I have sentences.
__I checked every sentence for a period or questions mark.
__I checked for paragraphs
I am going to Peer Edit with____
Peer Edit - Check the paper yourself- This paper should be filled out by the Peer Editor
__ I checked the spelling
__ I checked the Capitalization
__ I have sentences.
__ I checked every sentence for a period or questions mark.
__ I checked for paragraphs
__The overall paper makes sense
If all 4 steps have been completed and you have made revisions to your draft
it is time to decide if you are ready to put it into the Teacher Conference basket. Please be patient until the conference, perhaps you can work on some story starts or build another great piece!
In addition to this process was the process I used with students in regards to Quick Writes. In this process, students exercise consideration for others learning to be good audience. ( the focus is still on 6 traiits)
Generally, the students were presented an interesting book cover or image offering a number of possible character perspectives. The students quickly wrote a quick write completely told from the perspective of one character. Later these could be used for other writing assignments. Example: A student would see a little dog image and would write about what the dog thinks, sees, or hears. At the conclusion of the Quick Write time, the students were offered an opportunity to share their writing aloud to the classroom audience. In some cases the author chose a peer to read for them. The class audience was given up to three opportunities to make a positive comment or ask a respectful question about the quick write. As time went on, we asked for additional character perspectives and setting descriptions, building the focus to ultimately include all 6 traits
Rubrics can be a very useful tool if used well in the classroom. I have found that it takes some of the subjectiveness out of my grading. It also is a handy tool that the student can use to make each paper better. I do use the six-trait rubric as a back-up, but generally I have my own criteria listed in a rubric form. I do like the idea of having student input when making the rubric. For instance, when the class is studying voice and how to make their voices stand out more, I am going to have the students list five ways to grade a paper using voice. Then as a group we can compile the assignment into the perfect rubric for that particular class. This may reinforce their knowledge of using voice in a positive way and give them more ownership of their grade on the essay. I’m hoping that it will help the more reluctant writers actually see how they can improve their papers before they hand them in.
I absolutely hate grades. I know that it is a motivating tool and there has to be some sort of assessment, but I have such a hard time giving a student a grade. With the program at this school, there needs to be at least two grades given each week. Everything is black and white. If the student gathered enough points to get an 89, he/she gets a B. It doesn’t matter what went into that 89%. I like where the student keeps a portfolio of writing and whatever work was done in the semester. I would rather evaluate how much improvement happened over the semester. I’d also like to see what the student would put forth as his/her best work. It may not be the best work that I would pick out. It may be the one that the student worked the hardest to complete. I think it would be very interesting to see what my students would pick. I guess I would need a rubric to keep the subjectiveness out of this one! dc
Lance- I like your rubric. Even though you use it for younger students than I have, it isn’t the chronological age that I worry about. It is my students’ ability to write in a way that is comprehensible to others and not a drag to do by the authors. By the time I get high school students, I have to start over to the very beginning of the writing process and still make it something that the students don’t dread doing. I think I will try your rubric on two of my boys this year. Thanks for the ideas Lance. dc
Like Courtney, I too struggle to teach young children (Kindergarten) any sort of editing. I am lucky enough to have only 14 kids in my class (with a new student coming tomorrow, Yikes!) I usually have enough time to meet with each of my children on their writing everyday. Not only do I get to help in the crafting process, they all have to read me their “story” when writing time is done. At that point I get to correct for mechanics and did it make sense or leave out words. I always put it back on the kids, I point out a part that needs work and generally the kids know how to fix it up. I love when they go back and sit down to fix it up and look back over the rest and notice something that also needed fixing.
I really fall down on using rubrics. I created some in college for different units that I wrote. But now at Kindergarten, I do not use them. I think that I give good verbal feedback and help the kids to think about what they are writing when we meet. They are still so new to the idea that they can have a thought, get it down and that other people can read it. And any of the mechanics are challenging. We practice over and over periods, capitals, finger spacing, re-reading to make sure that it makes sense, etc.
Thinking about moving up to first grade next year, I really liked Lance's check list. I have already copied it into a word document to work over for next year. Thanks for the sharing!
At Hutchison High School students complete a Personal Profile for their Career Portfolios. This Personal Profile contains information students can use to apply for colleges, unions, the military, scholarships or to request letters of recommendation.
College application essays often ask students to write about an important person who made a difference in their lives. The students can choose anyone who has taught them something. The people students choose do not have to be teachers in the traditional sense but could be a coach, a church leader, or a family or community elder. For this writing project students write a tribute to this teacher and this tribute is placed in their portfolio.
This writing exercise is adapted from Read-Think-Write, A Significant Influence: Describing an Important Teacher in Your Life. Students brainstorm, free write in their journals, and share preliminary ideas with peers in their English 12 classes. Once students have a first written draft of their stories they are placed in groups to share their stories. Students read their drafts aloud and group members ask questions about information in their stories. Students are given time after they share their writing to make any corrections or additions to their teacher tributes.
The Teacher Tribute Rubric is used as a resource to guide their writing. The rubric has the following categories: Focus of the Tribute, Details and Evidence, Organization, Sentence Structure, and Grammar, Spelling, and Mechanics.
The following resources can provide additional information to help focus students’ work on traditional papers:
o College Essay Writing Tips, from the College Board
o Tips for Writing Your College Application Essay, from the Associated Colleges of the Midwest
o Writing the Personal Statement, from the Purdue OWL
o How to Write an Application Essay from Foothill College
o Application Essays, from the Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jerrilyn- At what age to do have the students start writing their personal profiles? I’m wondering if you have them do it each year and just update them, or do they start over each year? At this school, the seniors do portfolios. I appreciate the additional information at the end. I will look into these resources. dc
Students start writing their personal profiles as freshman. I tell students a personal profile is a 3D image of themselves, a scrapbook of their lives in words. Students edit, revise, and update their profiles in advisory groups once per semester. I have discovered Seniors are busy with post secondary plans and do not always take time to write meaningful personal profiles.
Post a Comment