The article by Shaughnessy compounded the view I took from Sommers; editing is NOT revision and can be a trap for beginning writers. Students who spend a lot of time editing their first idea (instead of revising) feel a false sense of progress; they are improving their paper in the same way that one might improve a flat tire by cleaning the rim. When I begin teaching any course that involves writing, I'll make it a point to differentiate editing and revising. It is becoming more and more apparent that proper revision early on can make a world of difference in the quality of a paper.
I am a proponent of the approach that DOES NOT grade any draft or cycle early on. I feel that marking grammatical errors early will cause the student to focus on the wrong things. Instead, I believe it will be more beneficial to poke and prod the IDEA so that students are focusing on the argument, support, detraction, etc. that make the paper worth reading (and writing!)
You are a good writer and have a conceptually sound grasp of the current theories of revision and writing. I am not sure whether giving grades and marking errors are valuable or not. I think that beginning students may feel cheated if they don't get a grade and specific feedback. However, the goal is to motivate them to want to revise and to think deeply and critically about what they are writing. I think this is difficult to achieve.
ReplyDeleteStudents will certainly feel cheated if they don't get feedback - but I think it is useful for students to learn that grades are only one type of feedback - and a limited type at that. I will say this, I have to work hard to get students to accept the fact that my pre-grade feedback is more important than my with-grade feedback. I have to make it clear that I haven't cheated them by explaining the rational behind my process.
DeleteThe good news is that this forces me to link my assignments, scaffolding, and assessment practices to the course learning objectives - not just to link them in my head - to explain that link to the students.
"Why don't you give this draft a grade?" That question is a great moment to explain what my course is trying to do.
As for marking error, I don't want a reader to copy-edit my work until its ready for copy editing. My students should learn to feel the same way, but then they'd have to learn what copy-editing is. Hey! There's an idea.