Teaching Writing Virtually
Teaching Writing Virtually
Last year was my fifth year teaching middle school English, and I finally felt like I was hitting my groove with teaching writing. Teaching writing is difficult because it is so personal. How do you teach a child to put the inner workings of their brain onto a piece of paper? How do you make the hours and hours of written feedback matter?
The answer that worked for me were station rotations with writing conferences. Once students finished writing drafts of their essays or narratives, they would participate in a three day station rotation lesson. Over the course of the three days, students would engage in peer editing, have a face-to-face or virtual conference with a teacher, revise, and submit their final products. We chose to give students the majority of feedback before the final draft was due so that they would actually use the feedback to improve their writing in real time. We also chose to take three days to give feedback in class in order to decrease the amount of time spent giving feedback after school hours.
At first glance, this model seems like it would lend itself well to a virtual learning scenario. Students are still writing, and teachers can still give real-time feedback during class. But I have some questions. How do we have a one-on-one writing conference if students and teachers are not allowed to be on Zoom or in a breakout room alone? Will students be as open to listening to criticism about their writing if other students are present to hear? How will we know that students are listening to our comments and revising as necessary if we cannot see their work in real time as they write? How can students engage in peer editing if some students refuse to turn on their cameras or mics? Is this just another situation where students will slip through the cracks?
Lauren Gehr, in her recent article for Edutopia, suggests digital writing conferences: "Unlike verbal feedback during face-to-face conferences, which many of us are familiar with, students will always have access to the feedback—they won’t forget what they have been told and can refer to the feedback for future growth." However, written feedback takes time. That is one of the main reasons we switched to verbal feedback, either in person or recorded. With all of the other things on teacher's plates these days, how will we find the time to give meaningful and constructive written feedback on 130+ essays?
My students started their first major writing assignment of the year today. They are writing narratives, which is notoriously harder for middle school students than essay writing. While they have the imagination, they do not yet have the craft to turn their thoughts into well-written stories. They need a lot of workshopping and feedback to make their stories readable. I'm so worried that I won't be able to support them through the writing process. I'm open to using new tools that will help, but I'm just not sure what those tools are yet.
Responding to Promoting Strong Writing Skills With Digital Instruction
Writing skills are such a big part of school as well as learning. How would you incorporate writing into Math content? I've been trying to wrap my head around introducing writing into the curriculum that I teach, but don't want to warp or confuse my students with what objectives to follow.
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