Corbin Moore and I taught an online class called Improving Historical Reading and Writing over the summer. We learned that one of the major barriers to non-ELA teachers assigning writing in their classes is simply that they don’t feel comfortable providing feedback on that writing. They are also concerned about increasing their workload. Our experiences as classroom teachers have led us to include more writing in our daily practices. We hope this chat encourages other teachers to do the same.
Q1 With the recent emphasis on increasing writing in all subjects, how has your job as a teacher changed?
Goal-setting strategies are terrific. Here is a longer paper Scott wrote about using goal-setting strategies as formative assessment.
Shorter, more frequent, focused skill-building writing tasks show great promise in increasing positive attitudes toward writing. They can be graded quickly or used for peer review.
Q2 What is your definition of effective feedback?
This John Hattie article demonstrates that feedback has a strong effect on student learning. Unfortunately, this is not always positive.
Turnitin has done some extensive research on feedback and discovered a gap between teacher and student perceptions about what constitutes effective feedback.
Q3 What strategies/tools have you found valuable in providing feedback and/or peer review?
Google Docs
Rubrics/Criteria Charts
Q4 How is coaching student writers different from teaching writing? What are the advantages to coaching versus teaching writing?
Q5 What are the best writing tools, strategies, and frameworks for teaching writing and coaching students through the writing process?
Q6 What would happen if you stopped evaluating writing and switched to coaching?
Q7 How can teaching speaking and listening skills help improve student writing?
Extra Credit
Free webinar with coaching expert Jim Knight. http://www.edchatinteractive.org/upcoming-seminars/how-to-have-better-conversations-with-jim-knight
HistoryRewriter 