Straub responding really responding to other students writing richard straub 19562002 responding really responding to other students writing consider this. Responding to students writing the comments that we write on our students papers may be some of the most difficult writing that many academics dodifficult because we write them under heavy burdens huge stacks of papers at a time, often late at night, when were exhausted and with the. Strub recommends, when responding to a piece of writing, the reader comments from a friends perspective. Most teachers estimate that it takes them at least 20 to 40 minutes to com. Responding to other peoples writing the writing center. Sommers shows how teachers too often write comments that come off as arbitrary, idiosyncratic, contradictory, and even mean, even though they.
The benefits of students integrating journal writing across the curriculum are amply documented. Responding to text writing lesson plans and activities. Students know what an arrangement of a piece of music is. He taught courses in writing, composition and rhetoric, and literature at florida state. But, in fact, responding to students writing may not. The focus of much of his work is on reading, evaluating, and respondmg to student writing. Thompson becomes an active participant in their discussion, modeling ways in which students can take more active roles in classroom discussion through preparation, turntaking, receptiveness to alternate views, posing and trying to answer authentic. Responding to student writing comments and grades on student writing arguably constitute the most serious, sustained teaching intervention you can make in a students writing career. Richard straubs responding really responding to other student writings teaches readers how to consider and understand the right ways of responding to other people writings. September 2011 katie robbins, director of educational programming at figment, an online community where young adults and teens come together to create, discover, and share their own writing and discuss their favorite works, discusses how figment can be used in the. It is probably best done in the form of a written recount. The word on college reading and writing open textbook. Provide a paragraph frame for students to use as they write their reading response letters. Drawing on ncte beliefs about the teaching of writing, this book illustrates the empowerment that can result from dialogical writing even as it examines the complications of implementing this approach in the classroom.
Link your experience to no more than four situations that occurred within the text. The legendary toby fulwiler, author of the journal book. Students respond to each others ideas as expressed in writing and help each other to think more deeply about their written work. Many veteran readers find the experience of responding to student writing to be one of constantly deciding not to comment on less important issues. Pair up students who work well together and have them complete the graphic organizer planning and the checklist on a book they have both read. Marilyns handout is reproduced in her scholastic book 50 common core reading response activities. Text to self is a great opportunity for students to become introspective. A specialist on reading, evaluating, and responding to student writing, he was from dunmore, pennsylvania. Responding to students writing is the part of wac that often worries instructors because it is here that incorporating more writing into their courses seems most like an imposition, demanding more time from the instructor.
Responding to student writing ctlt cal poly, san luis. Students understand how lyrics reflect expressive intent. Responding to the writer, not the writing moving writers. Responding to literature rich thompson works with a small student group as they explore the text because of winndixie by kate dicamillo. Help students become online kids book authors writing az. Responding to other students writing by richard straub is an essay from the book, the subject is writing. Writing is recursive, yet students go through the motions of the writing process with little understanding of this. Instructor comments on students writing is an important part of helping students become effective academic writers, and can provide the productive feedback a student writer needs to revise a particular assignment. Nancy sommers, responding to student writing sometimes, we inadvertently give students conflicting messages. Respondingreally respondingto student writing weebly. Respondingreally responding to other students writing. If your class all read the same book, have them compare their notes with one or two other people to see if they can get all the important details the story had to offer.
So, what may seem difficult and timeconsuming at first can and should become easier and faster over time. Even if a piece of writing needs a lot of work, there is usually something good that can be pointed outthe seed of a great idea, a particularly wellturned phrase, the beginnings of a good organizational structure, or a thorough understanding of the material. Luckily, a love for writing floated me down the responding to text writing river. Written from one teacher to another, nancy sommers responding to student writers offers a model for thinking about response as a dialogue between students and teachers and for thinking about the benefits of responding to writers as well as to their writing. I worked to find interesting and relevant passages for my students to read. Adapted from wsus hierarchy of values for responding to writing. Responding, really responding to other students writing. Feedback is intended to help our students improve their own writing. Responding really responding to other students writing. Responding to writing resource topics national writing. While there is no magic formula for how to provide adequate and constructive feedback to all your students on all their writing, the following traits and strategies can be very effective in advancing student learning. For nonwriting faculty, however, responding to student writing can be a daunting prospect.
Peer to peer throughout the writing process, peer response can help young adolescents develop as thinkers and writers. The fundamental steps that should be considered by any reader who is willing to comment on areas of strength and weakness in someones essay or research paper. We have to unteach the one and done mindset under which many of our students operate. I think this is a good thing to do because it points out things throughout the paper that need to be fix or that are good point then at the end gives an overall rating of the paper at the end. Responding to student writing nancy sommers more than any other enterprise in the teaching of writing, responding to and commenting on student writing consumes the largest proportion of our time.
Then the next time you want them to write a fictional piece of their own, start with the same chart and have students take notes on. Letter me this and 5 other reading response activities. The effectiveness of using a written response strategy for. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Making comments is a skill that improves with practice. For example, for the spot the setting rr, students shouldnt merely give details about the setting. Write a letter or email to a close friend recommending the book you have just read. Choose two characters from the story and write a conversation they might have. A typical written response to text contains a topic sentence, some details from the text andor quotes, and a concluding sentence. However, a sizable gap in the research base has been consultations with teachers themselves about what they do with regard to feedback and why they do it that. Respondingreally respondingto other students writing richard straub richard straub taught courses in writing, rhetoric, and literature at florida state university.
Communicate with your students about your feedback. Read and respond to the books before reading, introduce students to basic literacy concepts plot, character, and setting, literary style, the balance between text and artwork, and awareness of their own response to the books. It includes examples, exercises, and definitions for just about every reading and writingrelated topic students will encounter in their college courses. Students can label elements of music while listening to music. Responding really responding to other students writing richard straub richard straub lives on the borders of tallahassee and teaches courses in writing, rhetoric, and literature at florida state university. Help students become online kids book authors students create their own fullcolor, online kids books using writing azs buildabook in the interactive kids az studentlearning environment. Continual practice in writing is what helps students most in becoming more effective writers, especially when they realize that writing is required to be successful in courses other than their writing courses. Richard straub teaches courses in literature, writing and rhetoric at florida state university, with the focus of much of his work is on reading, evaluating, and responding to. The importance of student journals and how to respond.
Invest time in discussing and responding to student writing early in a course to achieve stronger writing throughout the semester. Resource topics teaching writing responding to writing additional resources figment provides space for students to share writing. Braddock awardwinning nancy sommers has taught composition and run composition programs for more than three decades. In 1982, nancy sommers published the landmark, awardwinning essay responding to student writing. Although the article is more than a few years old now, it continues to offer a useful. Responding to other peoples writing can be difficult.
Students understand how knowing about music elements aids in a performers interpretation of the musics expressive intent. I wrote prompts that not only asked students to consider the evidence presented but use it and cite it in their responses. Prompts for straubs responding to other students writing. Richard straubs responding really responding to other student writings teaches readers how to consider and understand the right ways of responding to other people writing s. Her recent work involves a longitudinal study of college writing to understand the role writing plays in undergraduate education. Richard straub, a professor at florida state university, presents in his article respondingreally responding to other students writing. Distribute rubrics and other grading criteria in advance of assigning grades to a specific set of essays. Much of writing is responding to what others have already said or written, the continuing of a conversation.
Responding to student writing harvard writing project. Buildabook offers a library of thousands of images to spark ideas and help students illustrate their books. There are several points to keep in mind when responding to students writing. Responding to student writing principles and practices. See more ideas about teaching reading, reading workshop and teaching. Major issues should be treated more prominently and at greater length. Based upon a book you have just read, share a story about yourself that is related to an event or character that was in the book. In talking to students about their grades or your comments on their papers, youre offering them. Her articles revision strategies of student and experienced writers and responding to student writing are two of the most widely read and anthologized articles in the field of composition. Responding to student writing evergreen state college. From a teachers perspective, there are few activities that can trump journal writing for understanding and supporting the development of student thinking.
Provide more examples of reading response letters to students. A sourcebook for responding to student writing is a resource for writing teachers. It provides a range of teacher comments on a sampling of college student papers and an anthology of key statements on theory and practice of responding to student writing. Some writing calls for more revision while other pieces beg to be scrapped entirely. In this session, participants explore strategies for structuring peer interactions and for teaching students to respond positively and productively to. I love her ideas for creating dialogue with students about their writing.
Dramatize a scene from the story with other students or using puppets. Richard strub, author of the work, responding to other students writing, presents the readers with ways to comment on other peoples writing. Written by five college reading and writing instructors, this interactive, multimedia text draws from decades of experience teaching students who are entering the college reading and writing environment for the very first time. Such restraint allows you to focus your energies on just a few important points and also tends to yield a cleaner. In responding, we need to summarize, or paraphrase, what others have said, perhaps quote them, respond to them with our own thoughts, and cite them, both in text and in the bibliography. As already noted, previous research on response to student writing has yielded many helpful insights and indeed produced the best practices suggestions for response shown in fig. If you are sharing responsibility for a course with other faculty or tas, meet with them to discuss responding and grading. Responding to student writing university of louisville. That essay has helped many teachers think more intentionally and act more skillfully when they respond to what students write. Under these new standards, students learn to craft their writing, find key details, elaborate on the details, and include them within their own writing in a way that clearly expresses their ideas. Peer responseis when students respond to the content of each others writing, to the ideas, challenging each other and raising questions about what has been written.
Helping students respond effectively to each others writing. Responding to students writing takes more time, thought, and energy than any other aspect of teaching, says sommers, a lecturer at the harvard graduate school of education, the former director of harvards expository writing program, and the founder of the harvard writing project. For a response paper, you still need to write a formal assessment of the work youre observing this could be anything created, such as a film, a work of art, a piece of music, a speech, a marketing campaign, or a written work, but you will also add your own personal reaction and impressions to the report. How often and in what ways you respond to student writing is determined by a number of factors time, assignment, format, length, personality, class size, paper load, etc. Responding to a students paper involves 1 reading it carefully while making marginal comments, 2 writing a final comment in which you sum. In this book, you will discover how to fashion a dialogical writing program that meets your and your students needs. Responding to student writing can be a challenging task, however, particularly when deciding what feedback to include in a. Your comments on student writing should clearly reflect the hierarchy of your concerns about the paper.
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