Skip to main content

Period 1-Informational Essay

PERIOD 1

This week students worked tirelessly on their informational essays.  After several lessons and examples, they finally completed their rough drafts.  These drafts were submitted to turnitin.com.  One of the things I love about this site is that it allows students to read and evaluate one another's essays using questions that I personally write.  In addition, the person evaluating the essay can  comment directly on the writer's rough draft.
I gave the students a long talk before we began and made sure that they all understood to comment in a respectful, kind manner.  I also encouraged them to give the quality of feedback that they would like to receive on their own writing.  Most students did an outstanding job.  I was so pleased with how serious they took this task.  In addition, students were required to complete a self-evaluation which forced them to take another look at their draft.

I am hoping that students received some valuable feedback.  Of course, I told them that it is up to them whether or not they take they advice of their peers.  In addition, I feel that reading other student's essays provides students with the opportunity to read some outstanding work, as well as essays that need work!  

Finally, students do not know whose essay they are evaluating (unless the writer put his or her name on it).  However, I can read the feedback that each person provided.  Just thought you might like to know a little bit more about why I use turnitin.com and love it so much!



Below is a screen shot of some of the questions students were required to answer, as well as one student's answers.  

Here is another screen shot.  It shows how students can write a suggestion directly on the essay.  






Another example







This is an example of the comments I made on a student's final draft.  




Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:11 AM

    I loved writing this essay. It made me learn more about the teen brain, and teen behavior, and child abuse, etc. This essay was a great experience! I also learned how to made a good essay. Thank You so much for taking your time to teach us how to write a good essay.
    ~ Mackenzie Tucker

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:15 AM

    hey this is R.S.B i would like to give you feed back about the teenage brain article i kinda found them to be rushed and in my head you were going like " We finished outsiders we also need to finish up an article right now!" i know this sounds dumb but please don't rush it. PS: i am not harry

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TQE: Get students Engaged and Digging Deep

I've mentioned before how Twitter has helped me grow as an educator.  Edutwitter is a valuable resource for book recommendations, new teaching methods, lessons, and articles.  One of my favorite educators to follow is Marissa Thompson, a high school teacher at Carlsbad High. This summer I read about her TQE(thoughts, questions, epiphanies) method for discussing literature.  I'd always longed for having discussions like the ones I had in my college literature courses, but when I try fishbowl or Socratic seminar with my students, the discussions felt forced, flat, and awkward. That changed today when I tried TQE for the first time.  Sharing homework in small groups Students writing their TQEs on the board When I listened to Marissa's podcast on Cult of Pedagogy ( check it out here ), I was intimidated. After all, her students are in high school and have a rock star teacher.  I think I read the transcript twenty times before finally trying it.  Here's h
5 comments
Read more

Writing an Essay...with a Partner

I love technology for collaboration! Teaching writing to middle school students is not easy.  All students come with different skills and knowledge.  With 35 students in a class, it's impossible to sit down one on one and assist students with the writing process.  Teaching students to write a literary analysis is particularly challenging because most seventh-graders have little, to no experience.  Students need to learn to  develop a thesis statement, find evidence from the text to support it, provide the context of the selected quotations , and write insightful commentary on the evidence they selected. Remember, these kiddos are twelve! Graphic organizers are particularly helpful to these young writers. The biggest challenge is providing feedback to students as they are writing, rather than after they turn their work in for a grade.  Students need to be able to use the feedback they receive and see the difference it makes in the final product.  I was adamant that I was not go
2 comments
Read more

The Outsiders

Anyone else remember reading The Outsiders in middle school?  I remember reading it in 7th grade in 1981. Oh how I loved that book!  Then came the movie!  Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Leif Garret, Matt Dillon, and Patrick Swayze were some of the actors in this Francis Ford Coppola film.  I have to admit that it was a little depressing this year when I mentioned that Tom Cruise was in the movie, and only one student said, "I think I have heard of him."   Yet, here it is 2014 and my students are enjoying this book as much as I did.  On the surface the book is about two rival "gangs," the Socs and the Greasers.  However, the book is about so much more.  It is about stereotypes and prejudging people.  It's about true friendship, family, and loyalty.  It's about courage and growing up.  That makes it the perfect book for middle schoolers. I started off the unit with a web quest about the 1960s to get the students acquainted with the setting of the novel.  They
Post a Comment
Read more