I actually have very mixed feelings about this article. I understand why they believe the "red pen" is evil but I see the other side too and am not exactly sure which side I stand on.
We know that we have had papers returned to us covered in red marks and how that makes us feel. When this happens, I'm sure some of us have just thrown the paper away never to look at it again and some have looked it over to see what we did wrong. And as crappy as this can make us feel, I also hate the feeling when I get a paper back with just a grade and nothing else. When this happens I feel like the teacher didn't even care enough to really read my paper and I can't learn what I did wrong when they don't tell me.
I'm curious to learn other ways to go about explaining to the students where they need to spend more time but I don't think the answer is to not circle the rough spots. I also really dislike red pens so to start I don't believe that we should use them for anything.
Practice makes perfect. So we must have our students write as much as possible but how do we teach our students how to write and help them grow in the writing process? How do we let them know what they did wrong without discouraging them from wanting to write again?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I agree with most of what you've said here. It's hard to pull yourself away from some form of correction when we know there's a big bad world waiting to criticize the smallest writing error in a professional. How can we teach students grammar, mechanics and language without hurting their feelings and turning them off to writing?
I understand your thoughts on the Red Pen article. Often it's not as simple as saying, "I won't red pen my student's papers to death" We have to ask how we can best address our students writing needs without abandoning them as writers. Your blog is looking great so far. I look forward to reading more of your ideas.
Post a Comment