Well, according to Bean, I’m on the right track.  I try to make positive comments on student writing whenever I can.  I haven’t had the opportunity yet to act as coach because I haven’t given any assignments that require revision. I  usually grade lab reports and essays on quizzes and exams.  Neither of these are revised.  When we perform a lab exercise, it’s complete.  We don’t go back and redo the experiment or revise technique or the report itself.  While the lab report itself calls for critical thinking and writing on a different level, it is generally not revised.  Any comments made are expected to be incorporated in the next lab report.  I guess that’s why I was making so many comments on their writing.  It was my only shot.  Now I try to get them to think about the concepts I want them to include by giving case studies as examples and relative articles in class for them to discuss and respond to.

Hopefully my course will be designated as writing intensive and I will have the chance to act as “coach and judge” according to Bean.  I want to be able to encourage improvement in developing their ideas and celebrate with them when they make progress.  This will make the writing process a collaborative effort between student and instructor and at the same time they can own the work that they produce.  I need to remember the purpose of me commenting is to guide them in improvement (Bean) of the paper and not to circle every grammatical error.  I must resist the urge to grade with pen in hand.  I’m sure the informal writing assignments wii help me to react to student writing without over critiquing it.  This will give my students more confidence in developing their drafts in they are not in fear of the green pen.

I didn’t realize how my comments may be perceived by my students.  I try not to write harsch comments, although I admit getting more frustrating as the grading process goes on.  According to the readings, Bean states that many Professors and teachers grade in the wee hours of the night when they are weary and exhausted.  I’ve tried to correct that by not taking any papers home to grade.  I leave those assignments for when I’m fresh during the day.  I don’t spend much time on spelling and grammar unless I see numerous errors.  I usually circle or mark near the line to indicate the error but I don’t explain that there are similar errors in the writing.  I realize now that  this isn’t very helpful to students.

I have had the luxury of not teaching writing intensive courses thus far.   This one will be my first if accepted.  I usually look at lab reports and short essay assignments on exams and quizzes.  I do make comments on the short passages that students write.  I don’t know if my grading approach is overly critical, I try to be more instructive by writing down a few of the points that where left out, such as what about…..or how would you explain this?.  I can see how the student might few this as harsh or threatening when I am merely intending to assist them with developing their concepts or listing the necessary components to answer the question.  Many students lose points because they don’t answer the question or only answer part of the question.  I really hate to grade those papers, especially when the concepts are clearly stated.  I also had a tedency to copy edit but thanks to this seminar I’m learning to do less of that.

On the contrary, I feel that I do give positive feed back when students tie concepts or principles together.  I’ll write things like very nicely wriiten, well stated or good point, nice connection but I can probably assist them by stating why a point was good or why the paper was nicely wriiten.  According to G and H, this would be more meaningful to students.

With regqrds to what can be done with student writing, I realize that I should read through the paper without pen in hand and get an idea of what the student is aying in the paper as a whole.  Once I read through with comments I should make suggestions and corrections and then review these before giving a final grade.  A good example for following this is the leason I learned from grading one assignment in which I chenged the grade 3 times.  I realized after I read through another students work and went back to the criteria for the assignment and took away points.  This made the student upset (and rightfully so) but I was able to explain why she lost the points.  If I had put the pen down in the beginning I could have avoided the confrontation.  Live and learn.