I have always held the belief that you need to be 15 minutes early to wherever you go. And I have a similar mindset when it comes to completing work. Get it done early!
Well— this week I am again a bit behind. I have started the work to get to my research with my students. That first and second round may be completed by Thursday. Having said that, I am needing time with my IRB. One thing about me: I try and own my mistakes and shortcomings. I will catch up. What’s on my mind this week: we start hybrid learning next week. I am on “Project Hybrid” for my school. This is incredibly time consuming. And as dept chair we have numerous issue percolating and needing attention before they explode. I have a number of students that need their letters of rec completed this week or next. Each takes about an hour. And of course we are now told that tomorrow night is Sports Night so yours truly gets to take a couple hours and speak on Zoom about baseball for my school. I’d love to talk about baseball— but the truth is there isn’t much to say to parents about it right now and we continue to navigate a pandemic. Dr Fauci, perhaps, should run that meeting because its all about when we can get back on the field. I also think I teach classes somewhere in there?? But I did have students wish me a happy birthday, with joy on their faces. I had a few student-parents hook me up with wine (with joy on MY face). And I think I am doing a damn fine job leading my department right now. It’ll all work out.
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We are making progress.
In my research I am finding that there is a similar impact on student writing improvements when writers get feedback from their teacher or following peer feedback. That. Is. Significant. This was was from Bart Huisman’s synthesis of 24 qualitative studies on the effectiveness of peer feedback. It turns out— logically I might add— that the nature of the peer feedback matters. Okay... now we are getting somewhere. That has to be where I focus. Another thing: anonymous peer feedback has a lower level of effectiveness. It turns out students want to know *who* their peer reviewer is before they decide how much stock to put into their feedback. Interesting. But, that’s a rabbit-hole for another day. Hattie has to be part of what I do. He measured the effect size overall of feedback. I know he’s a major player in this. But to this point I am starting to feel like a solution to my problem of looking for ways to help get feedback for students exists. I think peer feedback can be the answer. I need to now evaluate what common systems of peer feedback are most effective. To this point in my career, I have used: 1) A system where students get familiar with the rubric. There are three different aspects to it. The rubric itself has info that *could* be construed as feedback. When students use the rubric with one another, that gives writers a sense of where they are at. We look at thesis statements, developments of “line of reasoning” of thinking, and level of sophistication. 2) Students and teachers work together to generate a list of specific aspects of a paper to look at and evaluate. These tend to seem effective because the relationship of teacher/student come together with buy in and specificity. Often, five items are focal points for peers to look and and comment on. 3) The compliment sandwich. Fine one strength, one area to work on, and a positive overall focal point where the writer is excelling but can push further. This is open-ended. My hypothesis is that the second method is best with peer feedback. I would like to do these three rounds of research and get info from my students as to what they found most effective. As English teachers we use ALL of these. I would like to know where our time is best spent when we do this. Onward! |
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December 2020
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