Thursday, February 27, 2014
Supporting Writing Assignments
What do you do now to build in process (and support) with your writing assignments? What have you not yet tried but might want to try in the future to support assignments? Any barriers to providing in-class support activities for assignments that might make you reluctant to incorporate them? What about outside-class support?
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In the past, I have never integrated steps in the writing process other than making sure they come speak with me about the selection of their topic. In my class, the students are required to write 5000 words – and I choose to have them write a research paper to satisfy this requirement. I have learned that I am going about it wrong. The biggest thing that I need to correct moving forward is to integrate individual due dates for particular portions of the paper. Doing so would help me accomplish two major things: (1) I want to be able to provide them meaningful feedback and (2) I want to stop reading papers that are written the week or day before they are due!!!!!!
I also need to devote a day on the syllabus to actually show them (even if some of the students already know this information) how to use the library webpage. Additionally, I need to SHOW them examples of “good” and “bad” sources. I assume that they know Wikipedia is not a good source but a large majority of my students manage to use Wikipedia in a significant amount of their papers. I also need to show them how to properly cite a source (I do review this in class and give them resources about how to cite properly but more emphasis needs to be placed on this point).
I also would like them to turn in their work using “Turn-it-in” – something I have never used. That will allow me to not only see if their work is plagiarized but also will allow me a medium to provide feedback back to them electronically (I think that is what the program allows me to do – I guess I need to know more about “Turn-it-in”. Finally, without a doubt I am going to continue using the Writing Center as a resource outside of class.
Clearly, I think I could a lot moving forward to provide more support for my writing assignments. I am going to first implement the major changes above and then I am going to constantly revise and tweak my assignment moving forward.
I haven’t done a lot of writing assignments at USM, but at my previous school, I tried a process where I required an outline, then a rough draft, then peer review for content, then use a website called bonpatron which checks grammar (to an extent), then fix those mistakes… and turn in the outline, draft one, group comments, draft 2, screen shot of bonpatron corrections, and draft 3. Since I did smaller assignments last semester, I didn’t really go into all that, however. This semester, since I’ll be assigning a rather large writing project, I’ll be collecting things in stages and requiring the use of bonpatron again – in other words, requiring things in stages, as Mary has said (also, Mary, I have my students turn in their assignments in Turnitin.com. In my classes now, cheating happens with translation websites instead of copying so Turnitin isn't helpful to me with that aspect, but I used to TA for classes of 540, 360, and 310 students, and it is VERY helpful. I like the idea of dragging codes for common errors onto their work, but to me the position of the comment isn't clear and I'm also not sure if students will go and look at them).
What I haven’t really done before is something that we mentioned in seminar early on: revise and resubmit. It’s a good idea because it forces the students to consider the feedback that we took so much time to give. I think I haven’t done this in the past because usually I make final written projects due at the very end of the course, so there isn’t really time to go back. Also, when I finish grading a pile of papers, I often don’t want to see them again. Is that mean? I just want to move on…
Any barriers to giving these support assignments? I’d say that the students themselves might be barriers because I’m not sure they find peer review in French to be valuable (there are so many things their peers can’t catch!). To help peer review, I give them guiding questions related to content/organization, but they often can’t get past the idea that they should be looking for grammar. The problem therefore lies in the fact that not all students are not good at checking for grammar.
I’m finding this question really hard to answer and I’m not sure why. I think I don’t know a lot support activities for writing, so it’s hard to me to say why I don’t do them when I don’t even know what them is.
When they write their "big" paper for me in design history, I have my students turn in a topic, a proposed thesis statement (we talk about what this is), and an annotated bibliography of three sources that they propose to use as they develop the paper. We review appropriate sources and citation styles in class beforehand. I give feedback on these in writing. Then, a couple weeks later, they bring a basic outline to class and we spend a class session peer reviewing the outlines. They must "pitch" their idea to a small group, using the outline as a guide, and the group has to give feedback about if they can identify the argument or not, plus give suggestions for what they'd want to know more about as readers. I visit each of the small groups during the course of the peer review class session. Finally, students turn in their written paper. They have about a month between outline and paper, and I invite them almost every time class meets to make use of my office hours. (I even had somebody take me up on it last year!) I give feedback on the papers when I grade them. After the papers are returned, students give a very brief oral presentation that summarizes their primary argument and shows visual evidence in support (this is design history, remember).
Like Mary said above, I'm curious about using Turn It In, mostly as a time-saving device for myself. Also, I've been experimenting this semester with giving "What I'd Do" examples as we build up to the topic / thesis proposal. This was in one of the articles we read for our last writing session, I think, and though I've always resisted giving extremely parallel examples (things students could "steal") in the past, I'm giving it a try right now. The students like it a lot. If it leads to better papers, I'll keep it as a strategy.
With writing, I link to process, a great deal, in the class and even when grading. Portions are scaffolded throughout each assignment (invention, sketches of ideas, outlines, introductory paragraphs, individual and peer-review). I do not do all supporting activities with each assignment, nor do I grade everything they do. Rather, I select and make sure that I offer feedback on at least one stage of each assignment. And then, when they submit their product, I randomly select other documents from the “process” of their writing for them to include and “showcase their writing story” to me. I look through those documents and holistically score their process, making that a percentage of their essay grade. In addition, students write a letter to me to begin reflecting and explaining their peer-review workshops, the decisions they made, and the revisions they incorporated; I like this activity because it stresses critical thinking and requires them to articulate specifics while helping them to think deeper about the genre in which we are writing. Students’ letters range on the spectrum from great to beyond vague, and doing it with each assignment, students improve (as this, too, is a percentage of their grade). Also, I am able to talk with them on that letter to help them think deeper and to correct grammar extensively there. The day they submit the product, students fill-out a decompression form (which is more than a self-evaluation but includes that); this form focuses on some assignment objectives and returns students to the course and student learning outcomes. I guide them through each question to clarify anything along the way, as the SLOs are tricky for them. Peer-reviews vary with how I do them. At times, I will use groups of three, or pairs. Or I may start off with them looking at their own essays for something, and then move to a partner. Or they do it for homework using Blackboard. Or I’ve had a volunteer, and we all look at that one essay the class before the larger peer-review. Last essay, I included a quick scoring guide on the back of their peer-review form, and students loved that. As far as what I have yet to try, I have not yet transitioned to grading their final products online. I have graded drafts/outline/stages electronically, and then for a sole online course, I’ve graded electronically, of course. But with my face-to-face, I still have them submit hard copies as their product. I flirt with the idea, but am resistant. I also heard about an app that allows you to include audio clips, and that is something that I would like to try in the future. I think my resistance is my comfort level as well as my concern that not every student has immediate access to laptops/computers. In terms of outside class support, I do encourage the Writing Center, and occasionally, I’ve offered evening, optional workshops.
I'll add: What Katie said in terms of not knowing what "they" (writing support activities) are in any real way - I feel that way too and am looking forward to a hopefully very long list of manageable, concrete, easily understandable activities I can do with my students to support writing in the classroom.
My lecture writing assignments are designed to incorporate three separate components with corresponding due dates. I began employing this strategy to try to combat student procrastination. Students turn in a correctly formatted “literature cited” page with a minimum number of primary sources within the first month of the semester. Shortly after midterm, their rough drafts are due. Their final drafts are usually due the week before final exams. For all three components, comments are provided on ways to correct or improve their scientific writing style. I have been using Turnitin now for about 3-4 semesters. I was reluctant to incorporate this in the beginning because the students were charged a fee for Backboard. As that situation has changed, I use Blackboard as a supplement to all my classes. Turnitin has greatly reduced the amount of time that I spend grading for basic grammar issues and has greatly improved my ability to detect instances of plagiarism.
I am kind of out of ideas for new things to try because I have incorporated many support activities in class that do not seem to work. So, if they aren't learning from the exercises I lose time for content and they still don’t get anything out of it. At least nothing that is evident to me. This was one of the major reasons that I wanted to take this seminar.
I always offer to meet with students outside of class and encourage them to use the resources available at the learning commons (combined facility for speaking, writing, science, and math tutoring on the Long Beach campus). The difficulty is that there are usually few peer tutors in the learning commons that are proficient in scientific writing.
As of now, I usually build in a 3 or 4 step process into my writing assignments similar to Dr. Walker’s style. First, the students will have to have their topic for the assignment approved through me. Then they are usually required to prepare an abbreviated works cited page with a minimum of appropriate three references to make sure you understand how to format in the correct manner. A rough draft is then required, usually sometime around midterm. The rough draft is sometimes graded and counts as ~10-20% of the total grade while other times it is not graded. In either case, I normally give extensive feedback on the rough draft. The rough draft must be returned for me to grade the final draft, which is normally due about a week before final exams. While I would really like to incorporate peer-review activities into my writing support activities, I have been (and am still) reluctant to do so due to time constraints. Maybe if I can be more creative with my assignments such that they more closely align with and reinforce content, more class time can be devoted to such activities. As a few others have said so far, I would like to try using Turnitin as well. As plagiarism is a big issue for writing in science/biology, I feel that it is imperative to teach our students to be vigilant in its use. As far as outside class support goes, I do encourage my students to visit our Learning Commons, which houses the writing center. While I encourage my students to see me for help during office hours as well, most don’t (as we have discussed before). Perhaps setting up “workshop” outside of class time would be useful for support (I think Rachel said she did this and found it successful).
I build in process and support for literary analysis type papers by 1) modeling close reading in class (almost every class), 2) having them choose one small passage from a literary text to quote, to analyze its langauge, and then construct a comment based on the quotation and its use of langauge -- this is meant to give them a headstart on a topic and on analysis -- more about how this is working in a minute; 3) requiring they turn in drafts and participate in peer-reviews; and 4) my giving feedback on drafts.
Even though we do close reading of passages in class and they practice with homework assignments, most of the class do not see the connection between this type of exercise and writing essays. Disconnect is a big issue and something I have to keep chipping away at.
For the first time, I am asking that they reflect on their writing process -- much like Rachel's decompression "assignment" -- I think. Rachel I would like to see that decompression assignment. The first one of these will be coming up after spring break, so I don't know how my students will respond to it.
I also schedule appointments with my students not after every draft is turned in but I try to do this after the first draft to give them another cue as to what I expect. This has worked pretty well but takes lots of time.
I used blackboard last semester for all submissions, drafts and final versions, and I think the comment/editing functions are better than they have been but are still clunky. So, I have gone back to asking for hard copies.
The challenge: the disconnect issue mentioned above.
What do you do now to build in process (and support) with your writing assignments?
-Unfortunately I do very little beyond trying to tailor the assignment and provide some degree of guidance to the whole class and then to those who come to see me after class individually. To some extent, I give them feedback on writing (in general) on their exams and we discuss what makes strong essay answers and weak answers, etc;
What have you not yet tried but might want to try in the future to support assignments?
I think the best thing to do would be to have their major writing project be due in the middle of the semester--so that they could spend the second half of the semester revising it and working on what they did wrong. I will probably try something similar in my capstone class, but the logistics of a major project that early are daunting at best.
Any barriers to providing in-class support activities for assignments that might make you reluctant to incorporate them?
time is an obvious one, though another less obvious one is timing--first: if the exercises are not done around the time of a due date, I have little reason to expect that the lesson or activity will stick or be applied to their work. second: a lot of times I want them to incorporate everything we have learned in class into their final writing assignments and it is difficult to discuss a part of the paper before we have gotten to that part of the class. third: see first point a few more times.
What about outside-class support?
I always promote the writing center--regardless of where i am teaching or who i am teaching. (whom?) however, this is less integrated into class as it is encouraged to promote better habits across the board. i would be interested in some peer work outside of class, but I am unsure how the logistics of such an exercise would work--or if it would be beneficial for them.
What do you do now to build in process (and support) with your writing assignments?
I think I give them a lot of direction/support in the assignment itself, but I also am having trouble answering this question, so perhaps not! :)
My writing assignments (usually 2 pages or so) seem too short/brief to require staging. The feedback I give on case brief # 1 is intended to be detailed and of benefit in case brief # 2.
What have you not yet tried but might want to try in the future to support assignments?
Not sure how to answer this one. Perhaps I need to think about more ways to support. The assignment is combination writing and oral presentation, and I tend to support the writing more than the oral presentation in the assignment itself, I think. I would really like to use Turnitin (also, as someone else posted) - for various reasons.
Any barriers to providing in-class support activities for assignments that might make you reluctant to incorporate them?
No class time to devote to (more)support activities!
What about outside-class support?
I always promote the writing center. They get detailed feedback on their case # 1 (both oral presentation and on the written portion) whenever they come to my office to view themselves and receive their grades on case # 1 (of 2).
The most I have done to provide support is to suggest possible or typical paper topics and then to require them to turn in their topics ahead of time. I ask them to share their topics with the entire class so they can hear what everyone else is doing, although I have never opened up these topics for discussion within the class. I will discuss their topics openly in front of the class and give suggestions for how to tweak or improve on their ideas. I also provide a list of style guides that are appropriate to use. I have not tried requiring outlines or drafts at various points of the process, but I think I need to try this. I have always been reluctant to do so due to the time required to read the drafts. I have also never required the students to visit the Writing Center, but I definitely plan to use this resource in the future. I think certain students will benefit greatly from this extra help, especially with some suggestions from me regarding their drafts. Turn It In is also something I have not explored that I think I should.
Similarly to Joe, I tend to include very few process driven elements to the largely reflective writing assignments that I tend to assign (esp. in technique classes). The focus, more often than not, is more so aligned with how the student applies the concepts reflected upon after engaging in writing. For thesis writing in dance, I break up the sections of the contextual research required (intro, preview, review of lit., main points, and conclusion) for students to turn in. Thus far, I give the majority of feedback but do include the time for in class peer review and suggestions. The various sections are submitted for multiple drafts until all comments are applied.
I agree with Katie in terms of students acting as barriers. My thesis writers specifically seem to be so focused on their own work that they usually do not offer the best peer support. As a result , I offer to meet with students individually to go over drafts/feedback (I'm usually not taken up on this). As mentioned in a previous post, our department has a dance writing tutor, but she is often not utilized. My colleagues and I often suggest the writing center, but many students do not attend in fear that their assignments will not be understood because of the specifics of the discipline/art form.
As always I am looking forward to discussing this topic and HAPPY MARDI GRAS!
Dori and the group--
You've already gotten all the lists I have, I think. Not many rabbits left in the hat. If you've seen the "Low Stakes Writing Activities" handout/reading, you've pretty much seen it all, in terms of activity types. If you look at Rachel's post, you'll see a pretty complete list of the range of things instructors in the field typically do to build in process and support writing AND see how they are structured to support an assignment. All of them are adaptable to discipline-specific writing, I would think.
I was hoping you all might come up with something I/we hadn't thought of before. Something that wasn't originally intended to support writing, for example, but could be adapted to do so. The reason this assignment was so vague to begin with was that I wanted you to throw away the rulebook and get transgressive, or at least desperately creative...
I just re-read my post and it sounded as though I were suggesting you hadn't come up with splendidly transgressive and creative ideas, which is not true. I only meant to lower expectations for tomorrow in terms of having held back a cornucopia of life-changing writing support activities.
Don't ya know.
Kay, I believe there is an example of the decompression form in Dropbox, but I will also bring you an example today and hand delivery it. (I also think I told you that I would send you something else? Was it the multimodal assignment? What was that? Remind me. Sorry.)
I try to instill some passion about the topic and let them see how this research will make them a better interior designer. Compassion and empathy are a big part of our profession. I think if they can see the importance of what they are researching, then they will perform better. But that does not always work...
Because I am not an English major and only write when I have to, I don't feel I am the best person to guide their writing.
Like the idea of the outline submission to see if they are on track.
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