I kind of fell in love with this chapter. I loved how she said that our job as teachers is to "guide and focus feedback". I also liked how she said, "Comments that enhance learning differ from traditional methods of hunting errors and identifying what's wrong with a paper. They must also point out what the student did well" (226). This really spoke to me because I think as teachers, we all fall under this "editing" spell. I see a spot in a student's writing so desperately needing a comma that I have to put it in! But in all reality how is this helping the student? I fear that it is not. Our job as teachers are not to be editors, it is to guide students.
As a tutor, I get to see the other side that the professors do not see. They hand students back their papers covered in marks and when they come in to see me, they are broken. What do all the marks mean? They have no idea. Why is every word circled? I have no idea. I ask the students what they think went wrong and they always say something like, "everything", "I suck at this", or my personal favorite,"she's a bitch". Writing "awk" (like in the student narrative that Lindemann provides), and "clarity", and "irrelevant"or challenging their arguments just "shows" them how bad they are. It doesn't help them in the slightest; sometimes I'm not even sure how to help them fix it. As Lindemann said, we are trying to justify our grade, not guide our students. I see the frustration this brings to the students firsthand, and often, I motivate them by telling them to stick it to their professor and to prove him or her wrong about them. They can write and I feel like I show them how to succeed while their professors vomit red marker all over their papers and give them "D-"'s.
Before I read this chapter, I was kind of unsure how to do this in a classroom setting, but Lindemann gives different options that I definitely will be putting into practice. My favorite was the writing an "endnote" for students that praises them, identifies a few problems and then gives them a goal (241). This is so much more clear that writing clarity all over the paper. I am going to use this one as a professor.
Well said, Alyssa. I hope that I am never one of the teachers that breaks students' spirits. I try very hard to say positive things. It is so important. I feel certain that you will be an excellent teacher - not only because of experience as a tutor, but because of your unique ability to emphasize with students.
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