For this week's readings, we were asked to read Giving Feedback: Preparing Students for Peer Review and Self-Evaluation, by Zoi. A Philippakos, and Chapter 4: The Writer's Craft from Gail E. Tompkins' Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product. 7th ed. Philippakos provided useful advice for teaching students to revise their work. Tompkins reviewed the writer's craft and the various elements that make up strong writing.
When I was completing my undergraduate degree, I worked in the writing center at Nazareth College. My job was to help students review their papers and offer commentary. Many of them didn't know they needed to revise their work to make their papers stronger. They were looking for a proofreader, someone to review their citations, or to check that they had fulfilled the basic requirements of the assignment by reviewing an assignment sheet. One way I helped them revise their work was by asking them to locate their thesis statement, or main point of the essay. No matter the subject matter, the thesis statement should have been located near the beginning of the essay or in the introductory paragraph. After they located this statement, we would then review the rest of the essay to see how they used the writer's craft to prove/maintain their thesis. I would help them identify weak points by asking questions that went beyond conventions, and provide suggestions for revisions.
According to Tompkins, during the revising stage, "the focus is on making changes to communicate more effectively" (p. 56). That was my goal as a tutor in the writing center was to help my students communicate more effectively. Even though I didn't always understand the subject matter of their papers, by asking them questions that related back to their thesis and how they used writer's craft elements like ideas, organization, and voice, the students were equipped with ideas for revising.
Since all teachers don't have the time to work in-depth with each student on revisions 1:1, Philippakos recommends peer review. Philippakos cites several studies that prove a symbiotic relationship through peer review: the writer benefits by understanding the reader's needs, and the readers are exposed to more examples of writing which will positively impact their own approach to writing (p. 14). Of course, teachers need to first model what peer review should look like, possibly by doing a think-aloud with various samples of writing to show stronger and weaker papers (Philippakos, p. 14). I think this is a great idea and one I would implement should I ever need to work with a group on revising their writing.
Philippakos also recommends creating specific evaluation criteria (and genre-specific criteria) so students know what they should look for when reviewing their peers' essays (p. 17). In class this week we developed genre-specific criteria for evaluating narrative texts as a group before taking the time to do some narrative text review. I think it's a great idea to empower students to create their own evaluation criteria (under the guidance of the teacher). It activates their background knowledge on the topic, and empowers them to feel confident during peer review time. A popular project in middle school libraries today is a "fake news project," where students are asked to review several articles and determine what is more likely to be credible and what is more likely to be fake based on the sources provided. If I had the opportunity to do a project like this in my library, I could start by asking the students to help me develop criteria for what constitutes a credible source. While students wouldn't be revising a writing project, they may "revise" their choices after reviewing their own student-created evaluation criteria.
I enjoyed this week's readings, and it was a good reminder to me that revising and editing are truly two separate parts of the writing process. I will be looking at my own writing for this course more closely so that I can question, elaborate, and clarify when needed!
Sources outside class textbook
Philippakos, Z.A. (2017). Giving feedback: Preparing students for peer review and self-evaluation. The Reading Teacher, 71(1), 13-22. DOI: 10.1102/trtr.1568
Philippakos, Z.A. (2017). Giving feedback: Preparing students for peer review and self-evaluation. The Reading Teacher, 71(1), 13-22. DOI: 10.1102/trtr.1568
Michelle, here again you did a great job of summarizing the major points of the reading. Where you started to really connect to the intricacies of the issues was in the last line of the entry when you mentioned the writing you are doing for this class. I am left wondering how well you feel yourself have really taken the time to "re-envision" your work and what you aspects of peer review you will want to be sure to adhere to when you are sharing your own writing as well as giving feedback to your peers.
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