As a child I liked nothing better than going through my grandfather's stack of company statements and playing 'teacher'. I had managed to lay my hands on a multi-colored pen and used the color red in abandon. There were very few statements that were spared the wrath of my red pen.
It is ironic that when I finally got to grade my first bunch of students papers I could not use a red pen.
I like grading online, it allows me the flexibility of changing my mind without leaving traces of mu thought process. But that doesn't mean that grading for the first time was easy. I felt an acute sense of anxiety. As insignificant as it was, this assignment and my grade for the whole course would in some very small way affect each student's academic career. This burden remained with me throughout the grading process, so much so that I ended up reading each paper thrice before finally fixing a grade on it. As all my fellow TAs told me, this was not the most optimal way of going about things. I ended up managing to get only 13-15 hours of sleep that week --- an experience I choose to never visit again.
In the end I feel I probably graded harshly, I did give out D minuses. And I am glad that we had that meeting with Matt, because it was helpful to get an idea about the grading system in preparation of next time when grading will hopefully be less of a burden, both physically and morally.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Peer Reviewing in Class [09/15]
As expected most of the peer review comments were sentence level changes and spelling and grammar 'corrections'. Of course this meant that I had to spend a considerable amount of time correcting the corrections.
I was happy that we had an offline component to this since it helped telling each student where his/her paper needed more work. The students worked in their previously assigned peer groups and as I 'hawked' from group to group I found that with little guidance they were quickly moving towards questioning the logic, argument and thesis of the papers.
My experience with their first drafts was disappointing, to say the least. It seemed that all the good ideas and logical thought process that they had impressed me with in their first couple of weeks remained within the confines if our classroom, never making it to their papers. We had a lot of revision ahead of us.
I was happy that we had an offline component to this since it helped telling each student where his/her paper needed more work. The students worked in their previously assigned peer groups and as I 'hawked' from group to group I found that with little guidance they were quickly moving towards questioning the logic, argument and thesis of the papers.
My experience with their first drafts was disappointing, to say the least. It seemed that all the good ideas and logical thought process that they had impressed me with in their first couple of weeks remained within the confines if our classroom, never making it to their papers. We had a lot of revision ahead of us.
What is Peer Review? [09/13]
I must admit that I have never peer reviewed before. Reading a classmate's work and giving feedback, sure, but actually marking their paper and commenting for posterity was something I had never done and wasn't very sure how to handle.
In this respect Elbow and Belanoff's essay "A Community of Writers" was very illuminating. I realised that to help my students understand I really needed to get them to read this essay. Of course I am not delusional and I am aware that trying to get freshmen to read more than 3 pages for a composition class is not hopeful, but just plain unrealistic. So I did the next best thing. I made a bullet list of the different aspects that the essay wants students to consider while peer reviewing and decided to talk about that in class.
I felt the first thing that the students needed to know was that they were not being judged. The first thing we did in class that day was to talk about the apprehensions that they all seemed to feel. At the end of the discussion it seemed that we seemed to have established a basic idea of what peer reviewing entailed. They understood that every comment had its merit if it was backed up by reason and that every writer had the right to ignore suggestions made by commentators.
As I listed the criteria I had them talk as a class about what each criterion involved. We talked about the process, shared examples and spoke about possible pitfalls. Their first drafts were due that night and I felt that we had covered enough ground that would not only help them peer review each other but also critically revise their papers.
In this respect Elbow and Belanoff's essay "A Community of Writers" was very illuminating. I realised that to help my students understand I really needed to get them to read this essay. Of course I am not delusional and I am aware that trying to get freshmen to read more than 3 pages for a composition class is not hopeful, but just plain unrealistic. So I did the next best thing. I made a bullet list of the different aspects that the essay wants students to consider while peer reviewing and decided to talk about that in class.
I felt the first thing that the students needed to know was that they were not being judged. The first thing we did in class that day was to talk about the apprehensions that they all seemed to feel. At the end of the discussion it seemed that we seemed to have established a basic idea of what peer reviewing entailed. They understood that every comment had its merit if it was backed up by reason and that every writer had the right to ignore suggestions made by commentators.
As I listed the criteria I had them talk as a class about what each criterion involved. We talked about the process, shared examples and spoke about possible pitfalls. Their first drafts were due that night and I felt that we had covered enough ground that would not only help them peer review each other but also critically revise their papers.
Interview Workshop [09/10]
The one thing that seemed to have my students stumped was what they needed to ask their interviewees. Though having them post on the discussion board about a literacy event that they have experienced seemed to help them formulate somewhat of an idea, they were still floundering with the assignment.
The first exercise that we did in class was a freewrite. Each of them had to write about the person they were interviewing and give reasons for their choice. The aim of this assignment was to help them analyze their interviewee so that they could move towards a definite direction. Many of them seemed to have no concrete idea about what they needed to look for in an interviewee. So when they reported back to the class, I initiated a discussion of motive to help unearth the 'unique' angle that each interviewee might bring to the paper,one hopes that they did manage to gain some direction from this.
Once the class formulated an idea of who they were interviewing, it was imperative that they know how to interview. I spoke to them about open and close ended questions, using examples to illustrate. The next segment of class was spent doing group work, where each group had to come up with 5 open ended questions to ask a potential interviewee.
In the little time that was left for class we quickly discussed the questions put forth by each group. I also started a discussion thread where each one of them had to post 5-10 questions that they were going to ask their interviewee.
The first exercise that we did in class was a freewrite. Each of them had to write about the person they were interviewing and give reasons for their choice. The aim of this assignment was to help them analyze their interviewee so that they could move towards a definite direction. Many of them seemed to have no concrete idea about what they needed to look for in an interviewee. So when they reported back to the class, I initiated a discussion of motive to help unearth the 'unique' angle that each interviewee might bring to the paper,one hopes that they did manage to gain some direction from this.
Once the class formulated an idea of who they were interviewing, it was imperative that they know how to interview. I spoke to them about open and close ended questions, using examples to illustrate. The next segment of class was spent doing group work, where each group had to come up with 5 open ended questions to ask a potential interviewee.
In the little time that was left for class we quickly discussed the questions put forth by each group. I also started a discussion thread where each one of them had to post 5-10 questions that they were going to ask their interviewee.
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