Thanks for sharing!

I took a week to think about how I would implement it in my class of sub-standard graduating seniors (16 year olds taking the Cambridge/Oxford O’levels’) and merge it with the syllabus we are teaching.

I finally found an opportunity and got them to work on a sensory writing entry and then walked around class. Once they got the hang of what I was doing I heard the same comments!

* “What’s does ‘PA’ mean?”
* “It means its a passive sentence – it obscures the meaning.”
* “Ohhh!”

and also:

* “oh. don’t mark up my paper with red again!”
* “then, somethings not right. do something about it.”

After about 2 days, I finally moved away from ‘marking your paper’ to asking if any of them would like ‘my feedback’ on their writing while they worked. After a week – they finally want my attention to see if they got their work right. And they are learning where their grammar weaknesses are.

I’ve used this kind of feedback – ing now beyond grammar writing exercises to essay writing for their literature and language arts subjs!

Thanks for the share!

It wouldn’t be honest of me to say that every student is interested in this paper, nor would it be honest to say that every kid is working. But this assignment is about bettering yourself; about learning from personal mistakes. It’s about each student learning what difficulties he/she has in writing and learning how to correct those problems.

I’m surprised, though, that the students are–after so many days on the same project and so many drafts–not ready to strangle you. Have you had many kids getting upset about not being allowed to hand in a paper that probably would otherwise be “just fine”? (To them, at least) Has there been any real backlash? And if so, how do you handle it? You mention encouragement in this post, but surely that’s not all you’re doing.