Week 11-1

English 11
Today was a busy day...for the students. Their most recent rough draft of a persuasive essay was due today for peer review. I think my numbers are correct (I'll have actual numbers for my capstone), but I had only 7 students (0ut of 74) NOT bring some kind of rough draft! There were a few students absent, but on the whole almost everyone had their stuff! Hopefully this level of involvement will transfer to their final draft. I taped one group in each class going through each other's essays. Each student had a "Peer Analysis Sheet for Persuasive Essays" as a guide and had to first mark and then discuss their work. I haven't listened to the tapes yet... We also began going through the first part of a power point designed to introduce students to the Puritans (as pre-reading for The Crucible).

Observations
First, I am SO impressed with the number of students who had their work! I'm going to ask the kids if they did their essays because of the topic (I have space to teach only two pieces of persuasive lit. next year...what should I teach? Why?). I've read a lot of complaints about the lack of choice when it comes to essay topics, so I tried to loosen things up this time. I knew that I wanted students to write about the literature they've read (practice for literary analysis), but I tried to give them as much choice as I possibly could under the circumstances.

I tried something new today. Usually I have students sit in "pods" of four desks pushed together. I make sure that each "pod" has no more than one student more than essays (four students/three essays; three students/two essays) and I usually have to do a little rearranging to make that happen (but not today!!!). I let the students sit with their friends for the first part of the year because they haven't ever done peer revision, so sitting with a friend is not as scary as handing your writing over to someone you don't know well (or worse, have a crush on!). Today, though, I explained that like students were sitting together - the good with the good, the struggling with the struggling - and that it was time to shake things up a little! Then I reorganized. Some students were mad, but most were OK. The peer revision was very serious and quiet. I taped one group from each class for later analysis, but for the most part, everyone was eager to make a good impression on their peers. It was very nice - I did a little management and a little hand-holding - but for the most part, students were on their own (and fine there). This is good...soon I can have teacher-student conferences during the student-student conferences.

reflection
Every time we peer edit, students get a little more...verbose. They're writing comments ranging from OK to excellent on their peer's papers, and with the addition of the peer conference (directly after the peer editing), students are doing OK. When the final draft is due on Wednesday, I'm going to tape the same students I taped today, only this time I'm going to tape them completing their reflective journals as verbal entries (podcasts, but without the "cast" part). I'd like to compare their peer conferences with their reflective journals and see what bubbles up. I'd also like to see if the student's are putting their money where their mouths are - does their editing reflect what happened today in class, or are they still hoop-jumping?

Wednesday the final draft is due. On that day, students will fill out their reflective journals based on what they wrote in their essay. Before we do that, though, I'm going to share two quotations with the - and those quotations will be posted. The quotations are as follows:

"Reflective thought is 'active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge that in light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends." (Dewey, 1933, 118).

AND

"The practitioner allows himself to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation he finds uncertain or unique. He reflects on the phenomenon before him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behaviour. He carries out an experiment which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomenon and a change in the situation (Schon, 1983, 68)."

I want students to at least be introduced to the basic underpinnings of WHY I'm making them write in their reflective journals. I know I work much better when I know why, so I'm hoping my students will be the same.

Things I'd like to measure in the data collection phase: length of reflective response, length of essay, length of response vs. grade on the essay, length of responses over time, length of essays over time. I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of it right now.