Caught in the Middle: Reading and Writing in the Transition Years (#5)
““Four types of peer feedback have been shown to have the greatest influence on students’ revisions:
1. When the writer feels blocked, peers and the writer play with ideas to move the writing forward.
2. Peers ask for clarification about what they find confusing or identify missing information.
3. Peers give their emotional response to the writing, for example, that it makes them laugh.
4. Peers question how plausible particular events or ideas are.
Peers may not be the best providers of criterion-based feedback regarding conventions, in particular, because they often lack the needed grasp of conventions. Their feedback should be valued for the information it provides about how readers respond to a piece of writing. Teacher feedback is generally more useful for moving students along in their use of writing conventions””
I have struggled with effective ways for my learners to evaluate one another's work. Peer editing is something we do in my class, but after reading this I have now been confronted with the idea that peer feedback is merely for helping inspire each other, give ideas to, and entertain each other with. My job is to get to the nitty-gritty of what I expect from them. I am continuing to revamp my peer evaluation forms.
In the coming week, we will be getting into book clubs (literature circles) that the learners will meet with once a week for the next month. A part of their accountability is their roles in their book clubs, as well as understanding that peer feedback in an ongoing skill they need to tap into. It is not merely just an evaluation form they will fill out at the end of our time together in these clubs. Rather, they need to learn that their feedback and responses to each other hold great power and influence. My job in this will be to talk with those who are not receiving the best feedback due to their negligence, lack of work ethic, or otherwise.
In reading about reader-response journals, which I will be starting next trimester, I have learned that comments to my learners versus markings on their entries is more constructive to the learner. I will need to continue to grow in this craft of feedback in order to move my learners along in their use of writing conventions, as Booth (2011) stated.
““To achieve my goal, I recognized that the preteens had to find the tasks engaging. History, in particular, had a reputation among the students in the Intermediate division for being “boring.” My job was to make it relevant and authentic. I wanted the activities to allow the students to extend their thinking from the curriculum to their own lives, and then beyond their immediate circle in order to understand global events. Under the umbrella of a Big Idea- Missing Voices- I believed that a cross-curricular inquiry approach, incorporating writing, drama, and technology, would enable me to make the activities authentic and meaningful””
What drives my teaching is the relevance and authenticity of each lesson. I want my learners to be able to apply whatever we are learning into their own lives. This is another reason why I am doing my literacy research on Reader-Response Theory. I want my learners to read and see themselves within the pages, and apply the pages within their own lives. I also am working with my other team members (colleagues) in their content areas to see where cross-curricular lessons and activities can happen.
In reflecting on Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005), essential questions, enduring understandings, and Reader-Response Theory (Rosenblatt, 1978), I continue to see patterns of opportunities for my learners to reflect on what we do in class to their own lives. The essential questions are introduced through texts we read. However, are answered by my learners’ ability to connect the text to their lives. Therefore, all of these practices go hand-in-hand. I am extremely excited to continue to make my lessons and activities more relevant and authentic through all of this!
Booth, D. (2011). Caught in the middle: Reading and writing in the transition years. Markham, Ontario, Canada: Pembroke Publishers.