Most of my students' writing is very bad. Most come from homes where Spanish is the predominant language. The average reading level for most of these seventeen and eighteen year-olds is fourth grade. I have more than 200 students. Reading, editing, grading and handing back thousands of pieces of writing a semester is not a good use of my time.
Most of my students refuse to read, edit and revise their writing before they hand it in to me. They lie when they tell me that they have already read what they wrote. Their attitude is that they wrote the piece. so obviously they've read it. They want me to edit and revise it for them.
When I am able to have a writing conference with an individual student I fall into the trap described by Lindemann in chapter three. There are so many mechanical errors in most of the papers that the search for more clarity in expressing ideas is overwhelmed by the punitive picking apart of the papers' exteriors. I'd like to learn more effective way to guide my students to become self-editors. I'd like to deal more with revision and less with editing.
Rewriting is a very important part of the writing process, and I think it gets little emphasis when writing is discussed. As to your issue, it seems that a reintroduction of the writing process needs to be made. I know that when I write the most important part of my writing is revising. I am one of those writers who goes back about 5 times before submitting a paper, and that's mainly because I am a better critic than a writer. It seems that despite the students' laziness, they lack the understanding of how important revision is. A good example I like to use is, the one when someone sends a text and their spell check auto-corrects them and the message doesn't make sense. This example demonstrates the need to make sense and to be aware of what you are saying/writing/talking about.
ReplyDeleteStudents always misunderstand the difference between revision and editing. Normally, I will have them focus on editing at the end. During the process, I will focus on 2-3 common grammatical errors or building practice through mini lessons. When it comes time to editing and grading, I will focus on those 2-3 and those 2-3 alone. (It's hard, but it's manageable for you and the kids). Both student and teacher are not overwhelmed, in addition, students are focused on finding those errors or improvements. Hopefully, after that, you can move on to another set of errors to correct in the next writing.
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