Your responses have been particularly impressive and thoughtful, already touching on some of my suggestions for this week. I am thinking back to our first discussion about what kinds of experiences we should be offering students for effective results and some of the posts you made there. How does that fit here? Let's keep up the momentum!
Possible topics:
- How can we find time to read, respond to, and evaluate student work?
- Review and consider what "Writing Next" and the 11 strategies imply relating to evaluation.
- Do you use rubrics, and if so, how do they work? Tips? Limitations?
- Post an effective rubric for a project or a strategy for responding to student work.
- Do you incorporate peer response in your writing process? When or how?
- What about individual writing conferences? Are they manageable or effective for you?
I’ll start the discussion off with a comment on rubrics. I do use rubrics. All the time. I am partial to the 6-traits one because it is a wonderful way to assess writing. It’s more challenging to make it into a pre-writing learning tool. In fact, this year, I finally came up with an analogy my kids could possibly understand. It’s like making a loaf of bread!! (Yeah, sure, you may say, but my kids did actually understand it …somewhat!) I’ve got a picture of the analogy in the last picture of my virtual classroom at http://mskeil.blogspot.com/ if you’re interested.
ReplyDeleteI REALLY enjoyed the website on peer response. I’ve never set up a writing workshop, and I’ve always wanted to (intended to?). I do use peer review, but it’s generally not that well structured, and this site gave lots of tools and ideas of how to do that. Especially helpful were the tips on what could go wrong and how to avoid those things using structure and planning.
Do you incorporate peer response in your writing process? When or how?
ReplyDeleteMy students are at this point willing to have others listen to their stories and discuss them. They are not willing to let others read their writing because they don’t trust each other to be nice. They feel the others will criticize and hurt their feelings. This is one aspect of teaching writing I have avoided do to student sensitivity but I am about to change this week. I want to try some ideas I got from the readings the past few days. I am going to have the students orally brainstorm what they are going to write about and then write. Maybe if the others in the room are involved in the stories, the sensitive writers will be more willing to work as a team in evaluations. Next week it will be fun to see if it works though it might take more than one week to change the group dynamics.
I loved 6 Traits of Writing model and the rubrics for teaching and evaluating my students’ work! Like other teachers, I stared with the MOVIES (Mechanics, Organization-, Voice, Ideas, Effective Word Choice, and Sentence Fluency) as a mnemonics device to explain and simplify the traits to my Ells. With practice, they got used to the new terminology. The engaging structure of the 6 Traits helped me set up the “authors ‘circles” for peer conferencing and peer editing. The 6 Traits was one of the most helpful tools to re-evaluate my own approach to teaching in general. Soon I got familiar with the concept of the seventh, +1 trait-“presentation” - and recognized the value of the visual appearance of a piece of writing to be fostered as well.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the highest instructional value of 6+1 Traits Writing model is that it provides the common language, consistency, and scaffolding in approaching the writing process for both teachers and students. It sets the parameters for excellent writing; the traits-based rubrics give students clear guidelines on how to improve their writing and provide structure for “self-regulation” and peer editing.
I enjoyed reading the article “The Writing Rubric” by Saddler and Andrade which made me think about the distinction between the instructional and assessment rubrics. I used to give students rubrics and checklists to guide their work, but the article reinforced my appreciation for their scaffolding nature in developing students’ “self-regulation” skills. Instructional rubrics set expectations for students to revise their papers and give structure to practice providing feedback for their peers.
ReplyDeleteUsing color for self-assessment, as suggested by the authors, is a great idea. A student, trying to match the colors of the tasks in the rubric with her writing, obviously is prompted to revise her work more carefully. At the beginning stages of learning writing essays, my students used colored pens/pencils and green, yellow, and red strips of paper as the strategies ( “Step-Up to Writing”) and liked working with colors on their rough drafts.
Students’ involvement with creating criteria for excellence can help a lot with the assessment. For example, asking students a broad question like “What do you think the excellent writing should be?” can give them an insight on how to approach their writing and foster the responsibility to try their best. Their standards can be surprisingly high. To help me assess students’ skills first and guide their self-assessment in the writing process, I found it helpful creating the lists of possible problems ( It is hard for me to begin.. ; I struggle to get ideas for my writing; It is difficult for me to find effective words.., etc.) and pleasures (I enjoy writing because I can tell what I know .., I am good at writing the topic sentence.., It is easy for me to check spelling , grammar and punctuation… etc.). Later, students would make their own “writing problems/writing pleasures” lists. Comparing and finding similarities in their lists, “pair-share-style”, had a positive effect by creating a trustful atmosphere for future peer conferencing and gave a confidence boost to many: “I am not the only one who had trouble with this.”
Grading and evaluating students’ work is the toughest teaching job. But if there is a solid criteria addressing specific focus in writing, it is easier for a student to perform the task and for a teacher to assess the work. That is why rubrics are very helpful. Both instructional and assessment rubrics, as learning strategies, provide students with structured and focused practice to develop their self-regulating skills and improve their writing overall.
Well, I've got to comment on question #1 first, because it is what I struggle with the most. I've got 121 students who are all writing multi-paragraph essays. I'm just going to go ahead and admit that they don't all get meaningful feedback from me all the time. With some assignments I feel lucky to simply read and score all of the papers in a timely manner. This makes me feel really guilty, because I realize that giving feedback is incredibly important, but my reality is that I can't always do it.
ReplyDeleteI also have not figured out a good way to conference with students in class. Many of my students require my constant vigilance to keep them on task. Often when I attempt to give my attention to one student, or a small group of students, I find I immediately have another portion of the class off-task. A lot of my kids are like Katie from "The Writing Rubric" article. They don't like writing and actively look for ways to not have to write.
That said, I really appreciated the suggestion, in "The Writing Rubric," that teachers develop "reflective critics" in their classrooms to help manage the need for feedback. There are definitely students in each of my classes who could take on this roll if properly trained. I also liked the idea of an instructional rubric. I use rubrics, but they usually show students how they are going to be graded on their finally products, not how they can evaluate and revise their own work as they are writing.
I've got to say that all these articles had good, practical information in them that I will use in my classroom. I've also got to say they all made me feel like I've got miles to go before I'm the writing teacher I want to be.
In my kindergarten classroom we practice peer response at the very beginning level. We do this as a whole group because at this stage they need very strong support. A student will share their writing with the group then I will ask for a few comments. At first of course all I will get is “I like your picture”, etc. but every sharing time I also model a simple question designed to encourage them to add more detail to their writing. Soon the other students are asking more thoughtful questions like “where were you when that happened?”, “what was your friend’s name in that picture”, etc. My hope is that with this very early introduction to peer response, students will be more comfortable both sharing their work and providing thoughtful responses and have a solid foundation for other teachers to build on.
ReplyDeleteLike all teachers I constantly struggle with finding the time to provide feedback for every student. My students work in their writing folders daily and all their work is kept in the folder. I try to conference individually with each student once a week but I don’t always meet that goal. My struggling writers get a little more frequent feedback and sometimes I feel like I am shortchanging my very capable writers.
I certainly sympathize with Stacey about the difficulty keeping students on task while you conference with individuals or small groups. This is what kindergarten is all about! There are really no assessments that you can give kindergartners as a whole group, everything has to be done individually. In order to provide quality reading and writing instruction you need to work with small groups and the rest of the class has to be doing something constructive at the same time. I spend a large portion of the first quarter teaching classroom routines including teaching the independent tasks they will be engaged in and my expectations of their behavior while engaged in these tasks. It is a big time investment but it really pays off. If I skimp on teaching time for these tasks I will spend the whole year interrupting small groups to deal with behavior problems. I can imagine that with upper grades the content requirements are so rigorous that it is hard to justify time spent teaching expectations for independent work.
Stacey, I feel your pain because I've "been there, done that!" I now try to arrange it so I have an independent, engaging assignment for the students to be working on while I conference with individuals about their writing. Doesn't always work, but the students are getting better at maintaining a "subdued" atmosphere while writing conferences are occurring. They are beginning to see the benefits of "talking with the teacher" about their writing. Before we conference, I have students first self-assess with a rubric their own writing. This then offers a starting point for our discussions: Why did you rate yourself here? What might you do to do better next time? Which words did you challenge yourself to use that are not common in your vocabulary? How did you take a risk in this piece of writing? etc, etc.
ReplyDeleteI find the conferencing extremely valuable because of the conversations we have. When I assess papers alone at home, I write comments, but rarely do I get any feedback acknowledging my remarks. However, Time is the dark cloud that dampens the # of conferences I'm able to do--- I try to do one per quarter, but even that can be a stretch. With 22-25 students in a class, I attempt to finish conferencing in a week.
For peer conferences, I try to give them a "talking point" to start their conversation. "Find an interesting aspect of your partner's paper. Then talk about one way to carry that interest throughout the paper." or have them focus on one particular trait. Peer conferencing for me is always a work in progress, dependent on the maturity and ability of the writers. I could use some suggesions, advice here as well.
Jenny Keil has an excellent rubric which provides the students "a cultural springboard to wider knowledge." Many of our Russian Old Believer students are familiar with making bread, so Jenny has used this concept to bring understanding to the 6 Traits. Be sure to check out her blog-- you'll be blessed!
I am so frustrated! It's a beautiful day and I just typed a bunch of things, responded so beautifully, and even loaded some things onto google docs... then, when I clicked "post comment" it erased me.
ReplyDeletewah wah.
Ok, here goes -- again --
I appreciated, like Marina, the color-coding idea in the Saddler piece. What a great idea. My students tend to lose their rubrics or say, "oh yeah, you passed one out, didn't you?"I might use that tip in my classroom...if only I can find all the highlighters that seem to hide from me.
Stacey, I, too, struggle with giving consistently rich feedback to students for their writing. It's never enough! Even when I make loads of comments on a particularly needy student's writing ("great verb!" "dialogue is realistic and natural" "wonderful metaphor here") I'll have some come up to me: "Mrs. Lloyd, didn't you like this paragraph about the meadow here? I thought my verbs were strong in this part."
Gack.
But, in week 2 or 3 when I talked about this, Sondra wrote that even if I'm not going to comment, writing is practice and always valuable.
I frequently have my students peer evaluate each other's work, but they need a guide. Just asking them to look and comment w/o guidance is never a success. I'll attach a rubric for a narrative essay I used this year, and a peer eval form I used for a myth-writing activity in the fall. I'd love to see other peer evaluation guides if anyone has one!
Well, this was much shorter than my first post, but better than nothing...
Peer Eval Form:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_tbWt-FqFx79xs7TuYUuIZwDLpo88E4mCw-MROtoQMg/edit?hl=en&authkey=CP2FisgE#
Essay Rubric:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o7HPxqs_6B0wjFVxQ5MNCNQt8C7r69-xqUoecidfNAk/edit?hl=en&authkey=COP94roE#
Amy--Sorry about the glitch but really appreciate the rubric attached. Making rubrics our own is essential. We need to take the time to teach the rubric before we use it as others have noted. I also like making rubrics specific for specific purposes. Thanks again for sharing rubrics. They give us ideas of how we can adapt for our own levels and purposes.
ReplyDeleteI’m just getting into the readings this week. I’m actually still contemplating last week’s reading. I do not remember if it was in the book or one of the other readings, but I was convicted about sharing my students’ work. I realized that I spent a lot of time going through the writing process, fine-tuning their pieces, but hardly any time sharing their writing. I had just collected stories from all my students, scored them, and filed them. For the most part, the stories were great and the students were proud of them. I kept telling them we were saving their writing for an end of year anthology, and most of them did not want their stories read in front of the class. We’ve basically been moving from project to project. After reading the importance of sharing and listening to other’s writing, I dug all their stories out of the files. Each day I read one story as my class opener. This small action ranks right up there with one of the best things I’ve done all year. I ignored pleas not to read “my” story, and I do the reading so I know it will be loud enough and read with the punctuation. I can also edit “on the fly” if need be! The student’s all love it. If I forget, they remind me to read a story. They listen intently, and many times I’ll pause as they try to guess what’s next. They are amazed at how different their stories are when read out loud. After I read their story, I point out an aspect that I particularly liked in it, using words from the rubric. For example, I’ll say, “I love the strong verbs you used here,” as I project the paper and point out the verbs. What new wisdom will I learn from this week’s reading? I better get on it!
ReplyDeleteI use rubrics for every graded writing assignment and project. I love them. The students initially ignored them, threw them away, or claimed to have never seen or heard of one before. “Huh, a rubric? What’s that?” But we worked with them over and over again. I require them to turn in their final drafts with a self-assessed rubric stapled to the top. They have to show proof of their assessment. In other words, if they give themselves a 5 for sentence fluency, they have to point out several different ways they begin their sentences. I set up a checklist for them, modeled after Andrew Pudewa’s from Teaching Writing with Structure and Style. I usually just have them score for one or two specific traits, almost always sentence fluency, word choice, and conventions! For word choice, I’ll have them circle at least two quality adjectives, box two adverbs, and underline at least two action verbs in each paragraph (I start this with one paragraph assignments). This causes them to look for specifics in their writing. “I can’t find any adjectives, Mrs. Gardella.”
ReplyDelete“Perfect,” I inform the student. Now you can revise and add some descriptors to your nouns. I love comparing their original draft with the revised one. They can see how their writing improves with added details. I know I sound like it is just working out so perfectly in my classroom and all my students are great writers! It is not that way at all, but they are improving their skills as writers. It’s a slow process, and some of them still balk at the rubrics and checklists, but I’m insistent. “Where’s your strong verbs,” I say.
“I don’t know what a verb is.”
“Really? Well, I’m pretty sure that you’ve heard of verbs by now (I teach high school AND I’ve gone over verbs ad nauseam). If not, that book right over there will tell you what a verb is.”
“Oh. Does it show an action?”
“Yes! Yes, it does. Now, what actions are in your paper? Remember, we don’t want a paper full of ‘I am, she was, he is, okay?’” I have this conversation multiple times a day, but fewer times than in the fall ☺
Hello Everyone,
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the big conversation piece this week is about rubrics! I, too, love rubrics and I enjoy customizing them in a Pages or Excel document. I like incorporating check boxes for personal or peer reviews, and point systems for my own personal review. It's nice to have a tweaked version that focuses on the which element of writing we're working on. They also assist me in keeping track of RTI for IEP purposes without having to read and re-read the same paper to identify whether or not my students are mastering concepts in relationship to their goal areas.
I really enjoyed reading about the peer response for writing. I have tried it a few times with my students giving them a rubric to assist in the process. However, my students freak out as soon as they try it for real. I have tried modeling and having them "role play" how to correctly do a peer response. They do really well when they role play and then as soon as they have to do it for real they don't know how to do it. Are their any suggestions? I have 4th graders so I am wondering if it is just a maturity thing.
ReplyDeleteI am excited to try some of the suggestions that were given above as well as in the article for the week. I am happy to see the guidelines it will definitely make it more clear and easier for my students as well as myself. I have to love that! I am a little confused on how to use rubrics in the pre-writing process. I have little experience in using them at all so I will have to keep working on that throughout the remainder of the school year.
Oops! I am off a day this week...What day is today :-)
ReplyDeleteWhen I am teaching writing, I am usually working on 1 of the 6+1 traits. What I have found works best for me is grading heavy on the trait we are working on or the last trait we worked on and light on the other traits. I also have the students do a self evaluation before I grade them (usually by giving them my rubric or a version of it and filling it out on their own). This can help give me direction on what the students think they did well on and what they think they didn't do well on. It can guide me to their weaknesses quicker than if I did it on my own.
I'd like to echo everyone who lives with and loves the 6 traits. A nice side benefit to using that kind of rubric is it definitely streamlines grading. I use a very specific rubric every year to teach the research paper. I give the rubric out to the kids before they even start research so they know how the papers will be assessed. This helps guide their work and also acts as a checklist so they don't leave something out. Peer edited writing is also a nice tool to have in the toolbox. I find kids tend to try harder if they know someone other than me will be reading their work. The downfall is when kids "fix" each others' papers and, out of ignorance, make incorrect suggestions. I'm still working out that process.
ReplyDeleteTry this rubric. I use it to grade Canterbury Tales presentations.
ReplyDeletehttps://docs.google.com/a/g.kpbsd.org/document/d/1WSPYo9nPd14f5gaqsOgjgBBEF3NiisUeLT2hXMLHm7s/edit?hl=en#
Rubrics are a common sight in my classroom, across subjects and grade levels. I use them on almost every major assignment, not just on writing assignments. My favorite website is “rubistar” http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php which allows teachers to create and edit rubrics for a variety of project-based assignments. It’s free, and really easy to use. I generally hand out the rubrics at the beginning of each assignment. I try to include at least one category that addresses classwork or behavior. I feel that sometimes I’ve been limited by a rubric that is too specific or too broad, but for the most part it really helps me in establishing my expectations and then in keeping it fair when evaluating student work.
ReplyDeleteThis year another teacher I team-teach with has really encouraged me to do more peer-editing. I think it’s been effective. We’ve done peer-response groups after the rough draft stage of writing assignments. The biggest problem has been that students’ “rough” drafts are too rough to edit. I think that’s just me not holding them to a high enough standard for their rough draft work. The students have worked in small groups. I give them a list of questions and guidelines to use when reading each other’s papers. They then have to turn that peer-editing sheet in with their final draft, as well as complete a self-evaluation using a 6-trait rubric. They score their work and write explanations of their grades.
In my senior classes, we’ve done extensive individual conferencing with students while they were writing their “Magnum Opus” research papers in the 3rd quarter. I’ve also done individual conferencing with students in Junior Honors English. In both cases, I’ve felt like the half-hour of one-on-one time is probably more effective and valuable than several days of classroom work with the whole class. I give them a list of pre-conference questions and tasks. This usually involves highlighting their work to identify specific components of the assignment. Then we use a list of editing questions to go through the structure and organization of their paper together. I also use a final draft checklist to keep them focused on what expectations are in place for the final draft. The conferences take place with each student at least twice during the process. I also give them the option to sign-up for a conference time outside of class. With the upper-classmen I don’t “babysit” and force them to sign up for a conference time, but they are “strongly encouraged” to do so.
Posting for Susie
ReplyDeleteWeek Six: Response to readings by Susie
I absolutely love teaching writing using the six traits. I have been using the six traits for about seven years now, and have attended the Vicki Spandel institute twice. I am the contact person in my building for materials and questions regarding six traits writing instruction. I like the fact that it gives you specific quantifiable aspects of writing to use for evaluation. It gives a common vocabulary for both teachers and students to use when discussing writing.
In my school we work to produce one or two published pieces of writing per quarter. Each piece is evaluated on 2-3 of the six traits.
At the beginning of the year I do what is called “speed week” which introduces the students to all six of the traits briefly using a one sentence or one paragraph piece of writing. After this introduction we examine each trait separately while continuing to discuss all of them in our daily writing. I begin by reading the students a piece of literature particularly rick in whatever trait we are focusing on, and discuss it, identifying the parts where the trait was most evident. Then we practice scoring for that trait using a student friendly rubric and actual student papers that show both good and bad examples otf the trait. The kids love this part. They really take ownership of their opinions and often have lively discussions when these differ. Then they are given their writing assignment knowing it will be scored on these particular traits.
After they have their first draft, the peer editing piece comes in. The article seemed to be talking about older students, but the issues and challenges of peer editing seem to be the same. I have struggled with peer editing for years, and it has improved, but still needs work. I have come up with a form that students have to fill out in their peer editing conferences, which for the most part eliminated the “ it’s fine as it is ” responses. I also discovered that this piece can not be modeled too much. Even when I think I’m overdoing it with the modeling, I get students who really can’t get comfortable discussing each others writing. I find that circulating and participating in the discussions is the best way for students to understand what I am looking for. After peer editing, comes my favorite part, individual conferencing. I love the opportunity that these conferences provide me to get to know my students even better. Do I have time for these? No, I don’t. But I find myself sacrificing in other areas to make it possible for me to conference with every student at least once a month. I find I can see 2-3 during a 40 minute writing period and can do this twice a week. The biggest tip I picked up this year was to have the students read their pieces to me. Often their meaning is obscure if I try to read them to myself, and I can pick up more of the writer’s voice when they read it. Also, they find their own mistakes when something is unclear, left out, or simply doesn’t make sense.
Part 2 of Susie's Post
ReplyDeleteAs far as teaching to the test, goes, I don’t worry a whole lot about the SBA’s. I feel that if I am using what I believe to be my best teaching practices, continue using the six traits model of writing instruction and consistently evaluate the students writing through individual conferences that my students do fairly well. I have begun to incorporate what I call organized fast writes into my curriculum at least once a month. These are twenty minute fast writes on a given topic, with the first five minutes devoted to brainstorming and planning using a web or other type of organizational device. I use a timer, tell them when to switch from planning to writing, and tell them when they have one minute left to finish up. These get progressively better over the year, and are one of the pieces I make sure I have an individual conference on with each student. I think the tests are an unreliable evaluation of students writing due to the “snapshot” nature of the test, but I try to prepare my students by having them write under similar circumstances.
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ReplyDeleteI echo all the comments made along with some great ideas to try in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI just started my peer response groups this year and it is a work in progress. I really think it is of great benefit to students and their writing. The article on "Creating Effective Peer Response Groups" validates this. Using a 6 traits rubric along with peer responses I have found they are getting better with improving their drafts as well as gaining confidence. The reluctant writers feel less threatened and are able to improve their own writing.
Using a 6 traits rubric lets students know exactly what they need to work on in their writing. It also guides me in what I need to teach to strengthen these weaker areas for students.
I try to have at least two writing conferences a week with each student. Some students may get more than two depending on where they are in the process.
I like the idea of developing reflective critics within the classroom. As I look at my classroom of students this year I know I have 5 students that would be great at this; they are my best peer response partners at this point in the year.
I like using rubrics and use them across the curriculum.
I am a firm believer in the six-trait writing assessment. I like how it allows a teacher to break down and quantify student writing. I think it gives both students and the teacher a tool to look at the component parts of writing and to develop specific feedback about what works and what doesn't work in a piece of writing.
ReplyDeleteRubrics are another valuable tool for writers and writing coaches. While the six-trait provides specific feedback about the developing and final
product, rubrics provide the expectations of the writing. Rubrics can eliminate the question many of us dread, "How many pages do you want us to write." By showing expectations at the beginnings, students have a workable goal.
I'm a bit concerned about asking students to develop rubrics and to do peer review. Part of this is because I don't think it's fair to expect developing writers to know what constitutes good writing. Student buy-in is a big motivator, but they need to know what good writing looks like in order to evaluate it. The same is true of peer review. Bruce Sadler and Heidi Andrade's "The Writing Rubric" addresses some of the pitfalls that student peer review can fall into as did in a more obtuse way, Pamela Flash's article. If students consider the revision process to be making a neat copy of the final draft, they will have trouble developing rubrics and performing effective peer review.
All of this doesn't mean that we shouldn't let students be involved in these activities; it just puts more responsibility on the teacher to model, demonstrate, and coach, especially in early stages of teaching the writing process. We have to give students the tools and the vocabulary to evaluate writing.
"The Writing Rubric" had some great tips helping students to organize and critique their writing. I especially liked the suggestion to give students colored highlighters so that they can mark their or their peer's writing according to the various elements in the rubric. While reading it, the thought occurred that small color keyed Post It notes would be another way to analyze writing according to a rubric.
Lastly, as a sailor, I really liked the nautical metaphors in such as "boat without a rudder", "firm hand on the tiller" in"The Writing Rubric."
I totally agree that the best practices will meet the state standards and help students perform better in the achievement tests. I am comfortable with the idea of giving students choice and response. However, time is always an issue. Even in the sample scenario classroom in the article "Teaching to the Test," it takes 45+ minutes to run a complete writing workshop. While we have mandated math program and the science kit, the only way I can do it is by creating a thorough curriculum map, so the writing can be done in collaboration with those subjects.
ReplyDelete