Responding to Student Writers
First Edition ©2013
Offering a model for thinking about response as a dialogue between students and teachers, Responding to Student Writers is a brief instructor resource which gets you thinking about the benefits of responding to writers and their writing.
ISBN:9781319502362
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Offering a model for thinking about response as a dialogue between students and teachers, Responding to Student Writers is a brief instructor resource which gets you thinking about the benefits of responding to writers and their writing.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Note to fellow teachers
Introduction
Why comments matter
Considering a writer’s development
Seeing comments through students’ eyes
The call-and-response of commenting
1 Setting the scene for responding
Offering one lesson at a time
Understanding the purpose of comments
The dangers of overcommenting
Responding to rough versus final drafts
Finding the right tone
Developing a common language
Creating a link between classroom and comments
2 Engaging students in a dialogue about their writing
Establishing a role for students in the dialogue
Revising with comments
The Dear Reader letter
Making the most of comments
3 Writing marginal comments
Marginalia
Less is sometimes more
Developing a scale of concerns
4 Writing end comments
End comments on early drafts
End comments on final drafts
Taking students seriously
5 Managing the paper load
Focusing on student learning
Varying the purpose of comments
Varying the style of comments
Mentoring students to become thoughtful readers
Resisting the urge to correct grammar and punctuation errors
Finding a role for grading rubrics
6 A case study: One reader reading
Bibliography
Responding to student writers: Best practices
Authors
Nancy Sommers
Nancy Sommers, who has taught composition and directed composition programs for thirty years, now teaches in Harvard's Graduate School of Education. She led Harvard's Expository Writing Program for twenty years, directing the first-year writing program and establishing Harvard's WAC program. A two-time Braddock Award winner, Sommers is well known for her research and publications on student writing. Her articles “Revision Strategies of Student and Experienced Writers” and “Responding to Student Writing” are two of the most widely read and anthologized articles in the field of composition. Recently she has been exploring different audiences through publishing in popular media. Sommers is the lead author on Hacker handbooks, all published by Bedford/St. Martin’s, and editor of Tiny Teaching Stories on Macmillan Learning's Bits Blog.
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