The Endless Cycle...Writing and Rewriting

I think that Christenbury has some very good ideas in Chapter 7. I liked the connection aspect, when grading and responding to papers, to be one of the more profound. Students enjoy seeing that teachers can relate to them. This includes responses to their papers.

In my field experience, the students were amazed that I played a YouTube video for part of their lesson. It was if I was incapable of such "hipness," and they were baffled how someone as old as me could know about YouTube.

With paper responses it's the same principle. They love the fact that we can connect with something they written. It gives meaning and depth to their paper, and builds their self-confidence and pride.

I also liked the realism of the section entitled, "The Numbers Game." It is very telling that instructors back in 1912 had the same problems we do. How can we possibly tend to the needs of so many writers in our class with the amount of papers written, hours in the day, and only us to grade them? Peer editing is a great solution though not infallible. My field experience also taught me not to abuse this. "Some" teachers are misusing this, or incorrectly using this method, to have the students replace the role of the teacher. The teacher then grades the final draft, ultimately trumping anything the peer groups have established. This seemed both lazy and unproductive to me. Let's not let ourselves fall into the trap of "just getting through the day."

~Stan