I was going to ask you to write about this in an in-class journal, but many of you have not yet looked at the essays by class time. Please respond to this post after you have completed the RHS essays.
Discuss your experience responding to the RHS students' essays. What did you find challenging? Annoying? Easy? Fun? Describe your confidence level in responding to students' writing. How effective do you think your comments were? Describe your experience with the discussion board. How much time do you think you spent commenting on the essays and then posting them to the dicussion board?
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3 comments:
I was going along fine with my essays and thinking it wasn't too bad until I got to one essay where a girl hadn't even attached the paper, she just posted it on post thing. It was so obvious to me that she didn't even try, which I wouldn't normally think would bother me since I'm not her teacher and it's not my assignment that she's blowing off, but it really did! I think I might have been a little less nice than I could have been when I commented on it, and it was mostly because I percieved that she didn't put effort into it, and not because it was a horrible paper. I felt bad about it today after you reminded us about them being rushed and having snow days but I can't really take it back. I was a little unconfident responding to the first essay but I got more confident as I went on and realized that hey, I did know some stuff that they could use! I don't think I'll be able to tell how effect my comments are though until I see whether or not they have questions about them. The discussion board was a little intimidating at first, but I picked it up quickly and it was alright. I've still got 3 essays to respond to, but so far it's taken me an average of at least 30 minutes an essay to read, respond, read my response, and post. I now understand why teachers hate grading papers. Over all though, this has been more enjoyable than I thought it would be, especially with the kids who told me a little about themselves and asked for help or had specific concerns about their papers that they wanted me to respond to.
As I began reading essays, I realized that yes, they need a lot of work, but I also have a lot of work to do. I know they say practice makes perfect, but even after being in the classroom for a semester and a half of observing and several activities in this classroom, I'm still very unsure of myself. I feel that if I make too many suggestions, I'm basically writing their papers for them. But I also feel like if I don't make all of those suggestions, their papers will not be the best they can be and the students will not learn what they should be learning. This balance is VERY difficult for me to achieve; however, I must say that these exercises are slowly making more comfortable with the process.
As far as the essays went, as a whole, they were not that great. I did take into consideration that many of the students were rushed and many even said this on their posts. I think the biggest weakness, overall, is lack of a thesis or support of that thesis. Also, the paragraphs seemed to be very scattered and occasionally off topic. Maybe the students are writing like this because no one has explained to them the concept of a strong thesis and supporting paragraphs??? Just a thought. Maybe they simply need someone to go back over these ideas with them.
Sometimes the simple ideas are the hardest for students to understand. Maybe we should keep that in mind when we begin teaching...
I really enjoyed commenting on their papers, although it did make me realize that as a college student, I am not God. I helped one girl after the deadline to revise her paper, and she did not change most of what I told her was grammatically incorrect, and didn't like most of my ideas apparently. This is the first time I've ever really thought that a student could take my ideas, evaluate them, and then completely disregard them in favor of her own. It's a bit of an ego check, but a much deserved one, as I generally favor my own style more than others.
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