Responding to Student Writing: Workshop – RM 117

Nancy Sommers, Harvard University

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Nick's notes on Nancy's introduction to her session

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We do so much work responding to student writing, but we often don't know how they use that feedback and thus Nancy's research in trying to find out how students respond to response.

Interest resparked by two recent experiences: Daughter Rachel find an interest in returning and staying at school based on the comments she received on her writing at Vermont Community College: teacher responses to writing inspired Rachel to believe in herself as a writer who could do well in college.

Between the Drafts study of 400 Harvard students were asked best experience/worst experience. Best was getting feedback and worst was getting no feedback, except maybe a grade.

So Nancy saw power of feedback to both draw students in, and also, if not done (or not done well), to repulse students.

Questions for room: What were some of the most useful comments we received and what were least helpful when we were students.

NC: For me, the first thing that came to mind was a comment on a paper I wrote for Shakespeare class for Richard Logan at U. Hartford. Comments on the paper throughout with needs for changes. But bottom of the paper was a simple sentence: Your writing cheers me.

Nancy talked to Steven Pinker and he says to engage learning, on feedback, you have to start with the positive.

Other attendees are recalling comments from their own undergraduate days, even down to the class, professor, and assignment.

Nancy points out that these memories really do speak to the power and importance of comments.

But, she points out, that her research shows that comments cannot be just praise, or students won't grow as writers. But once they know you're taking them seriously as writers and are engaged with them, which praise can help establish, then you can offer good constructive comments that helps students move forward.

Nancy also points out some of her own commenting practices which students told her not helpful: They said she asked too many questions, for example, which she was doing to help them generate ideas. But they found the questions sometimes conflicting or overwhelming.

They also found "commands" hard to work with. Such as "be specific" or "develop this." Those comments didn't explain why what they had wasn't specific or developed nor do they tell students a way to be more specific or to develop.

After asking us to analyze an assignment and essay that came from it, Nancy notes, one of the things we see when we get a stack of papers is the consequences of pedagogy. We see what we may not have done well in designing and presenting the assignment. We learn to be better teachers because of this.