My classroom and presentation

[Laurel Topken]

As an English student, I always benefited more from the classes that were discussion based rather than lecture based.  I also found that the more students got to know each other, the better the discussions.   For these reasons, I try to get my class to be fairly casual.  The student call me by my first name, I allow them to ask questions whenever they need to, and I let the discussions take on a natural flow.  I talk to them about writing anxiety and issues I have seen to help them break beyond the simple two dimensional thought processes.  My classroom at times resembles a large loud family gathering and at times a quiet place to work.  I have group activities almost every week as well as journaling time.  By the time the schedule gets to peer work groups the students are fairly comfortable talking with each other.  This setup is fun and interesting, yet educational to those who apply themselves. 

 

For my presentation, I would like to work on the effectiveness of the peer workshop.  I like to have peer response come about in group time where the students read each others' papers and discuss them during the group time.  I find that many people need to have the discussion and others input to really develop their thoughts on the papers.  It is the spontaneous discussions in this setting where the best suggestions seem to develop.  I have seen some good discussions in my classes, but mostly the students tend to talk to each other about other things.  When asking about their responses, I usually am told that the feedback is minimal.  The usual response is "That's good."  I have outlawed this phrase at times, but am having difficulty moving the students beyond this mind set.

[Ashley Hennefer]

As a former English major myself, I too see the benefits in discussing writing with peers. Currently I work as a writing consultant and often help to facilitate peer workshops. They can either be very effective, or not effective at all, and in fact can be more discouraging for some students. I like the idea of evaluating peer workshops, and am interested to see what you focus on specifically to change and improve!

[Marnie Smith]

This is such a common problem across all curriculums I have found. We all realize the value of peer feedback but soliciting quality feedback is the struggle. I really look forward to your presentation and seeing if I can adapt what you present to help my second graders with their peer feedback.