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Q1: What is writing to you?
a way to organize thoughts, to figure out what we think, "disorganized"

Q2: What are the things that encouraged or frustrated you in (learning) English writing?

identity as a writer vs. a writing instructor --> we are writers, human beings

Jessie - unable to fully express feelings in English (different ways of expression in Chinese and English) - used to feel scared of all forms of writing (even in Chinese, a "nightmare") --> read my drafts many times to review the emotions I put into --> a sense of achievement

Lillian - receiving words of encouragement or just a :)

Q3: What (goals) do you want to achieve by giving students feedback on their writings?

Kenji - correct grammar mistakes / keep them from going down rabbit hole - pull them back on track / mind-mapping

Cairo - organize thoughts in a "meta" way / find out what they really think "as a whole" / incoherent

Jonathan - share "alternatives" with them instead of "correcting" them / enhances students' belief of "standard English" or "this is more native"

Based on our answer(s) to Q3, feedback to student writing is “effective” when it …

1) motivates students to keep revising their drafts, to take control of the language by themselves (not by teachers)

2) directs students to the right resources

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Compare two kinds of feedback, using Student L's writing sample (B1).

Vivianne's edits:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Unleepg7-ISM051VTFTo8CbqZZ4nDVpA7qGGQUh2Dcg/edit?usp=sharing

Allen's edits:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pk2CjfyrzmtAgwvdaWau8iB7L6ewNXzkJmdwOtD-ht0/edit?usp=sharing

Discussion questions:

What was the focus of each kind of feedback, respectively? How are they different from each other?

Considering the context of this student writing, which piece of feedback do you find “effective” (recall our working definition of effective above)?

⬇️ Write down your thoughts in the comment box ⬇️

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Principle 0: The aspects of writing you pay attention to influences how your students perceive a “good” writing

- Impression: What is more important in English writing?
(get your ideas/message across)
(grammar & structure: "obstacles" - find your way to overcome them)

Principle 1: Revision-oriented philosophy in marking

1. Focus on ideas and take them seriously

2. Positive reinforcement (e.g., find something to praise and do it seriously with specificity)

Principle 2: Hold student writers responsible in finding and fixing their own errors

a. Minimal marking (Haswell 1983)

1. For EFL learners

1. Find the trends of errors first

2. Explain why the errors are errors if needed

3. Giving examples helps!

4. Let a student writer identify and correct the rest of the errors

b. Keep track of students’ learning progress with portfolio

1. Assign the student to research the word in question (e.g., stylish) with corpus data. In particular, ask students to pay attention to the word’s collocates and the context(s) in which the word tends to occur.

1. Limit students to list the 3 most important uses/facts of the word

2. Make sure the uses/facts are illustrated with example sentences.

2. Keep track of student’s progress with a portfolio

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1. Ideas that student writers want to communicate

1. show students that you as a reader want to know more about the story

2. students now have an authentic reason/motivation to keep writing

2. Linguistic constructions which were taught and/or practiced prior to writing

1. the target grammar points of the lesson

3. Other glaring grammatical issues or misspellings

1. point them out

2. don't mention too many - students will be overwhelmed

Allen's philosophy: "Less is More." (just like sexiness)

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Applying the principles, practice giving feedback to another writing sample from Student M at the B1 level

Student M:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sqJv9yKcG-J9iClYoBLJg2AgN1Jd0PeFXYklJk7n4HA/edit?usp=sharing

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I ask you to critically evaluate the effectiveness of your peer's feedback on the student writing by drawing extensive connections between the principles, your teaching experiences, and the presenter’s work.

What is the focus of the feedback?

Which piece of feedback do you find effective? Why?

Which piece of feedback do you find less effective, if any? What revision would you suggest?

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1. List at least 2 things you learned from today’s talk.

2. Name the thing that confused you or you want to know more about in the talk.

---> Have students reflect on what they've learned today?
---> Turn them into proactive learners instead of passive ones

(although some students don't take the questions very seriously)

Write down your answers in the comment box below.

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Resource

Bean, J. C., & Melzer, D. (2021). Engaging ideas: The professor's guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom (3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.