Peer Editing
"Peer Editing is working with someone your own age- usually someone in your class- to help improve, revise, and edit his or her writing."
After reading Paige Ellis' Blog Assignment #12, I was a little discouraged to write this post without putting a lot of thought into it. Peer editing has always been a weakness of mine because I concentrate too much on the writer's feelings rather than helping them, especially if I have to see them everyday in class. However after watching the video's suggested by Paige, I now know more on how to effectively critique my peer's writings. The first rule of effective peer editing is to always STAY POSITVE! You can get your point across without being negative and in way that is not overly protecting their feelings. You should always start your editing out with a compliment. Tell the writer you like their main idea, you liked the way they said this..., you enjoyed reading because..., anything that states what the writer did well. Next offer suggestions as to how they improve their writing. For example, the writer's word choice or their organization of the paper. But remember to make specific suggestions and to stay positive about it; its a suggestion not a demand. The last step in effective peer editing is to make corrections on the writer's punctuation, grammar, spelling, sentence structure, etc. Paige Ellis's blog helped to learn that in order to really master this quality, I must stay positive and complete all three steps.
How does all of this come into play with my teaching career? Well since I am going to be critique students for a living, I need to realize that practice makes perfect. I can not honestly answer if I will critique my fellow EDMer's publicly or privately until I have come across a situation that I am forced to make that decision. For example, I can see myself offering compliments and suggestions in a comment, but maybe leaving them and email if they have obvious and numerous grammar and organization errors. I think peer editing is much harder for me than critique a child because I am the type that worries about what other opinions of me and with child I know I have a way of talking to them and getting through in an appropriate way. The main thing I am taking from this assignment is to practice every peer editing assignment following the three rules. As with everything, practice makes perfect.
Your first sentence is a quote. You must cite the source.
ReplyDelete"I was a little discouraged to write this post without putting a lot of thought into it." Read this carefully. What do you mean? You were discouraged because you had to think? That is how it reads.
"I concentrate too much on the writer's feelings rather than helping them,..." Wow. If they broke their arm you would hurt for them but not help them get the broken arm set and mended? Wow!
"I am the type that worries about what other opinions of me..." Rewrite. maybe what opinions others have of me... instead of what other opinions of me...
What if there opinion is that you are a 'softie', that you have no backbone, that you are afraid to say what you think? Do those opinions bother you?
Yes. Practice.
Melissa,
ReplyDeleteI see Dr. Strange left you some food for thought! He did that to me when I was a student and it helped me evaluate my own position as a "pushover." I realized that if I was going to be an effective educator, I would need to worry less about what someone thinks about me and more about providing an environment where learning can occur in a safe manner. It's not easy to simply throw out that mentality that we get from going through the school system, but we do have to realize at some point that we are no longer the students, we are the teachers. While you may still technically be a student in college, you are actually an educator in training and you should not be bound by the chains of the high school mentality.
Now that I have said that, I just want to say that your post was very good. You did the ALT right for your image, however, when you give the source, you need to say something more specific than "Flickr" or "Google". You need to give the referring URL as the source. It will definitely be something other than the site name.
Bailey,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your feedback! I really appreciate lab assistants commenting on our posts especially when Dr. Strange can be intimidating at times. HA! It's slowly starting to register that I am in training now that I have taken some of my education classes and about to enter candidacy.
I will remember to be more specific with my ALT for the future. I wasn't sure if I needed to put the URL or the site name, now I know!
Thanks again for your feedback!
Melissa, I completely understand how you felt about peer editing before watching the videos suggested by Paige. I too, was afraid of facing my peers when they made an error and I needed to correct them. I'm such a people pleaser, that I don't want to offend anyone! However, after watching the videos, like you, I felt better about peer editing! As far as grammar goes in your post, I do not see any major errors. I will send you an email for tiny details! Otherwise, great job and I will see you in class Tuesday!
ReplyDeleteMelissa, I felt the same way about peer editing as you did. After watching the video I feel much better about peer editing. I did not see any major revisions needed. Great job on this post!
ReplyDelete