Looking back and moving forward

I really enjoyed reading and learning about the Six Traits Writing and Assessing Model. I feel that it is definitely a format I would adopt in my own classroom. I especially see the benefits for students. Being given an extensive list of assessment points can be very overwhelming on writers. By implying it to six very understandable categories I feel it would greatly benefit student experience.

Shifting my focus… this week I spent a great deal of time going back through old college papers for both the Voices from the Margins assignment and my English Content Portfolio. Looking back through all of my writing,  made me think and reflect about my progress as an academic writer over the past four years.

It is hard to ignore the progress in my ability to analyze and make connections in literature. I noticed that as time progressed I also was able to dig deeper into developing my own critical thoughts about the literature and topics presented.

However, I did noticed that I consistently struggled with grammar in the majority of my papers. Although, I feel the papers were still effective and organized coherently, grammatical errors keep appearing in professor comments. I am almost embarrassed by some of the careless mistakes left in my papers. I always make sure to take time and re-read but somehow seem to consistently miss errors. 

I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions or resources that could help? I have always been anxious about editing student papers for grammar because it is something I struggle with greatly. Through our readings, I do appreciate the focus on writing craft but grammar conventions still cannot and should not be over looked.

Both looking back through my own work and reading and thinking about assessing student work  brought me to realize my own need to ask for help with the editing/grammatical side of the writing process. I am excited to learn more and try out some new strategies with students and in my own writing. Any resources or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 

I apologize for the last minute post!

Mindful editing and assessment

Editing and assessing student writing is an aspect of teaching I never looked forward to doing. I feel as though it is such a fine line between providing students with the feedback and constrictive comments they need to improve ad grow as writers and crushing their confidence in their writing abilities. 

Reading Chapter 7 in Gallagher really opened my mind to a more thoughtful and student centered editing and assessment process. I feel the strategies that Gallagher lays out balances the very structural side of editing papers with the want to encourage student writing. 

I found that Gallagher’s focus on writing craft first really allows the students to challenge themselves in their writing. By asking the students to look at what is being said and how strong the arguments are allows revision to start on a deeper level than just grammar. I also think using the “I like” conversations or Golden Line Exchanges allows students to learn and share from others examples while boosting their confidence as writers.

Moving to the more structural grammatical side of editing I like how Gallagher encourages teachers to only focus on a few targeted grammar skills in each of the students work. This allows for students at all different skill levels to give editing attention where it is needed. By making editing more focused and mindful it also allows students to get a deeper understanding of the grammar conventions themselves and hopefully avoids the errors in the future.

Turing to the assessment part of the chapter I liked the model rubrics Gallagher includes. I think it is important to provide students with example of work at all parts of the rubric to best help them understand what they need to do to get to the target area. I also though that allowing students to choose some of the criteria for the rubric is a great way to allow the students to be mindful in the strengths and areas of need in their writing. 

Overall I felt the chapter to be very informative and full of great ideas and strategies to the very difficult idea of having to assess student writing. I definitely could see myself using a lot of the strategies in this chapter with my own students one day.