I really liked the suggestions on creating a classroom that fosters writing. One particular suggestion that stuck out to me was providing students with rubrics. I remember one time in middle school, our teacher asked us to just switch papers and peer review the essays. The girl I switched papers with I was absolutely was terrified of. She got in fights almost every day, and was always sent down to the principle's office. I remember as I was reading over her paper, I realized the entire thing was not only one paragraph, but also only one sentence. Literally, there was one period in the entire thing and it was right at the bottom of the page. My heart sunk. I was so terrified to mark anything wrong for fear she would think I was a nerd or teacher's pet, or worse that she would want to beat me up. Not knowing what else to do, I handed back her paper and said, "Yeah, it looks great!"
By providing a rubric, students will be able to provide their peers with better feedback. For example, if my teacher would have given us a rubric that said something along the lines of, "Student uses well constructed, complete sentences," I could have marked that down and said there are a few places she could look over. That way, the student knows what the teacher is looking for and doesn't criticize the student doing the review. I also think that providing rubrics allows for students to know exactly what is expected of them. Nothing is more stressful as a student than trying to write a paper or do a project when you have absolutely no idea what your teacher is wanting!
I also learned it's very important to use the three levels of writing. I plan to have students keep journals in my class, which will allow students to participate in level one writing. I want students under no pressure when they are responding to prompts and questions in the journal, so I want to just give them points for participating. To incorporate level two and three, I would love to do a project similar to the one in my reading. The teacher provided students with a problem, and divided the class into three groups and assigned them with specific theories to describe the solution. Students were allowed to research and debate these ideas and were asked to write about it. This kind of activity allows for students to engage in writing that is related to the science content, but also provides them room to use their voice and creativity. I think in order for students to gain literacy in science, students need to be exposed to a variety of opportunities to actually write science.
First of all...what a great cartoon! I am going to steal it for another one of my blog posts next semester. :)
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I think you bring up a good point with peer grading in general. I remember one time, in my tenth-grade biology class, when my teacher asked us to "switch papers with a partner" and then grade their papers as she read the correct answers outloud. I remember writing YES when the correct answer was NO, and my partner said, "It was close enough." So he did not mark my paper wrong. But then I knew that he expected me to inflate his grade as well. It put me in a very awkward situation. So peer grading is not always what it's cracked up to be.
On the flip side, I remember my AP European History teacher who established such a fun, engaging environment where we were doing a lot of reading and writing in different genres. We did some peer review with rubrics, but it did not feel as stressful to me as switching papers in biology.
From these experiences, I think that the overall environment you establish is important in determining whether or not peer evaluation is effective. I also don't think you should ever allow peers to do the grading for you..students can do self or peer evaluations, but then you as the teacher should have the final say in grades because of issues like the one in my biology class (where friends inflate grades, or students who dislike each other grade each other poorly).
Thanks for a very thoughtful posting. You sound like you will be a biology teacher who fosters very smart scientific thinking!
I really liked your idea of using rubrics. I hadn't thought of rubrics helping students to review their peers work. I too learned the importance of three levels of writing. Giving students informal writing opportunities create a writing environment that is "low-pressure". I loved your post!
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