Hi everyone!
Today at the first Advanced Teaching Workshop of the year, the attendees participated in an exercise called “Chalk-Talk”, which is from the book Making Thinking Visible by Karin Morrison, Mark Church, and Ron Ritchhart — a text that I strongly recommend. Participants circled the room and recorded their responses to key questions on chart paper. Here is a write-up of the responses to one question … I hope that this provokes thought about your assessment & evaluation practice! Check back soon for additional “chalk-talk” write-ups!
How do you give feedback on developing writing?
– Focus on the RUBRIC.
– If the student is an English Language Learner, look at the story. Language is fixable, a good story is rare.
– I try to ask questions to help understand the student’s intention.
– Focus on concise, immediate measures the student can take to address issues in their writing.
– I try to find elements that have potential and ask questions / make suggestions around those.
– I approach students’ work with the attitude that they might be very new to writing, and that “terrible work” is something they’re at least trying.
– Frame criticism as a “jumping-off point” for how they can improve.
– Always encourage. Give ideas that spark their creativity and therefore improve their writing.
– Identify authorial intent and generate questions that will invite the reader to come up with improved solutions to the problems.
– Remember the human who wrote that will read this — you have an audience.
– Focus on craft, compliment effort, and never use the pronoun “you” when giving negative critique — refer to the piece, not the person!
– Try to point out technical rather than content issues, and direct students to resources available to them on campus.
– Recognize every strength, even if it’s weaker than you might want.