On Your Marks

As an 8th grade writing teacher, my ultimate goal is to create independent writers by March.   First quarter focuses on narratives, ideas, written expression and apostrophe usage.   I feel like if I can get 8th graders to see writing as a craft by revising for specific nouns and strong verbs, there's a big payoff.   Craft.   That's what I'm talking about.  

I've written before about how I incorporate highlighters into writing instruction, but I'll mention it again because I think color-coding is one of the best approaches students use during editing and revising.   In short, we use pink to pause and green to go.   Pink means something's amiss; green means that something's sweet.   The more tools we can give our writers, the more independent they become.   And the more independent they become, the less you have to correct.   (Highlighters, colored pens, colored pencils---anything similar will work.)

Which brings me to the issue of marking up students' final drafts...   Use red, if you want to.   There's no harm in that.   You can also use highlighters to mark up a final draft. Highlighting something in pink...not just putting an editor's mark...puts the responsibility on the writer to determine the type of error.   We do need to consider the writing instruction given by that point in the year.   For example, I'm not going to write rants about usage and mechanics on children's papers in September.   That's counterproductive.  

I realize that students don't really have much of a choice when it comes to deciding if we are the type of people they'd like to share their thoughts, hopes, dreams, feelings and stories with, but we should be the type of readers that can offer both critique and praise.   If we shut our writers down early, how can we expect them to approach each of our lessons with a sense of optimism?   How can we encourage them to take stylistic risks or dig into some of their darkest corners for honest storytelling?

Okay.   I know that sounds a bit deep for third grade students, but I think you understand what I mean.

I would caution teachers against creating a penalty system to grade papers in which a product can fail on minutia.   The best example is spelling.   You will have some wonderful thinkers who have a diagnosed or undiagnosed processing hurdle when it comes to spelling.   What if their essays are perfect in every way, but their spelling is not?   Using a rubric will help avoid failing a child on one isolated skill.  And I don't get a kick out of marking up finals with negative comments at all.   My preference is that the skilled child writer will find all of his/ her errors before I do.

Am I saying to take it easy on your writers?   Nope.   Just give them challenges in which they have the real possibility of success.   Don't get caught up in carrying on about which skills they should have mastered in earlier grades.   It doesn't matter.   That's for your administration to ponder.   Teach the students in front of you what you want them to know now.  

Also, if you are a true crafter of language, you can identify something successful in just about any paper.   Voice, written expression, word choice, imagery, sequencing, believable dialogue, ideas, sentence fluency...you can find it.  

If you are still thinking that you need help on giving constructive feedback, here are 100 trait-specific comments!

Turning it In

If you will be a brand new teacher this year, don't forget to read Harry K. Wong's The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher.   Often it's the thought of their first days that make new teachers the most nervous.   The first week of school also sets the tone for the year.   Sure, you'll make some mistakes.   Just make a mental note about what didn't work, so you'll remember next year.   Relax a little.   And...congratulations on getting hired!

Anyhow, read the book for all of the great, practical advice.   My favorite time saver is designating a place for students to turn in completed work.   My students use plastic in-boxes labeled by class period.   Depending on the number of classes I teach, I also have a matching out-box.   (I taught 6 classes this year, so I did not have a plastic tower of 12 trays.   It's back to block this year, so I will be able to use 6 total.)

These boxes live on a table close to the computer I use for entering grades.   There is also space on a nearby wooden chair for their spiral journals, should I ask for the entire notebooks to be turned in.   These locations are at the back of the room, along with the electric pencil sharpener, trashcan and other student supplies.  

Why the back of the room?   Every year you will have a few students who love a parade.   Well, they love their parade.   Any trip to get out of their seat is prolonged and includes side conversations, slothlike movements to complete the intended task...which frequently involves searching for that "missing" pencil for five minutes that they are currently sharpening for three minutes while blocking traffic and instruction.   The back of the room cuts down on some of this behavior.   Also, students should use the trash can at the beginning or end of class...unless they are ill and need an emergency receptacle pronto.

You can't change who they are, so please use these students when appropriate to pass papers back to their rightful owners, assist you with handing out photocopies, books, etc.   In short, give them teacher-approved time to let everyone stare at them for a portion of class.  

If you want students to collect the papers by rows before turning them in, have the children pass their papers to the person behind them until all papers arrive at the back of the room.   Passing papers forwards is much more chaotic and just asks for someone to be cracked in the back of the head.   This is another sensible process I learned from Mr. Wong.

Why is having a predictable place for completed student work so important?   Well, when you are able to steal a few minutes to grade papers while your students are working independently, you really don't want to be interrupted again and again with a student asking where to turn something in and/or adding it to your current stack of papers.   There's never enough time for grading, and you will just have to cobble minutes together here and there.  

Timely feedback, especially when it comes to student writing, is important.  Don't collect more papers than you can grade in a few days.   Combine a couple of small assignments for one grade in the grade book.   Touch the papers as few times as possible.   Think of other ways to simplify the task of grading while still being fair to students.

And, yes, there will be at least one student in every class who will still ask you from September to June, "Where do I turn this in?"   One's better than 20!

Thanks to Christopher Newport University's Student Virginia Education Association President Rebecca Capel and her fellow chapter members for purchasing organizational classroom supplies, so I can hit the ground running.