This week I found all three articles to be helpful. They actually all gave concrete suggestions that teachers can use to benefit their writing students. I really liked that I had some "take away tools" to implement into my classroom. One of the biggest thoughts I had as I was reading brought me back to the Sommers article from a few weeks ago, and that was how students can easily feel that their teachers are not invested in them. That became most clearly stated in the Bean article. I loved that he included research showing students' comments after receiving vague or mean feedback on their writing pieces. This was so telling to me. Kids are emotionally invested in their work, and teachers often dismiss this. To get these types of comments must be so frustrating, even damaging. I enjoyed how he modeled how using feedback can be useful and even showed the improved revised piece afterwards.
The Beach and Friedrich piece was helpful in that they honed in on the different types of feedback out there and how each works. They addressed ELL students often, stating that these learners want more negative comments because they want to know what's wrong and fix it. I also really liked that they suggested taping comments and conferences. Such a clever idea. That can be useful for low level learners and for teachers. Being able to reflect on ourselves is so important. What better way than to hear ourselves instructing our students. And, Nancie Atwell. I simply admire her, and the fact that they quote one of her strategies that I vowed to use this year is so cool. Attwell's In the Middle, is a great resource for all things writing, and a place I often like to visit. Beach and Friedrich mentioned her tactic of writing back to her students, a useful technique that I read about last year and added to my list of "thing to try" for this year. Overall, I think their article has some substantial meat to it and gives teachers some groundwork for helping them provide the best feedback in order for their students to create stronger revisions.
Finally, the Jaxon piece was great. She had many concrete ideas to strengthen peer responses. I love having my students work together on their writings, but man, it takes a lot of practice and modeling to get them to a place where they can do the work Jaxon poses. Because I have my students for two years, I feel that there is so much growth in this area, but baby steps need happen. Right now we are practicing using "glow" and "grow" statements. They still all want to comment on handwriting, spelling, or grammar. I do agree with her reasons for why we incorporate peer work: that a deeper knowledge is created, there is an immediate audience for the text, and it helps students reflect on their own work. This is smart work, but takes time to build.
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