When I am responding to my students written assignments, I have read that I am supposed to be gentle, find the positives in the work, and meet the students where they are. I have been told that I should guide them along their writing journey, to ask them questions and let them find discover their own path. I have been reminded that writing is about the process and not about the product. Umm no.
For years I have taught upper division undergraduate courses, including research methods courses. In academic writing, the product is the whole purpose of the writing. Academic writing includes texts intended for publication, such as journal articles, reports, books, and chapters in edited collections. Therefore, these texts must follow very specific conventions in terms of content, structure and style. (See Scribbr for an overview of academic writing.) However, students often have very little exposure to or experience with “discipline writing” (more on that topic next blog).
When students are writing in a style that is unfamiliar, they truly do get lost. I get many blank stares or shrugged shoulders in response to the questions I pose during feedback. Even my youngest child tells me, “I am just hearing words. I have no idea what you are saying.” The students have little background knowledge associated with academic writing and have no place to “hang” the feedback. As a result, I give LOTS of feedback to my students. I give LOTS of very specific, very directive feedback to my students, whether they are on campus or at home. This feedback follows examples of well written papers, comes throughout the writing process, is incorporated into the various stages of the research paper (such as introduction, literature review, method, and analysis), and becomes an ongoing dialogue throughout the semester.
But I only I have a semester, just fifteen weeks to help students produce a publication-ready paper. Neither the tight time table nor the strict course goals allow for “creative thinking opportunities,” or incremental knowledge expansion (these ideas were in a 2018 Edutopia article). I rarely have time to pick and choose between higher order and lower order writing concerns. Yet, my youngest child’s comment that I give too much feedback on homeschool assignments made me want to be more effective with my responses. So I set out on a search to discover better methods for giving student feedback.
The results included various articles and op-eds from sites such as Edutopia, Education Week, and Achieve the Core. These pieces centered on the K-12 community and assumed year long or multi-year time spans. Many were a bit too “soft” and, as a result, did not strike the right cord. I had greater success with search results that included articles and guide sheets from college writing centers. Two of my favorite resources came from George Mason’s Writing Center and the University of Michigan’s Writing Center.
Although the former was geared towards peer feedback, its suggestions will be useful for the homeschool environment. My child tends to get overwhelmed by a large amount of feedback and sees the feedback as an indication of poor writing quality. So, on the front of the paper, I will remember to say what is going well in the writing, to ask lots of “notice-wonder” questions, and to think about the goals of the writing rather than the expectations of the writer. And, on the back of the paper, I will write out my key comments and specific suggestions so my writer can refer to them later throughout the writing process. Hopefully, this will be a feedback system that will work for both of us. I’ll let you know.