A Better Way to Correct Essays

I offer significant points for turning in rough drafts because revision is the most important part of the writing process. I have had much success in getting the students to do this part of the assignment, but one issue lies in how effective my feedback is regarding punctuation and grammar errors, and whether students can, or are motivated to, successfully translate my comments into improved writing and learning.

What not to do: proofread and edit. Not only is this time consuming, it is ineffective. Case in point: On one student's essay, I did comprehensive line editing, pointing out every grammar and punctuation error and providing the correction. Not only was the paper almost unreadable when I was finished, cluttered with the highlights and dialogue boxes, but it had no effect on learning. The paper had the simple errors corrected on the final draft which seemed like a success at first. Then I got to the end of the essay, where the writer had made a great point in the last sentence. I responded, "Indeed!"  Guess what the new last sentence of revised essay was? Indeed.

Insert wah-wah-wah fail music here. Transcribing is not learning. It is difficult for me to turn off my compulsion to correct all errors, but what I do now is use a code for each type of error, say a comma splice, and I do not correct it. The student matches the error code to a provided key, and logs a revision. I might give an example of a correction, but more often, I list the page number in their reference books that explains the concept if I think the student might not know how to correct the error.

They don't always get the corrections right, but they learn far more than mindlessly transcribing my corrections. First, they have to look up what the errors are, and figure out how to correct it on their own. They earn points for correctly revising one example of each type of error they make. Although I see fewer perfectly corrected papers, I see fewer recurrences of problem areas in subsequent drafts, and that's really what it's all about.

To see examples of my codes and logs, or if you want to buy mine instead of making your own, click here.

Peer Reviews - More ideas

 I've recently come across some great blog posts with more ideas for peer reviews and editing. I wrote a blog with tips for peer reviews here, but there are many methods out there. I intend to try all three of these.

From The Doc Is In comes this fast-paced, focused, round-robin-style editing. The time allowed seems a little short to me, but that can be easily remedied:

http://drpezz.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/peer-editing/


From Teaching the Teacher is this method using Google drive:

http://1brainsandwich.blogspot.com/2013/06/peer-editing-using-google-drive.html

Finally, the High School Bits blogs offers one teacher's method of using class discussions and having the whole class review the same few pieces at the same time:

http://blogs.bedfordstmartins.com/highschoolbits/peer-review/test-post-for-robin-aufses/

Tips for Effective Peer Reviews

Peer reviews of rough drafts can be a valuable tool in the classroom, but they can also be a disaster. Some students are resistant to others reading their work, while other students lack confidence in their critiquing skills. Early in my teaching career, I simply gave students a pep talk and let them critique each others' papers with little direction. This was a mistake, because it fed into both of these problems, and the results were not helpful to the students. What we ended up with was hit-or-miss proofreading rather than big picture critiques. Here are some tips that have led to effective peer reviews in my classroom:

1. Write specific items to look for on the whiteboard, or pass out a handout. These will vary depending on the type of writing, but some sample items from an argumentative research paper might be:

•    Highlight or underline the thesis statement. Does it contain a clear argument?
•    Does the author address the counter argument?
•    Is the introduction engaging? Does it make you want to read the rest of the paper?
•    Read the introduction and the conclusion together. Do they work together?
•    Are all the author's points supported by sufficient research

Remind students that they are not proofreading. I encourage students to mark on the drafts, but also to have a conversation with the author, because sometimes they can't fully express their comments on the paper.

2. Require the students to point out the positive aspects of the paper along with what needs to be improved.

3. Encourage writers not to get defensive when receiving the critique. I tell the students that their job is to listen carefully to the critique, then decide whether to make a given change or not. Some students feel obligated to act on every piece of advice they get, but I caution them to retain ownership of their papers, and make judicious decisions.

4. If you have students who are sensitive about sharing their drafts, you can instruct students to bring anonymous drafts, or allow them to choose their own critique groups.

5. Three to four critiques of a draft is a good number. This will allow the writer to see if readers agree on points of improvement, or if there is a difference of opinion.

5. I end the critique with a "Next Step" assignment, where I ask students to list the three most important things they learned about their paper in the critique groups, and what they are going to revise. This allows them to synthesize the information and make better revision decisions.

Regardless of whether the author gets useful advice from the reviewer, the reviewer always benefits by becoming more aware of how to read like a writer, and hopefully picks up some revision ideas for his or her own essay.

  

Tax Day Sale

I'm having a sale through tomorrow - 15 percent off everything in my store. I only do this about once every six months, so head on over if there's something you've been wanting.

http://teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Laura-Torres




I just posted my latest product - Revising Paragraphs. This is an effective way for students to self-edit using a color-coding system to make sure every sentence in a paragraph counts, and that the sentences are in a logical order. Complete lesson plan includes everything you need.