More on providing students with feedback on their writing....

I had some time yesterday which I took advantage of visiting some classrooms. When I stopped into Pat Hill's third grade her students were in the process of sharing the reports they had completed on the presidents. One of the ideas that I picked up while I was there was how she was providing students with feedback on their work. Pat had given each student a post-it (what would we do without post-its!!!). As each student got up to report, he/she would name one student in the class from whom he/she wanted feedback. That feedback would be written on the post-it. Prior to the sharing, Pat had gone over areas with the entire class on where the feedback might be given. These of course involved many of the six traits. She talked to them about specific language & ideas of what their comments could look like. While the students were presenting, she also gave input (via post-it, of course!). The students couldn't wait to get the post-its when they were done; you should have seen their faces. When the entire sharing session was over, the class "debriefed" on the experience of presenting....what it had been like. Some of the students talked about how they had practiced at home and hadn't been scared. Others, the opposite. It made great fodder for lessons on preparedness.

Noting what students are doing well with their writing, finding areas where they are taking risks and making a point to recognize them for the improvements they've made is a powerful motivating force. One of the areas where we are working so hard and it's starting to show is in helping our students feel like authors. This state of mind has to lead to increased risk taking in their writing and willingness to write overall. This is so important as we continue to create our community of writers at Wolcott St. School.

I'm so glad I happened to be in Pat's room yesterday to see how she (and her students) provided feedback in writing...especially since that's the topic I've been writing about here, but what about the rest of you. What are you doing? Feel free to leave a comment to share your great ideas with your colleagues!
Debby