This chapter that we read has actually been super reassuring for the future. I was concerned about not knowing exactly what or how to grade. I feel more adequately equipped to handle assessing my students' work, which is really comforting.
What this chapter reinforced that this class has introduced to me is blogposting for responses. It takes the stress off of discussion, I feel. Students are given time to think over reading assignments and pose discussion questions on their blogs. It's not necessarily anonymous but nobody is actively sitting there listening to your response and it gives you time to rework what you might actually be trying to ask or say. Journal writing works the same way. It's good to be able to just "dump" all of your thoughts and feelings about a particular topic onto the page without worry of judgement. Turning in the journals or the blog posts is a good way for private feedback from the teacher, as well.
I've never been totally into peer feedback, especially in my lower level classes in college. I don't claim to know everything about grammar, but I can assure you a lot of the people I peer reviewed with in class didn't know a lot at all. I would try to help them by writing in the margins, letting them know what could be fixed and they never took my advice. They gave bad advice, as well. It was frustrating to spend time peer reviewing and not getting anything out of it. There was never really a point as I wasn't learning anything and I felt my peers weren't learning anything, either. But this chapter has revised my interest in peer reviewing with its tips as to how to teach students to peer review. That was one thing I had never really thought about: most kids probably aren't brought up to know how to review - they just say "good job" and move on with their day. If we teach our students the questions to ask, peer reviewing could actually be something much more than what it is now.
PS: I promise I kind of know how to read a schedule. Sometimes.
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