'Shit-Plus' 'AWK' 'Frag' 'Huh?' Part 1 of 2

[Briankuchta]

This would be true even for comments made by a teacher on a paper. Therefore, unless the students have clarified every comment with the teacher (which seems unlikely in terms of time), how can they be sure they have truly understood the teacher's intentions?

Second, what types of comments are these students talking about? Are they based in grammar, structure, or content? There is great disparity in the ability of a reader to understand written comments based on this differentiation.

[Briankuchta]

We have been studying the concept of written commentary on the part of the teacher and how these comments are often vague and/or misinterpreted by the student. So, I question how these students knew that they understood the teacher's comments. This also falls into the idea of whose concept of what is written is correct - the writer or the reader. As Barthes suggests in "The Rustle of Language", the reader and writer can have very different interpretations of the intention behind text.

[Briankuchta]

My name is Brian, and I am in the Language and Literacy program at City College in NYC.

First of all, I want to congratulate you on your excellent work in this video study.

After watching this video, several questions have come to mind:

First, in the section in which the students commented on the teacher's comments, many of the students stated that they usually understood the teacher's comments overall. How can they be sure?

[KenThoMen]

It was good to see some of the students in the video sympathizing with their professors whose comments were sometimes illegible or irrelevant, attributing these shortcomings to the volume of work that their teachers have to do. Gordon Harvey's "Repetitive Strain..." is directly applicable.

[StacePrints25]

One thing that threw me off, however, was the overall objective of the video. I know the focus is a broad study on teachers commenting styles and impact of the student, but the statistics used to support this sometimes seem to focus more on the impact of race and some psychological (color of ink used) issues when evaluations are made. Maybe this could be called out in the title of the presentations?

~Stace

[StacePrints25]

As someone who works as a digital (internet) advertiser, I truly appreciate the use of YouTube to convey the research. They demonstrate a student-centric teaching focus because not only is the research about how students "evaluate" teacher evaluations, but they are utilizing a medium that their students probably use on a daily basis. I think this group was successful at making this research accessible to both students and educators on many levels.

~Stace

[TSTaylor275]

I found this presentation to be a good response to the more rigid professors who offer more critiques than guidance on papers. It would be great if this was the start of a catalyst for change amongst professors to are prone to doing reviewing papers this way. I congratulate you guys for being innovative on bringing this issue to the forefront for college students.

[Graig315]

I thought that the video was well done, and it was insightful to hear from other grad students about their opinions on teacher comments. The idea of creating a video was ingenious. A paper or a tape recording could not recreate what was learned by watching and hearing other students talk about their experiences. The quality of the video along with efflux information demonstrates what I assume to be an enormous amount of time and effort exerted to produce.

[sweetmsd3]

As a former CWE writitng consultant, there has been debate on the "plagiarizing" by teachers. Dr. Gleason beleives that when a student really needs help, the teachers has to "prompt" not plagiarize. More like a spring board to help the student think more about their writing.

[omarjames10452]

one of McBeth's CCNY language and literacy students:

I found this provocative. Have the professors of these students seen this video? How do you think that it will change the way they approach responding to students' writing?

Laura: I hadn't noticed that the paper was plagiarized.

[Cultofelvis]

Laura: It looks like the paper at the start of the video was plagiarized by the instructor. We talked in the Writing Center class about how a tutor who merely suggests a title for a paper can be accused of plagiarism. I would like to know also about how the interviews were conducted. Regarding the racial issue;Do the profs even realize how they are distributing their comments? Also it seems students want less grammar corrections on early drafts & more feedback on the paper as a whole.

[DocMcBeth]

Laura: Do you mean by plagiarism here that the instructor has done so much editing and rewriting for the student paper that the instructor actually takes ownership of the paper? I'm not sure how your Regarding racial issues and the question that accompanies it are related.

[laurenmvb27]

Really great presentation of some very compelling info and ideas. I think this is really useful, especially to comp teachers who are just starting out. I also think that it is interesting to hear from these students about how they perceive the process of giving and receiving comments. It is a intriguing and valuable commentary on the relationships that exist between instructors and students, and again, really useful to new teachers, and hopefully to more experienced teachers as well.

[sweetmsd3]

Michele in McBeth's class: Great video!. Students got the chance to share on teachers comments. It seems students value what their teachers have to say. Streaming stats across the screen-- great juxtaposition. I definately agree that white students receive more useful, helpful comments than black and latino students--as a black student I've experienced it. Although the students said race and culture didn't "really" matter--the stats across the screen said different. Thanks for sharing.

[DocMcBeth]

Michele: I'd be interested to hear more of your experiences about how race affects attention in the classroom.  Could these anecdotes inform your memorable learning experience essay?

[craigor678]

I enjoyed these videos. It gave a good perspective on how students really react when we give them comments. The main thing I picked up on is that every student wants different things, despite what "experts" say. I was surprised to see that a couple of students actually prefer red ink, despite the overwhelming claim that one shouldn't use red ink, as it can come off too intimidating. I was also intrigued by that one student who didn't like questions, and prefered specific comments.

[DocMcBeth]

I didn't see your presentation at CCCC but I'm so glad that Asao suggested it via the WPA list. Serendipitously, my grad students were discussing the issue of teachers' comments in class the evening that he sent the message so your docu-video dialogued perfectly with our readings and exercises. Thanks so much for your contribution.

[ucfmegn]

Thanks for posting this. It's great to hear from students what they think about what we say about their writing.