This class session involved a workshop and quiz on apostrophes to begin the class and then a peer review workshop.
I liked seeing another example of a quick lesson I could do on mechanics. Integrating these mini lessons into the class is important for several reasons. One is that strong conventions when writing is a trait of student writing that matters a lot outside of the English department especially. While instructors who might have had more experience reading writing (especially from multilingual writers and L populations) generally have more tolerance for some patterns of student grammar and punctuation errors, I have found that professors in other disciplines lack patience with bad conventions. This occasionally causes professors from other disciplines to be frustrated with the composition curriculum. It is part of the responsibilities of the composition instruction to work on these conventions. I also like the ideas of having a series of modular lessons on writing craft that I can use at the beginning of class. This was especially useful on a day like today when many students were late because their drafts were due. I am not sure how I would like to deal with lateness like this, but assuming it would happen on a peer review day and planning this workshop intentionally as a buffer was really smart. I also think that students who were on time got the credit for the quiz, which is a way to reward students who were punctual. There might be no real reason to penalize the students who were late on this day if I can positively reward the students who were on time instead.
As much as I wish that I could have insightful comments on facilitating a peer review workshop, I'm afraid I don't. There are simply so many logistical concerns that distracted me! First you need to remind students to bring paper copies of their essay a million times. Then you have to deal with the inevitable staggered late arrivals of students. Then you have to address the issue of making groupings: if you do them ahead of time, it's organized, but then the groups are unbalanced because of absences. My biggest takeaways were to expect them to be late and to give them credit for participating. At least with that the most number of students will be engaged and invested for the amount of time.
Peer Review Workshop Guidelines
Peer Review Workshop Form
Apostrophes
I liked seeing another example of a quick lesson I could do on mechanics. Integrating these mini lessons into the class is important for several reasons. One is that strong conventions when writing is a trait of student writing that matters a lot outside of the English department especially. While instructors who might have had more experience reading writing (especially from multilingual writers and L populations) generally have more tolerance for some patterns of student grammar and punctuation errors, I have found that professors in other disciplines lack patience with bad conventions. This occasionally causes professors from other disciplines to be frustrated with the composition curriculum. It is part of the responsibilities of the composition instruction to work on these conventions. I also like the ideas of having a series of modular lessons on writing craft that I can use at the beginning of class. This was especially useful on a day like today when many students were late because their drafts were due. I am not sure how I would like to deal with lateness like this, but assuming it would happen on a peer review day and planning this workshop intentionally as a buffer was really smart. I also think that students who were on time got the credit for the quiz, which is a way to reward students who were punctual. There might be no real reason to penalize the students who were late on this day if I can positively reward the students who were on time instead.
Peer Review
Peer Review Workshop Guidelines
Peer Review Workshop Form
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