I’ve written and spoken passionately about the need for us to think better about grading and feedback. When feedback isn’t fast, it’s a triple loss. Our quality of life decreases as we drag papers around with us for weeks. The usefulness of the feedback decreases because our kids, when they get the work back a week or […]
writing
How to Motivate Students to Turn In Their Essays Without Using Brownies
There is nothing more depressing than spending your weekend grading 125 essays. Scratch that. There is. The only thing more depressing than spending your weekend grading 125 essays is spending your weekend grading 75 essays because the other 50 didn’t turn them in. That’s Lynsay Fabio, one of our many colleagues in the great field […]
Fast Feedback is Effective Feedback: Here’s How to Do Better
If we want our kids to become good at things, we need to give them feedback. It’s not grades that make a student become a better writer or speaker or knowledge-builder — it’s feedback. (I do work in a system where we use grades, by the way — I don’t spend much time thinking or […]
Using Skull and Crossbones Lists to Ctl-A Delete Bad Habit Errors
A full year into using the skull and crossbones list, I can confirm that it does its job. When I speak with writing teachers, including those in the various content areas, they all share a visceral reaction to the kinds of writing errors that are habitual rather than intellectual. I’m talking about things like: not […]
How to Become a More Credible Writing Teacher
One of the beliefs that motivates our kids to do the work we ask them to do, and to do it with care and attention, is teacher credibility. When kids believe that we’re good at our jobs, they’re more motivated. It’s well-vetted in the research (e.g., it appears high on John Hattie’s “visible learning” meta-analysis list), […]