The first week of summer school is over! I feel like I worked really hard last week (partly because I hadn't been doing much work at all since school got out), and I am thrilled to have a weekend to relax and take it easy before jumping back in on Monday (the first paper is due, so I'll be grading...). I'm very interested to see how the papers turn out, and I'm looking forward to starting the second unit, because I think my students will like it.
On my syllabus for the summer, I decided to take a risk and try a new method of workshopping. In the past, I've used a few variations, but the basic format was the same: students brought in drafts and worked in pairs or small groups to read, comment on, and revise them. For this class, I decided to try a method DR has used and recommended, which is workshopping papers as a whole class. To do this, I had students sign up for dates throughout the term when they would bring in copies of their 1st page for the whole class. During the term, each student will bring copies once. Then, the whole class reads the draft, writes comments on the copy, and discusses it as a class. This way, the writer gets feedback from ALL the students in the class rather than just one or two. And, the students in the class get to read more of each other's work during the semester, allowing us to spend more time as a class focusing on actual student writing.
I wasn't really sure how this would go with my class, but between Thursday and Friday, we looked at 4 different drafts, and it went really well! The class seemed to be ready and willing to make comments and give advice, and the writers seemed to be able to accept that advice. Our conversations were pretty lively, and the students made a lot of the same comments I would have. It also gave us a chance to talk about some aspects of writing we hadn't had time to discuss yet in the context of looking at an actual paper. I am definitely planning to continue to use this method in the fall (with some adjustments, of course). I am also eager to hear what my students have to say about it when I ask for their feedback about the first unit on Monday. Anyway, it feels really exciting and rewarding to have taken what I thought to be a risk in teaching and to be rewarded by a successful (so far!) outcome.
2 comments:
This is how the creative writing classes I've taken have worked. In my experience, the downsides were:
1. You get a lot of amateur opinion that can be hard to sift through for the best advice.
2. Most people have a really hard time not being defensive. The classes I had basically just said that the author wasn't allowed to talk until the last 5 minutes when they could ask clarifying questions.
Despite the downsides, I always really liked it a lot. It also has the upside of making people care more about what they're writing since the whole class is going to be talking about it.
You're right about the downsides. Regarding #1, I've tried to emphasize that the writer of the essay is in charge of evaluating the comments--taking the good ones, leaving the others.
For #2, so far, it doesn't seem to have been a problem. (I have the last 5 minute rule, too, but I haven't been rigid with it). I think this class has a nice dynamic, which helps, but I think I probably would struggle with feeling defensive if it were my paper we were looking at!
The main problem I'm having so far is that I wish there were more time for pair workshops, too, so everyone would get some feedback for each essay.
I did ask my students for their feedback on Monday when they turned in the first essay, and it seems like most of them like the workshopping this way, too, so that was good to hear.
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