Inside Out book review chapter 8

Inside Out, Strategies for Teaching Writing

D. Kirby, D.L. Kirby, T. Liner

Chapter 8 – Responding to Student Writing

Students need reactions from others both during and after they write.  They want to know what teachers think of their writing, but have developed a self preservation instinct by trying to figure out what the teacher wants and giving it to them, and insulating themselves against writing criticism.  The secret to building good writer –responder relationships lies in the touch of the responder.  Universally, good writing teachers look for and draw out the good in student writing, the have a positive mind set.

One way to bring out the good is to Respond as a Person.  Share your own thoughts and feelings as you read the writing.  However,  Looking for the Good may be your most significant role.  This can be accomplished by being a real responder rather than an evaluator.  A personal response is personal and shared, it is here-and-now feedback, not a to-do list, but a response to what the writer has done.  A responder helps writers discover what they want to say and challenge them to say it better. Good examples from students’ own papers are most powerful.  Sometimes you have to “mine the slagheap to find the gems.”   “Goodness in writing is not an absolute standard and does not have a moral equivalent.”

Writing teachers are critical in delivering content knowledge, providing sophisticated and caring responses, and growing better student writers by sharing your knowledge and responses with them.

A key questions is What kind of Response is Helpful?  It is important that a teacher change roles as the student writer develops.  Teachers can create their own list of  what works in good writing.  Display and discuss examples of good writing in the word, sentence, paragraph, and whole discourse level.  Students can also make their own lists of what good writing includes.  As students become more confident and skilled the teachers’ roll changes to that of editor.  Responses should often be phrased as questions or informal advice.  The writer is always in control of the writing.  Responder and students will not always agree, but the discussion is most critical.  It is important to teach students to be responders to their own and their peers’ work.  Don’t give up on them; model, guide, lead, don’t get up.

How to teach students to be good responders is the focus of Developing Effective Writing Response Groups.  Following are the keys to this work:

·      The teacher’s response to student writing establishes the ground rules for all others

·      Establish a “NO Hunting” rule for your responses and enforce that rule with students’ responses to each other’ work.

·      Appropriate response generally begins by trying to understand what the writer is trying to say.

·      Finding things to like in the piece is important.

·      Making suggestions for how the writer can elaborate on what is already written is probably the most helpful editing posture

·      The reader’s questions and voice musing are also very helpful.

·      Question the writer about what he or she plans to do net with the piece.

·      Give the writer the chance to ask the responder questions.

·      Always focus on the piece rate than on the writer

Some ideas on how to model responding for students and to teach students to give constructive responses to their peers are:

·      Helping Circle – Use your own writing and ask students to give you feedback.  Model good respondent behavior.  Use their suggestions and bring in additional revisions of your work.  Transition from your work to a student’s work. It is critical the teacher enforces the rules in keeping a safe classroom environment.

·      Publishing Excerpts from Students’ Writing – Publish anonymous excerpts of students’ writing.  Focus on what makes the piece work and what the piece may need.

·      Partners – This is the response the authors use almost exclusively.  Student work in self or teacher assigned partnerships, but must stay productive.  The writer prepares questions to ask the partner about their own writing and then discuss those questions.  This helps writers work through the rough spots in their writing.  When students ask the teacher questions about their writing the teacher’s first response is to ask what the writer’s partner said.

·      Standing Groups – A comfortable place for a writer to helpful responses.  Give individual writer a home base.  If they cease to function effectively groups can be reassigned.

·      Editorial Boards – Requires lots of organization and an involved set of procedures. Groups of 5-6 students are the go to people. The board publishes an excerpt edition and is responsible for supporting the writers. The actual publishing process is simulated as much as possible.  Students are rotated as board members.

·      Holistic Ratings – groups are assigned and read, respond, and rate another groups’ papers.  This may work best with advance placement classes.

One of the most interesting things I read was the direction to be a responder rather than an evaluator.  I like this approach.  I also really like the idea of collecting excerpts of student work and sharing them with the class.  I have done this before when I had a pilot program for at-risk students; small classes.  Once I was back in a general education classroom I found it so time consuming I couldn’t keep up.