Move Around Read Around
Traditionally, when students were asked to compose an piece of writing (i.e. essay, research paper, short response to an assigned literary work, etc.), they usually do not receive feedback until the final draft of the assignment is graded. In his article, Electronic Read-Arounds, Rick Monroe described the class activity he implemented in his classroom to not only improve his students writing and reading abilities but to also make these processes more interesting and effective. Here was how Monroe carried out the electric read-arounds:
1) On the computer, the students were to write a reflection on the assigned reading within the given amount of time. It was imperative that the students save their work after they completed the assignment.
2) The students were then asked to step away from their computer and move to their neighbors' computer. With a different font or the caps lock key on, each student had ten minutes to read their peers' work, provide comments, include suggested revisions, and sign their initials onto their peers' document. If the owner of the paper had any questions or concerns regarding their peers' feedback he/she can identify the student(s) by their initials and address their concerns directly to the editor.
3) At the end of the activity, each student should have received at least three different feedbacks. The owner of the paper had to make one of three choices: save the document with the feedbacks in place, "Save As" the document to preserve the writing's original form, or save the document without the peers' responses. This gave students the freedom to decide which revisions or comments were useful.
Monroe listed many reasons why he believed the design of the activity was effective. First, it decreased the teacher's power and increased the students' power by allowing his students to influence their peers. Secondly, because students were able to receive helpful feedback before turning in the final draft, they had a better chance of receiving a desirable grade. Third, the activity created a community; all the students helped one another by encouraging and supporting them to become better writers. Lastly, the students were kept engaged in the activity because they move around and read different reading pieces,as opposed to reading a book/essay at their desks throughout the entire class period.
I find this activity completely effective and would definitely implement an activity like this into my classroom. Electronic read-arounds would be appropriate for student of all grade levels because reading and writing are core elements to almost any subject and all students always need to make improvements in these areas. Electronic read-arounds is much more preferable than traditional read-arounds because feedback would not be crammed into a piece a paper. With a limited amount of space, students handwriting can become illegible and incomplete; completing this assignment would prevent this problem from occuring. It is important that students are given the opportunity to read each others work in order to pick up on writing techniques that cannot be taught through lecture but through experience and exposure. For example, it is important for students to develop their "voice" in their writing. A teacher can explain what this means, but student will have a better chance of understanding that concept by reading their peers' work and deciding whether or not the author is embedding their voice into their writing. By focusing on writing whose author's voice is "heard', the reader can pick up ways they can develop their voice.
1) On the computer, the students were to write a reflection on the assigned reading within the given amount of time. It was imperative that the students save their work after they completed the assignment.
2) The students were then asked to step away from their computer and move to their neighbors' computer. With a different font or the caps lock key on, each student had ten minutes to read their peers' work, provide comments, include suggested revisions, and sign their initials onto their peers' document. If the owner of the paper had any questions or concerns regarding their peers' feedback he/she can identify the student(s) by their initials and address their concerns directly to the editor.
3) At the end of the activity, each student should have received at least three different feedbacks. The owner of the paper had to make one of three choices: save the document with the feedbacks in place, "Save As" the document to preserve the writing's original form, or save the document without the peers' responses. This gave students the freedom to decide which revisions or comments were useful.
Monroe listed many reasons why he believed the design of the activity was effective. First, it decreased the teacher's power and increased the students' power by allowing his students to influence their peers. Secondly, because students were able to receive helpful feedback before turning in the final draft, they had a better chance of receiving a desirable grade. Third, the activity created a community; all the students helped one another by encouraging and supporting them to become better writers. Lastly, the students were kept engaged in the activity because they move around and read different reading pieces,as opposed to reading a book/essay at their desks throughout the entire class period.
I find this activity completely effective and would definitely implement an activity like this into my classroom. Electronic read-arounds would be appropriate for student of all grade levels because reading and writing are core elements to almost any subject and all students always need to make improvements in these areas. Electronic read-arounds is much more preferable than traditional read-arounds because feedback would not be crammed into a piece a paper. With a limited amount of space, students handwriting can become illegible and incomplete; completing this assignment would prevent this problem from occuring. It is important that students are given the opportunity to read each others work in order to pick up on writing techniques that cannot be taught through lecture but through experience and exposure. For example, it is important for students to develop their "voice" in their writing. A teacher can explain what this means, but student will have a better chance of understanding that concept by reading their peers' work and deciding whether or not the author is embedding their voice into their writing. By focusing on writing whose author's voice is "heard', the reader can pick up ways they can develop their voice.
This activity sounds like a great way to make writing and reading more fun for the students. It's very true that a lot of students don't get feed back on their papers until the final paper is graded by the teacher. I like how this activity splits up the responsibility from the teacher to the peers. Another thing that makes this read around more enjoyable is that it is done on a computer. This assignment would still probably be effective if the students were to do it with pen and paper but adding in the computers makes it more relevant to the times. I think that peer editing is very important in the classroom. It allows students to read what their peers are writing and it can also give the "stuggling students" a chance to learn from their peers.
ReplyDeleteThe activity sounds like something I would also use in a classroom. Only thing is what about those students who have a fear of others reading their work? Their are some students who reading and writing are their weak subjects and just do not like others reading their work. I'll probably change it a little were students would not know whose work they are reading. But it is something useful and it will benefit both the student and the teacher.
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