Well, today their essays were due. There were probably six in each section who didn't have it 80%+ finished. Two had been absent all week. That's not bad.
But unlike yesterday, today was a struggle. I had to fight them to get them to peer edit each others' work.
WHY?!
I think it has to do with something that's endemic at this school, despite our best efforts: Our students see "essay writing" as something that ends the second you write the last word of your rough draft. For them, editing means fixing grammar mistakes.
I gave them a fairly straight-forward peer editing activity. I haven't done much peer editing in the last few years because I find that they never do a good job reading each others' work. But because we spent SO MUCH TIME on grammar with the Caught'ya DOLs, I felt like they were up to the challenge.
And they actually did an amazing job on that part! I LOVED seeing them argue about apostrophe placement. Or whether they needed a colon or semicolon. Or where they should add a new paragraph.
So yeah - that was awesome.
Here were the other tasks:
2. Check: do they have a title? If not, suggest one. Is it the right length? Does it have everything it should have (based on the essay outline in the instructions)?
3. Offer two specific suggestion for changes they need to make.
4. Offer two compliments about specific parts, characters, dialogue, detail, etc.
These weren't quite as successful. I haven't really asked them to do something like this before. And fighting the "But I finished!" culture is tough, and I don't really have an answer for that.
****
It's funny how the issues I have in my "real life" often also pop up in my classroom.
But unlike yesterday, today was a struggle. I had to fight them to get them to peer edit each others' work.
WHY?!
I think it has to do with something that's endemic at this school, despite our best efforts: Our students see "essay writing" as something that ends the second you write the last word of your rough draft. For them, editing means fixing grammar mistakes.
I gave them a fairly straight-forward peer editing activity. I haven't done much peer editing in the last few years because I find that they never do a good job reading each others' work. But because we spent SO MUCH TIME on grammar with the Caught'ya DOLs, I felt like they were up to the challenge.
And they actually did an amazing job on that part! I LOVED seeing them argue about apostrophe placement. Or whether they needed a colon or semicolon. Or where they should add a new paragraph.
So yeah - that was awesome.
Here were the other tasks:
2. Check: do they have a title? If not, suggest one. Is it the right length? Does it have everything it should have (based on the essay outline in the instructions)?
3. Offer two specific suggestion for changes they need to make.
4. Offer two compliments about specific parts, characters, dialogue, detail, etc.
These weren't quite as successful. I haven't really asked them to do something like this before. And fighting the "But I finished!" culture is tough, and I don't really have an answer for that.
****
It's funny how the issues I have in my "real life" often also pop up in my classroom.
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