One thing 2020 did for me as a teacher is it forced me to finally learn the ins and outs of technology pieces I had been “playing around” with for years. This year I am the ELA teacher for the 80 ELA students in grades 6-8 who elected to do distance learning in lieu of in-person. I have used Google Classroom for years in an informal, every once in a while way. Well, now that it literally is my classroom, I have learned A LOT more about how to use it effectively. One of my favorite changes Google Classroom has provided is in the way I interact with my students as writers throughout the writing process. Below I am going to layout a few key things I’ve learned about giving digital feedback to my student writers.
- Give feedback during the revision phase of the writing process.
Giving/receiving feedback during the writing process is so much more effective than giving/receiving feedback after the writing process. So I’ve always known this in theory. It’s just common sense, right? Well in the past, I’ve had my students do paper-pencil drafts or draft on a random Google Doc that I don’t have access to. Sure I would give them some feedback through a writing conference at some point in the writing process, but this was pretty brief and minimal. Most of time, I wasn’t able to give students full feedback until they turned in a final copy of their writing piece, and I was summatively grading it with a rubric.
Posting the draft as an assignment in Google Classroom has been a game changer for me this year. I post it as an assignment and eventually the draft becomes the final writing piece that students turn in. What this allows me to do is see the draft in real time and give feedback throughout the writing process to students.
(Side note: This is the best and worst thing about distance learning. I have continuous access to what students are doing and the progress they’re making. This doesn’t mean that I am responsible to provide feedback every day for every student. Doing so I think is what makes distance learning so overwhelming. We’re more connected to what students are doing at the click of a button, whereas in the classroom, it’s more based on observation and students’ word. We’ve all had that student who looks like they’re working only to find out a turn-in day that they haven’t even started drafting yet. This doesn’t happen in the digital world because we can literally see students’ daily progress right in front of our eyes.)
Throughout a writing unit, which typically is 12-15 writing minilessons and lasts 12-15 class days (to view the writing units I have created and use click here), we start by studying mentor texts of the genre we are working on, we then move into prewriting, outlining, and then drafting. Drafting usually comes around minilesson 8. The next 3-4 writing minilessons are all about revision. This is the time that I want to get into students’ drafts and give them feedback prior to taking one day for editing and one day for sharing/publishing the final writing piece.
Using that 3-4 day window within the three week writing unit, I make it my goal to read students’ drafts and give feedback during that time. This makes grading the final piece with a rubric SO MUCH EASIER. I have already read students’ drafts, can look back at the feedback I’ve given them, and feel good about giving them a summative grade knowing they’ve gotten feedback from me and their peers PRIOR to turning in their final pieces.
When I get to grading their writing pieces at the end, I don’t bother giving a ton of feedback at that time. I dedicate the time I give feedback to DURING the writing process, where the feedback I give can actually help students and they can be receptive to it. Otherwise, what’s the point of spending a ton of time providing feedback that students may not even read or do anything about?
2. Teach students how to view and respond to feedback in Google Classroom.
This year I spent a lot of time giving digital feedback, and I wondered why some students weren’t doing anything or responding to the feedback that I took the time to give. I asked them about it, and I realized some students didn’t even know how to view the comments that I was leaving for them. Some things that I would recommend explicitly teaching your students if you plan to leave digital feedback.
-Make sure they have their notifications turned on to receive an email when you leave them a comment in Google Classroom.
-If you’re leaving students a “suggestion,” teach students how to accept or reject the suggestion.
-If you leave students a comment on their draft, model for them what it looks like to view a comment and then make a revision to their draft based on the comment that is left for them.
-Encourage students to make writing feedback conversational. Show them how they can tag you in a comment with something they want you to respond back to/give further feedback on/explain more.
Bottom line, if you’re taking the time to leave feedback, take the time to show students how to see it and what to do with it.
3. Use the Comment Bank
Do you ever notice that you find yourself saying the same thing over and over and over again when you’re commenting on student writing. Figure out what those same things are for that writing piece and take the time to type them into the “comment bank.” It will save you SO much time and allow you to give really detailed feedback without typing out a long explanation every time.
4. Let Students Give Feedback to Each Other
The best way for students to learn about comments/suggestions on Google Classroom is to have them give writing feedback to their peers. It is easier than ever for students to “share” their draft with a partner and give digital writing feedback. A note a caution with doing this would be to make sure you are providing a focused revision minilesson so students are giving each other productive feedback on a specific topic. I’m not a fan of peer editing where another student would go into a students’ draft and make grammar corrections for another student. I truly believe that teacher and student feedback should be geared toward revision of ideas and content. If a student really struggles with writing conventions, this might require a virtual or in-person writing conference to do some explicit teaching and help that student in that respect. As a teacher though, I want to see my student’s actual writing and know where they’re at before I go in and fix it or a peer goes in and fixes it.
I would love to hear from you and how you’ve used digital feedback in students’ writing. Let me know your ideas below!
Kasey
