Yes, I have also had students read their essays out loud to the class and have their peers comment on the positives with suggestions or questions. In my Honors Class this works well and I enjoy them. As they read them out loud, I can jot down notes about the essay so that when they do turn it in I have, more or less,an idea of how they did. I do vow to try this with my basic classes. However, with my far below kids, just getting them to write a good summary is arduous for them and for me.
---- Amy Lesemann <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi - just teaching a writing class for 15 kids, and hand writing extensive > comments for them continually about did in my hand! But I can hearken back > to the days of 120 kids. > > But I don't think making them wait 3 wks for their comments is the answer - > I don't mean to offend hard working people, either. I do understand how hard > everyone is working. I think more peer commenting/editing is one answer. > Another is to take an essay, and WITH THEIR PERMISSION, put it on an > overhead, and model commenting on it. It has to be a fairly competent paper, > and a fairly confident kid (sometimes I took one from a different class) and > you have to model sandwiching comments. So, positive-negative - > positive...boom, you're done. Then they made some positive comments as well > - what they liked about the essay. > > Kids do love reading each other's work, and in my rough and tough class, you > could hear a pin drop when I put an essay on the overhead - I had to > establish rules - no dissing the work, no "I bet so and so wrote this", and > of course they tried to break the rules! But it helped them understand how > to critique the work, and what was a positive and useful comment, and what > was a negative and useful comment. It got to be more fun...we also used > post-it notes or scrap paper cut up for our comments - somehow, it was less > painful to see the comments on other paper than when it was written directly > on our work! > > Hope this helps...rubrics, too, are very useful as long as you give them out > before the work is due and explain them, so they know how the work will be > assessed - the language has to be user friendly or they're useless, and > you'll still end up writing a ton of comments! > > There is a free online rubric maker if you need one, in which you can > install your own standards. Very cool. Amy in Ann Arbor > > > > > -- > Amy Lesemann, Reading Specialist and Independent Learning Center Teacher, > St. Thomas the Apostle School > _______________________________________________ > The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org > > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
