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.
My favorite part about the rubric is that part of it is tailored to the assignment and the other part is individualized to the student--by the student.
ReplyDeleteI also liked Gallagher's emphasis on writing craft and staying away from just fixing grammar. Being mindful about errors in grammar can help students for with revision and try to focus on organizing and tweaking their arguments. I also like how Gallagher had the students add parts to their rubric. This gets them involved in their process of writing and more of a voice before they write. Students can also be informed on the parts to a rubric and How it applies to their writing. Any way that teachers can get students to really think about their writing and how they can grow as writers will help them whether through craft of writing or rubrics.
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