Writing Feedback and Assessment

When Spandel talked about comments that teachers leave on papers, many of the exact phrases resonated with me. I still remember the comments that teachers left on my papers- the good ones, the vague ones, and the ones that are 'constructive'. If any comments were illegible or not understandable, I would ignore them completely.

As I was reading this, I thought to myself, OF COURSE we as teachers need to give specific comments that actually HELP students know where to go next and what they need to do to get there! Students need good models! My research has been addressing how students need explicit direction; and they need to know they are doing something right!!!! And exactly WHAT they are doing right! If someone just wrote 'awk' on a page, first of all, what is awk? Why is it awk? How can I make it better? Should I take it out, move it, rephrase it? That runs through students heads. But what runs through my head is: WHO EVER THOUGHT THAT AWK WAS A GOOD IDEA TO PUT ON A PAPER!?!?!?!?! Or any of those other notoriously ambiguous abbreviations. Seriously, guys, not positive or helpful. What purpose does it serve?

Sorry, my rant is over. I will leave this with one last thought:
"Whether or not the feedback is effective depends on what students need to hear."
That is the most important thing to think about when writing any comment on any student work.

Writing Assessment

What a loaded phrase.
What's most important?
Have a clear purpose!
Think:  
Why are you assessing?
What will this assessment show you?
How can you use it to inform further instruction? 

The best advice I ever got from a teacher: Never assign something you don't want to grade and make sure that it is worth the time. It has to tell you something valuable!

One novel concept that struck me: Is the writing assessment meant to measure on-demand (or on the spot) writing or processed writing? Many tests have students do a pre writing and a draft, then grade as though students should have edited, revised, and published their entire work within a few hours. Is this fair or a meaningful experience? So many things to consider!

In life students will do both, so as a teacher, I have started to think about creating authentic writing experiences and assessments. A quick evaluation, a press release, a response letter, a blog, or a journal can be authentic on-demand writing, while book reports, papers, drama, poetry, etc. are all polished writing, and students should have a chance to revise and work on those pieces over a more extended length of time. These should be taught as such! And assessed as such!

There is still so much more to consider when actually doing this in class. What will be on the rubric? That depends upon the goal of the writing task. How much time will they have? Depends upon the steps they need to complete, the prompt, the research (if any) needed to do that.

The last walk-away point that I appreciated?
Foster students who can become their own evaluators. The teacher is not the holder of all knowledge- and if they are, then students are sunk if they write on a test with no feedback, or outside of school. Students need to learn what is good writing, and how to evaluate their own writing. That is why we give them rubrics ahead of time, right? So they can evaluate their own work before a teacher or peer does. Also- older students should totally grade each others work anonymously! So the name of the writer and grader is unknown. That will help them become better evaluators of their own work as well!

In the end, when the year is done, will the student walk away a better, more authentic writer?

Organization and Argument

A great New York Times article (see link in references) really drives home the point that persuasive writing should remain authentic; this skill is important beyond the classroom, and students should learn this skill in a practical, applicable way. This incredible articles brings many crucial points to the discussion, such as student choice in a passionate topic, modeling excellent writing, research, organization, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Such a great read, and practical! If you read nothing else, read this article! I would even read this with my students before we undertake this endeavor!!!

The organization of an argument piece can serve as the architectural scaffolds for the student to expand their writing.

This list of steps that stipulate how to teach organization is a nice start, but there are so many steps I would spread them out over lessons and only use them to guide my own planning. This list is too long and extensive for so many of my students that they would feel overwhelmed by so many steps and all of the directions underneath so many steps.

1. Model the writing of a lead. Students need models, especially if they are inexperienced writers.

2. List "tired" leads to avoid. These are the overused beginnings all teachers avoid.

3. Get specific about how to begin. Is there a direction students need to take?

4. Write badly on purpose. Help students identify what is bad, and how to fix it!

5. "Envision" writing by exploring genre. Different genres write in various ways. This can expand a student's repertoire.

6. Describe a few design possibilities. Students still have autonomy and choice; something to celebrate! They could start with comparison-contrast, problem-solution, chronologically, etc.

7. Order the details. Make sure that they make sense, the transitions are present, and easy to follow!

8. Talk before you write. I don't know why this author didn't put this first; I also don't know why this is a separate step and not integrated into every step. Students learn through talking, and they should be talking before writing in every step.

9. Play with time. Not everything should be chronological!

10. Use questions to create a "middle". Define what "the middle" so students understand concretely what is meant by the beginning, the middle, and the end. The middle is the answer to all the question one has about the subject of the paper, or can be described as the action.

11. Explore the transitions. Be creative!!! Use models and create a list!

12. Practice writing killer endings. What is going to leave your audience thinking about the work?

That was exhausting to even read, wasn't it? And that was the short version!
Spandel really causes me to feel more informed about how overwhelming writing planning can be in reality. In reality, I would plant these steps over a long time, building on the skills students have, and creating mini lessons that focus on argument but use these steps. How would you use this list? Would you even use this list at all?

Daniels provides practical ideas for exit slips, writing breaks, illustrations, clusters, and mapping. In content areas, students can take a stand on a topic that they have been learning about and support their points with what they have learned or with their own research on the topic! I love how this brings writing into the content areas, and causes students to think critically about their learning and their writing. I already use exit and entrance slips, so it would be easy to expand them into mini essays! The content maps or illustrations of content can also easily transition into a pre-writing or a way for students to show writing in an informational context. Which of these ideas would you use in your classroom, and why?

Reflection QuestionsI've answered some of these above, so now think about how you would answer these questions:
Why is argument an important skill for students to develop?
What are the variety of genres/forms that would work to support the development of argument in your students? Why?
What are various strategies that you can use to support the development of argument, written or oral, with your students?
What writing traits might you teach as you develop argument in you students? Which 6+1 Traits would you use?
What obstacles have you experienced or do you anticipate as you develop this skill in your students? 

References:
Spandel, V. (2013). Creating Writers: Through 6 Traits, Process, Workshop, and Literature. New York: Pearson.
Daniels, H., Zemelman, S., Steineke, N. (2007). Content-Area Writing: Every Teacher's Guide. New Hampshire: Heinemann.
New York Times Aticle: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/for-the-sake-of-argument-writing-persuasively-to-craft-short-evidence-based-editorials/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=1

Conferring in a Writer's Workshop

"writing allows us to pull back and ask questions of our thoughts." (Calkins)

I had to stop after I read this quote because this is how writing helps me refine and analyze my thoughts. 

Calkins addressed how to conference in chapters 13 & 14. As I read I thought to myself about the different types of conferences. Confer with self, peers, and experts (the teacher in some cases). The biggest take away for me was: students should walk away from the conference wanting to write.

Writing is about the content and the process. Hear the content the student shares and think about what the student needs to hear after sharing the story, which is a little piece of themselves. They are humans, sharing a human experience, and sometimes that means emotional support or excitement. Then help the process, maybe by asking them to, "Help me imagine how this feels."

 "Making Students into Better Writers" with Ms. N (pseudonym)
Teacher Talk- There is just too much teacher talk! She says great things, but I want to hear the student owning her work, walking me through her work, and telling me her own thoughts about her work! In addition, all this Teacher Talk (which I capitalize for importance) goes against what Calkins says about students being the owners of their own work. The teacher makes many suggestions, reads the piece aloud to the student. What would I change? I would ask more questions instead of making suggestions, unless I know the student needs that support, and I would have the student read their piece aloud to me.
As she was running the conference, I asked myself, "How could she use this conference to teach independence and self-correcting skills?"

Precision Teaching Video
As I watched this video I was extremely distracted by the lack of student involvement. 
-Get on student level
-Doesn't monitor behavior or student attention besides mentioning one expectation at the beginning
-Texts on board are too small to see, probably even for the students
-I like how she had the students read aloud to each other
-The kids held a great peer conference with each other

When conferring, teachers must:
Listen
Think
Teach
Try

Listening to the student comes first, then thinking about what the student needs, then teaching, then having the student try the new skill. I agree with this student-centered approach to developing authors in our classrooms.