Monday, April 2, 2007
"Showing Students How to Assess" Response
I really have very little to say in response to this article. I found much of what it had to offer to be well articulated and insightful. I do think that assessment conferences such as those described in the text would be extremely useful for students. All of the methods seemed student centered. I only have one major issue with the article. I do not find the idea extremely plausible. For one, these time-consuming individual conferences assume an ideal student load of less than 50 students, or a teacher without a life beyond the classroom. Furthermore, these conferences assume that all students will come equipped with at least a moderate understanding of the many writing conventions across genres and rhetorical purposes. Unfortunately, assumptions are not permitted in teaching. Too many first-year composition students will be ill equipped, and the likelihood of any kind of majority of high school students being prepared for such a conference is inconceivable. I fear that the conferences would boil down to one-on-one lessons of how to define, recognize, and write to an audience, leaving all of the other conference topics untouched.
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2 comments:
Hi Josh,
I wanted to respond to the plausibility issue of student/instructor conferences because I can see how you would view Beach's suggestions as problematic. I hold conferences for my English 100 students twice a semester. These conferences take the place of class--a fact that makes a huge difference in terms of how plausible the idea of one-on-one conferences are. I schedule the conferences so that the students will be in the middle of a paper draft; that way, I can ask them to bring the draft with them. I explain that the conferences will only last 15-20 minutes, so they come to the conference with their questions/concerns ready. Some of the students actually bring a small list of questions with them. While I do not boast that anything spectacular occurs at these conferences, I do feel that they give students more confidence and even a feeling of ownership over their work because they are responsible for "running" the session--they are in control in that they decide what should be addressed in terms of their writing. Often, I'll ask them questions such as, "What would it take for you to say, 'I get to do this as opposed to I have to do this ...'" (Of course, Shipka inspired that question!) or I'll ask them, "What do you enjoy writing about?" They seem to like talking like this. They feel more comfortable with me, with their paper, and with the class in general. I use the information gleaned from the conferences to personalize my instruction more, when possible.
I think you underestimate freshman to a degree when you say "the likelihood of any kind of majority of high school students being prepared for a conference is 'inconceivable.'" Many students come to me for that very first conference wanting to take ownership of their work and asking questions about how they can improve. Of course, for some students you are right--they are not prepared to divulge in such conversation. But many of them are. :)
Thanks for the response, Danika! I know that I myself love teacher conferences, but when I speak of the plausibility I am thinking more in line with high school, where I'll be teaching. I do not think that conferences are very doable for the high school teacher especially because of time constraints. In the public education system, a teacher cannot just cancel class and have students come on the off day or during the cancelled class because the teacher must hold class every day. I do see your point that the conferences are quite useful and that many students appreciate them and are even capable of handling them. I just don't think that a public high school teacher can really escape the time constraints imposed upon him.
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