It takes my students a deadline or two to understand that no, their story doesn't end as soon as they hit "share" and their work lands in my inbox. The idea that this is when the real work begins sinks in later, after the initial shock of seeing all that yellow, all these comments next to their work that they considered final but in reality is merely a first draft, if that.
"Red is love," Steve Elliott reminded us this morning. I suppose transferring this to my journalism classes that solely operate via GoogleDrive, I could coin it "yellow is love". It is true that it's usually the best stories that are awarded the most yellow highlights and comments. It doesn't stop with one round either, especially when online cooperation facilitates replies, questions and clarifications on comments and suggestions. That's when editing becomes a conversation.
That's exactly what this morning's debriefing session on yesterday's reporting exercise instilled in me: Yes, we probably all like to think of our writing as near-perfect, or maybe at least "good enough". Yes, we probably all feel like we're THE WORST, MOST SUCKTASTIC WRITER IN THE HISTORY OF EVER, OH GOD! when we see our writing marked up with enough red to star in a slasher flick.
Okay, maybe the writer ego needs to take a bit of a break here.
The thing is: no one would waste that much red, that much time to formulate comments and suggestions on something undeserving of that time, or pen ink. In the end all that red, or all that digital yellow, merely means that there's something that has potential, that an editor, or a teacher, is excited enough about to consider it worth all that effort and deserving of having an honest conversation about with the improvement of the writer in mind.
I think if we cultivate that kind of understanding with our students, if we can help them realize that edits are a conversation, that their story doesn't end by the time they hit "send", often not even until it appears in print or online, that's when we start fostering great journalism.
Stephanie Floch
Taylorsville High School
Taylorsville, Utah
Don't you love (I know it's cruel of me) to see the looks on their faces the first time they realize they can't just slide by like they do in many of their other classes. It takes a grundle of time to make all those red marks and, by golly, they better pay attention. The hardest are those stories that are so awful I don't know what to say or where to begin. I love it when they start to crave the red pen and are disappointed when I don't mark much.
ReplyDeleteYes! One of my favorite moments this year was looking at three of my students eagerly commenting on each other's stories on GoogleDrive using much snark and exuberance in their discussion until one of them commented, "Wait, can Ms. F. see these?!"
ReplyDeleteMy response: "Yes, she can. And you are doing GREAT!"
Stephanie Floch
Taylorsville High School
Taylorsville, Utah
I went to a PD where we were told to only write in some other color other than red. So, I bought into this belief, I bought green and purple pens that year. However, does it really matter? Feedback is feedback. If a student buys into what your are trying to tell them and they improve their work that is the goal of the teacher isn't it? So does it matter if its red? Yes, because if it isn't red you can't say the great line.
ReplyDelete"red is the color of love."
That's exactly it. I honestly don't think it matters at all. I correct most of my English papers in purple, not because it was less threatening, but because I like it. Next year I will be attempting to go entirely paperless in my classroom so all my edits are likely to be yellow highlights. At least until Google lets me adjust that. I think it's the idea that counts and the lesson that students need to learn that feedback and rewriting are just natural steps in the process that are important.
ReplyDeleteStephanie Floch
Taylorsville High School
Taylorsville, Utah
Interesting discussion on this post. I'll offer suggestions tomorrow on how you could have written the comments better.
ReplyDeleteSteve Elliott
Arizona State University
Phoenix