Essay Series Part 3 and 4: Conclusion Workshop and Using Padlet to Teach Students Peer Review
Using Technology to Give Each Other Writing Feedback
My love-hate relationship with technology in the classroom continues as I reflect on the use of Padlet for conducting a peer review. I like visual feedback. I like looking at how different people respond to writing, and I like seeing how different teachers use feedback to help their writers improve. Students created their first rough draft of their Dystopian Compare/Contrast Essays for a peer review after they participated in a Conclusion Workshop.
Conclusion Workshop Recap:
My love-hate relationship with technology in the classroom continues as I reflect on the use of Padlet for conducting a peer review. I like visual feedback. I like looking at how different people respond to writing, and I like seeing how different teachers use feedback to help their writers improve. Students created their first rough draft of their Dystopian Compare/Contrast Essays for a peer review after they participated in a Conclusion Workshop.
Conclusion Workshop Recap:
One of the scariest methods of the writing process is peer review. Mainly because students don't know how to do it. I like to break down peer review into a step-by-step process where they are looking for specific aspects of their writing. I often will base this on the different areas that the John Collins Writing Program will use their FCAS:
Form
Content
Style
Mechanics
Now, keeping these four areas in mind, I can focus in on the feedback that students give and not only give them feedback on their writing, but feedback on their ability to give feedback. Wait...am I in the feedback matrix?
I always like to begin by checking in with their writing mindset.
How are you feeling about this draft? What do you like about the revision and editing process? What do you hate?
One of my favorite sayings is: "I'm writing my first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles" -Shannon Hale
Check out the results of each my Advanced English Class's Padlets for feedback:
2nd Hour Padlet:
6th Hour Padlet:
My reflection:
While some students are giving really quality feedback, some students are really struggling to give their peers feedback that will improve the quality of papers. Simply, they are missing some pieces needed to understand basic fundamentals of how to check papers. I did go through the Padlets and delete some of the following comments: a poop emoji, "Sup" "people need to work on thure grammar" and so on.
While this demonstrated the authenticity of what happens during a peer review, I want to urge students to help each other build the skills needed to help each other work on writing. Is this a message on engagement? skill? a little bit of both? I am not quite sure peer review is enjoyable-and for that I am left with checking in with my mindset regarding how I am teaching others to teach writing skills.
Specific Reflection Question: What positive experiences are my students having with academic writing?
My take away is to incorporate something positive into my grading of rough drafts. I would like to use the Two Pen Strategy to incorporate both positive and negative feedback. Stay posted for Rough Draft #1 results in Essay Series Part 5!
