Responding, Revising and Assessing Student Writings

Responding to Student Writing

It’s interesting to consider the verbs we often use to describe what we teachers do with a batch of student papers. We have papers to “grade;” papers to “correct.” Seldom do we say that we have a batch of papers we need to “respond to.” And yet it’s through our responses that students can best learn and grow. That doesn’t always happen; if you’ve taught before, you’ve probably had the experience of giving back papers on which you’ve worked hard to provide responses and instructions, only to watch your students take the papers you’re returning and turn right to the grade, ignoring everything else you’ve written. In this module, we’ll identify strategies for responding to student writing so that students will first of all, read and understand your comments, and then be able to use those comments for learning and growth. We’ll look at different ways to respond to student writing, including through conferences and peer review, and we’ll even consider effective ways to respond to students’ use of grammar. At the end of this module, you’ll reflect on how you might apply your learning to your own teaching situation.