Technical Difficulties

Ugh! Today I went to fast forward the tape I used to recorded my class conversation about writing workshops. Sadness. It didn't record. Yet, I'm not that upset by it. I'm guessing this is an abnormal t-r response? :) Even when I discovered the error, I felt no disappointment. Weird. What does that mean?

I wasn't really sure if the conversation had any brilliant quotes anyhow--and now I'll never know. However, by having the conversation, I feel students provided me with honest answers and left me wanting to interview one student -- which I did today.

The conversation was fascinating! Eye-opening, intriguing, puzzling, amazing! Honestly! It left me rejuvenated -- something difficult to do with less than two weeks of school left. Brandon was honest and insightful. The interview lead to a truly philosophical conversation over lunch about writing with two of the social studies teachers. I have some really great ideas on how to change things for next year.

Technical difficulties be damned! :) I used pen and paper to document the interview!

P.S. My book study just finished Strategic Writing by Deborah Dean. The last chapter strictly focused on revision! And she included several resources that I requested from the library. Two arrived today!

Data, Data, Data

Warning: Rambling Rant

Senior-itis has set in. With only a week before their final paper is due, some students have yet to turn in a rough draft. It was due a week ago, but they must turn in a draft before I even look at a final paper. I reminded some of them that their final paper grade will be reduced since their drafts were late. They seemed utterly shocked that not having a draft would hinder the final grade. They also seemed appauled that I would actually make them work. I mean, come on, there are only three class periods left. Do we really have to work? ugh.

Bright spot... I have found two students who are actually providing their peers with truly constructive and helpful criticism -- [one consistently] --both online and face-to-face comment are fabulous. I've decided to interview one of them to find out what makes him tick. How did he get so good at offering writing advice? How doe he begin go critique a paper? I brainedstormed with Natalie to come up with ten questions in hopes of picking his brain!

I've got the interview set up for tomorrow morning. More data to review for this summer. :)

Survey says...

That kids are schizophrenic when it comes to writing groups! :) More time, less time, face-to-face, online, require more of us, require less of us! Ahck! I guess it just proved what we all know: you can't please all of the people all of the time. Yet, I guess I thought that 20 small town high school seniors would at least have some common thoughts about writing groups.

I went back and re-read the comments and did realize that two main ideas were the same: the qualities a successful group should have, and the types of qualites they wanted from their peers. I was impressed that they at least knew what they wanted, yet I was still puzzled as to why they didn't exptect that from themselves. I decided that I wanted to have a class discussion about writing groups.

Today, I did just that. I brought in the tape recorder and had about a 20 minute conversation focused around the following six questions:

• If you know the qualities of a successful writing group, and you know the types of comments that are most helpful, why don't you give the types of comments you desire?


• Would requiring a certain number or length of comments help? If so, what would you suggest?


• Would you prefer assigned groups or your choice of groups? [Yes, we all know the answer, so I then asked, how can "messing around" be avoided?]


• Would you prefer if I offered a handful if questions to help guide you as you workshop a paper? If so, what and why?


• How do you identify a problem within a peer's paper? How do you offer "constructive criticism"?


• What problems do you address first? Why?

Before I started recording, I discussed with them my personal experiences with writing groups -- from nill in high school, to mediocrity in college, to above average in grad school, and sheer brilliance with CSUWP! (That's my awesome writing group below!)

I pondered with the students was it me? Was I unable to give and receive helpful workshop comments in high school? Did I lack the objectivity to do so? Honestly, I'm sure I had something to do with it, but I also know I never had a teacher offer me helpful comments along the way either. Yet, that's a different story! I also verbally previewed the questions that I had for them. I thought about springing them on 'em, but I wanted them to think about the questions a bit more than a gut reaction.

Overall, the students were honest with me. They brought up laziness within themselves, trust issues with their peers and their own ability to decide what is a "good" suggestion [one that will win then points with the teacher] versus one that is a "bad" suggestion [one that will loose them points with the teacher], selfishness [spending time on their peer's paper took away time from working on their own paper]. It will be interesting to transcribe the tape. At the very least, I'm very curious how their comments will vary this time as opposed to the first time.

I also noticed my research question has pulled back to include more about writing groups in general rather than simply the online component. Ahhh, research...