Tania Flores
Professor Chandler
Final Project
December 17, 13
Teacher
Comments: An In Depth Look at
Current Teacher’s Commenting Practices
In An Urban School Setting.
Introduction
Studying
the way teachers comment on student papers is importance to writing studies
because its sheds light on ways to improve student's quality of writing. Anyone
could compile a reasonable list of guidelines that a teacher could follow when
commenting on student writing. Such a lists would most definitely include providing
feedback while remembering to be being positive and encouraging. However,
effective commenting is much more complex than simply providing encouragement. It
is important to study the type of feedback that teachers are actually giving.
When it comes to commenting, less is always more. Bombarding students with
massive amounts of comments can have a hindering effect on their potential of
better writers. The purpose of this study is to investigate if current teachers
are applying the expert’s findings on the best teacher commenting strategies in
order to become highly effective in helping their students become better
writers.
There
have been several studies performed in recent years on teacher comments and
their effects on student writers. A notable researcher, Nancy Sommers, has
performed research studies on this subject matter including the production of a
film entitled Beyond the Red Ink. The film portrays college students
speaking about their teacher's responses to their writing. Sommers, in her book
Responding to Student Writing suggests that teachers often times bombard
students with conflicting comments. They point out grammar errors while also
telling the student that his or her overall idea in the paragraph is unclear. A
teacher must “resist the urge to correct grammar and punctuation errors” in
order to allow students to find their own mistakes. On the contrary, it can
lead to students feeling confused on whether they should fix the grammar
mistakes rather than work on making their ideas clearer. Sommers point out that
teachers most often follow the "deficit model", which she identifies
as teachers focusing on the wrong, inadequate, and absent in a paper rather
than focusing on what the paper actually contains. She goes on to state that
teachers should focus on having one purpose while commenting on student
writing. In other words, they should focus on one lesson at a time. The teacher
should either focus on the grammar or on development of the main ideas. By
focusing on one purpose, Sommers hopes that this would turn into a lesson
learned by the students. This lesson, according to Sommers, if taught
correctly, would be “transported” by the student to future writing piece. Sommers
also introduces the importance of creating a dialogue with the students in the
process of commenting on their writing as oppose to a monologue, where the only
person speaking is the teacher.
Sommers
presents a need for varied styles of comments. She encourages margin comments
because it shows students that the teacher is being an active reader of their
work. The comments are also tailored directly to specific parts of the writing,
which is useful when engaging in a teacher students dialogue. Sommers also
promotes the use of conferences with students as this serves as the perfect
gateways to a conversation. The teacher has the opportunity to give comments
while getting feedback from the student on the intent of their writing. During
these conferences, Sommers, suggest that students write their own notes. The
act of putting suggestion into your own words makes the effect of the comments
more meaningful. This also gives students a solid plan of action for the
revision and editing process.
Lastly,
Sommers discusses the use of a rubric when commenting on student papers as an
important component, however, she cautions that it “should not replace teacher
commentary or be the only response students receive”. She states that if used
correctly, a rubric can make grading an easier task for teachers with “clear
assessment criteria”. In order for a rubric to be effective Sommers ask the
following three questions:
1.
Are the elements within a rubric
specific to the assignment?
2.
Does the language f the rubric form the
basis of instruction around the assignment?
3.
Does the rubric clarify expectations
and assignment goals?
If
the answers to these three questions are affirmative then the use of a rubric
can be a useful method to focus comments and avoid subjectivity.
Methods
To begin this study I decided to
conduct my research through a series of interviews on current teachers at an
urban school in New Jersey. I had access to a school where I was currently
completing my junior field experience. I decided that two interviews would be
sufficient for the length and time frame allotted for this project. The school
has a total of forty-four teachers, most of which I had not had one on one
interaction with. Therefore, I requested the opinion of my cooperating teacher
in suggesting two teachers who she thought might be willing and able to sit
down with me for the interviews. She suggested two teachers; a third grade
teacher and a fifth grade teacher. I approached each teacher in person, introduced
myself, and introduced the research study. I gave each teacher a copy of the
interview questions for them to read before deciding if they wanted to
participate. After reviewing the questions, each participant agreed to partake in
the study. Meetings were scheduled at mutually convenient times. The questions
were designed escalate from easy to medium to more intense/open ended. I wanted
to start with easy and medium type questions to open the discussion, so these
sections only had four questions each. The more intense and open-ended
questions had a total of sixteen questions and were the main basis of the
interviews. The first interview was with participant A, a fifth grade teacher,
with thirteen years of teaching experience. This interview took a total of
twenty-nine minutes and fifty-two seconds. The second interview was with
participant B, a third grade teacher, with seventeen years of teaching
experience. This interview took a total of sixteen minutes and forty seconds.
Both interviews were recorded and transcribed at a later time. Once the data was transcribed, I analyze it
to decode the information into categories. These categories were influenced by
Nancy Sommers’ research on the best strategies to use by teachers when
commenting on student papers. In some instances, I applied the categories from
the data as I analyze it further and found supporting evidence.
Data and Analysis
The
categories that were found in the interview data and influenced by Nancy
Sommers’ research were the following:
1. Offering
one lesson at a time and focusing comments to that specific lesson
2. The
use of margin type comments.
3. Varying
the styles of comments.
4. Resisting
the urge to correct grammar and punctuation in an effort to allow students to
find their own mistakes.
5. The
use of rubrics.
One Lesson At a Time
Nancy
Sommers cautions teachers of the risk of over commenting. Giving too many
comments can be more harmful than good as it can be overwhelming and
discouraging. She writes, “Teachers have
to guide and show students through their comments how to become good writers”.
This task is easier said than done, which is why she supports the idea of
offering one lesson at a time. In the interview with participant A, she stated
that in her classroom, while working in a writing assignment, she did in fact
focus on one lesson at a time. She stated, “now we’re focusing on
the introduction, that’s our main goal…to make that introduction something that
people want to read… if my focus is introduction then I’ll read over the introduction
and give them positive and definite feedback on that”. This is a clear example
of an application of Sommers’ principal. Similarly, participant B stated that
her focus when commenting on student writing also follows one focus at a time.
She stated, “ I might focus on their opening and closing and
really focus and grade them more on that than everything like their punctuation
and spelling...If we’re
learning how to use quotation marks that week maybe I’ll specifically be
looking at their use of quotation marks correctly. So I try to focus on one
area.” Again, this is another well-defined example of teachers in today’s
school systems applying the concept of focusing their comments to one aspect of
the student’s writing.
Margin Comments
Sommers states that margin comments are
importance in creating a dialogue with student because they are comments
specific to particular sections or sentences in their writing. She write that
margin comments is “a place allotted for conversational turn talking-your
turn-my turn”. Although neither
participant A or B used actual side margin comments in their process of
commenting, they did use a variation of it. For example, participant B stated
that she wrote her comments “on a separate piece of paper and I would be writing
it as we were going over it. And then the areas to improve... I might prompt
some questions to like, if it was part of a story of when they went to school,
I might ask them, what happened before I went to school? Or how did you get
there? Give them a specific target question to kind of get them to add more
detail.” Although these comments are not on the student’s paper, they serve the
same purpose of side margin comments because they are directed towards specific
part of the student’s writing. Another reason to write it on a separate piece
of paper is that participant B’s class in third grade. There is simply not
enough space to write clear, and detailed comments on the side margins that are
easily read by a third grader. Nonetheless, these comments fit the description
of Sommers’ margin comments. Similarly, participant A stated that students in
her classroom wrote “their own comments “. Here, the fact that
participant A’s students are in fifth grade, accounts for their ability to
write the teacher comments in their own words. Either way, participant A, also
gives margin “type” comments to her students verbally.
Varied Styles of Comments
Sommers
supports the use of varied methods of commenting. The simple process of student
writes, teacher comments, student revises, and teacher grades, is not
sufficient or effective to creating better writers. Rather, Sommers encourages
that teacher implement different styles to their methods of reaching students
with their targeted and focused comments. Both of the teachers participating in
this study applied numerous and varied ways of commenting. For example, both utilized
the highly effective use of one on one conferencing. Participant A stated “we
have conferences, when we start writing they will write their rough draft and
we will conference. We will talk about their writing.” Similarly, participant B
stated “when we’re working on a writing piece, after we’re
done with the 1st draft, I would conference with them, and on a piece of paper
I would write their strengths and then the areas that they’d have to work on
for revisions. As a researcher I was surprised at both teacher’s abilities to
find the time to conference with each student individually, given the fact that
each class has close to thirty students. Both teacher indicated that a writing
assignment might take them a month to complete from start to finish, however,
they implement these commenting strategy because like Sommers, they believe its
beneficial in helping their students become better writers.
Another
form of varied commenting was participant A having her fifth grade students
write her comments in their own words. Sommers believe that having students
“take their own notes” is more effective than the teacher writing the comments
herself. Participant A said, “ During the
conference, I comment to them verbally, I don’t write anything down…students
write their own comments as the conference happens.” Students in both classes
walk away from the conferences with a clear and solid plan to execute their
revision.
The
last method of varied commenting executed by these teachers was their use of
peer review. Sommers discusses peer review on the college level, however these
teacher are implementing this style of commenting with third and fifth graders.
For example, participant B states that “once
[they] have gotten through lots of conferencing with me, so maybe towards March
or April…I kind of have them conference with each other. Or sometimes, I’ve
even taken the better writers and have them conference with another student and
make suggestions, so its cute. I would model what we do, like what I do with
them and then [say] you do it now with your classmates.” This form of
commenting is great because students gain a different perspective on writing
and the writing of their peers.
Resist Urge to Correct Grammar and Punctuation
This category should
not be mistaken with teacher not paying attention to student’s grammar and
punctuation, but rather, according to Sommers, students should be giving the
opportunity to find their own mistakes. This style of commenting was perfectly
exemplified by participant A in her use of students reading their writing out
loud. This technique allowed students to hear their own grammatical and
punctuation mistakes. She stated, “I’ve had students
start reading and they’re like, that doesn’t make any sense, and I look at them
and say, if that doesn’t make sense and you’re reading it imagine how I am
reading it.” It makes students accountable for their own writing, as they are
reading their own work out loud to the teacher. There is no better way of
learning from one’s own writing. Participant A went on to add that this has
been “a great way to have them catch themselves. They edit everything
themselves”.
Use of Rubrics
Both
participants implemented the use of district wide rubrics to assist them in
their student commenting. This rubric is
divided into four sections that measure content and organization, usage,
sentence construction, and mechanics. Students are given a number grade from
one to 5, one being inadequate command and five being strong command (see Chart
A). Participant B, who teaches third grade, stated that she wished her students
were more conscious of the rubric. However, they do know that their final grade
depends on their fulfillment of the rubric components as “for
the final [draft], it would be attached to the rubric and then on the rubric
they would see, what score they got”. In
contrast, the students for participant A are more aware of the rubric and its
use. This is not solely due to the fact that they are older, but rather that
their teacher implements two additional rubrics. The first is a simplified
version of chart A, which breaks each section into student friendly terms. The
four sections assess good opening and closing, that writing stays on topic and
ideas are explained with details, mechanics: spelling, punctuation,
capitalization, and grammar, and lastly, good variety in sentences and few
errors (see Chart B)
Chart A
Chart B
Participant A makes the rubric
more student friendly by using the version seen on chart B because students are
able to understand each section and how it measures their writing. Sommers
describes the importance of rubrics clearly stating “expectations and
assignment goals” which are clearly stated in the second rubric. This teacher,
under the guidance of the school principal, went ahead and created a class
rubric with the assistance of students (see Chart C below)
Chart C
She explained the
process as followed, “I also have a student rubric that they created. And I
have them grade their work. A couple weeks ago we got together, and I told them
that we needed to create a classroom rubric that they could use on their work.
It’s a guideline so they can [use]...they have to take ownership of their work.”
By having student make their own rubric, the factors laid out by Sommers
regarding rubrics are met. For example, the items in the rubric are specific to
the assignments, the language of the rubric is the same as the language used in
instruction, and it clearly states the expectations and goals of the
assignments from the perspective of the students themselves. This is crucial in
solidifying that students understand the way they their work is going to be
assessed, therefore making them better writers in the process.
Conclusion
The
findings of this study were shocking but shockingly good. At the beginning of
the study, I was expecting to find minimal, if any, applications of Nancy
Sommers’ strategies of effective teacher comments in today’s school systems.
The reality was that an urban school was implementing just about all of Nancy Sommers’
strategies. Both participants were conscious in their commenting to focus their
comments to one lesson. They did not use orthodox methods of margin comments,
but rather developed a system of one on one conferences that far surpasses the
positive effect that the best margin comments could ever have. Both teachers
were flexible in their use of varied forms of commenting by conferencing,
having students write their own notes, read out load, and peer reviews.
Although hard, they both also resisted the urge to focus their attention on
grammar and punctuation errors, and rather they allowed students to make these
corrections themselves. Their use of a rubric has been well thought out and
implemented, not only to assist the teachers, but the students too.
Limitations of Study
As
with any study, there were several limitations to this study. First, the study
was only conducted with two participants. Further studies could be performed on
a larger scale to produce better assessments of teacher’s use of effective
comments. The fact that these two participants were from the same school also
provided a limitation to the study. These finding can be limited to this
specific school, and might not be an indication of other schools within the
same district. Another limitation is that this particular school, although in
an urban district, does not fit the definition of an average urban school. It is currently in the final stages of
receiving International Baccalaureate accreditation. This is an
international program that has its own curriculum with a global approach in
mind. Further studies are need to confirm the finding of this study: teachers
are implementing Nancy Sommers’ strategies.
Works
Cited
Sommers,
Nancy I. Responding to Student Writers. Boston: Bedford/st Martin's,
2013. Print.
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