Blog #9: Response

In reading through "Responding to Student Writing" I focused on the second scenario between Michael and Ellen. Though each had varying techniques Michael (completely involved) and Ellen (Hands off), I think ultimately each didn't quite live up to their proposed pedagogy. Ellen was not as quite hands-off as she argued because she still asked poignant and directed questions of her students, and Michael completely dominated the conversation instead of letting the modelling he spent time on at the beginning of the session help the students through the conversation. Instead of being a fellow peer in the conference group setting, I feel that he instead continued to be teacher with authority. I think each teacher overreached a bit as most professors tend to do. In fact, in my experience I think though I tried to play the Ellen role at times I had to inhabit Michael's role. However, it's different from one class to the other. This semester I finally had a group of discussion ready students, in comparison to my last few batches that sit in silence and wait for my response. I agree with Michael that you can't let students completely dominate the conversation without guidelines. They need to know what the rubric is and what the guidelines to make effective comments. And the teacher has to be involved in some way, in order to guide students back on topic if need be. But it's a balancing act, and I think ultimately what is missing from both these experiences is the work that went into these groups to build trust among the students to honestly and critically comment on each other's work.