Journal 5-3

English 11
So, my goal today (this ENTIRE week) was to get through one power point presentation. Then, if I were lucky, I could discuss the homework assignment that the students handed in on Tuesday. I was not lucky. We managed to complete peer review of their quotation paragraphs, I assigned the homework, and I kind of got through the power point. 2nd period was fine, 3rd too, 5th period had a lot of questions and 9th period had a fire drill.

Observations
I had noticed during past peer review sessions that students were not really peer reviewing. There were marks on the page, but students weren't connecting with the intended purpose of the activity. I would read paragraphs where student writers had mis-analyzed a quotation and their peer reviewer had written "good job, nice analysis" in the margin. I'd check the reviewer's paper (maybe they had misunderstood the quotation also?), and they would be spot on. I've asked students to make sure that the quotations were correctly embedded in a larger sentence and see reviewers give the thumbs-up to students who had written mis-punctuated sentence fragments. I read paragraphs that were four (simple) sentences long and the peer reviewer had asked no leading questions. All these peer editing lessons had been previously taught, and the problems weren't glaring; it was just obvious that students were aiming for their grade instead of trying to help the student whose work they were reading. So I gave a speech. I reminded students that the purpose of this assignment was NOT to get a grade - the grade was a by-product of the exercise. When students read a peer's work and miss simple fixes (like periods at the end of sentences, or using the word "means" five times when the word is expressly forbidden), they are doing their peers a disservice.

Huh. Wow. During peer review (after I gave them the lecture), students were serious. They asked me questions (clarifying punctuation, asking about editing choices, discussing possible places to put an appositive) and when I wasn't available, they asked the writer. Peer editing took nearly 20 minutes, which is almost half my class time! Most students had MORE than the five comments/questions that I require during peer review. Students also wanted to share their appositives - but they had to be recommended by their reviewer. After finishing a paper, the reviewer would write the sentence containing a great appositive on the board; the writer would write the original sentence below. We took a few minutes to admire the work...and to talk about how the sentence had changed from the original version to the new version. More lightbulbs came on and a few students didn't want to turn in their papers. They wanted to keep their work and add or fix their appositive. At the end of this, I asked students to write a short paragraph reflecting on their work this week. I asked: "Why did you choose this quotation (there are two from which to choose each week)?" "What did you do well?" "With what did you struggle?" What part of this week's writing lesson helped you improve your paragraph the most?" "What lesson do you need next?" "Are you proud of the work you completed on the paragraph this week? Why or why not?"

After finishing the peer editing, we moved on to assigning homework. Students have to read "Speech in the Virginia Convention" and then either write a summary as homework, or take a quiz on Tuesday (no school Monday). Then I showed students the youtube site that has all kinds of people delivering the speech. They were shocked. Then I got the best question all day: "Mrs. V. If I tape myself and post me saying this speech on youtube, will you count that as my summary?"

Yes, kid, yes I will. (The purpose of the summary/quiz is for me to have evidence of reading. Certainly a tape of you reading the speech out loud is evidence that you've done the reading...)

We'll see what materializes...

FINALLY, that stinkin' power point presentation. I absolutely flew through it and promised the kids we'd revisit specific slides when I taught that skill.

reflection
It's been a difficult week. I should stop being surprised by the students when they take me seriously, but I forget that I'm the voice of authority for them sometimes. I'm certainly happy that they're apparently thinking more about the real reason for peer editing instead of their grade. I am keeping track of participation, and here's my happy moment: every student in periods 2, 3, and 5 had their paragraph done. Only four(?) students in period 9 came without their work done, and one student spoke to me before class even started. He made arrangements to come in Tuesday and peer edit the essay of an absent student in exchange for that student editing his paper. That way they can both get full credit... So, participation is up, but for how long? I haven't looked at the reflections students wrote today, so I have nothing to add there. I think it's just been a weird week and I'll have more to reflect upon next week when I actually get to teach a bigger variety of lessons. Today, though, my questions revolve around the change in attitude: was it me, or was it the reflective paragraph they had to write?