Kudos to Dawn Gilbertsen for being the kind of mentor that I would like to be. She was prepared, positive, and sincerely interested in helping us succeed. She took her time to answer our questions, allay our fears, and offer constructive feedback with concrete examples and suggestions. I filmed our round table session so that I can illustrate to my students what good writing circles look, what feedback sounds like, and how the process of writing is the same for us as it is for them.
Jennifer Chandler
North Harford High School
Pylesville, MD
I will definitely use more peer editing in my newspaper class. I don't know if writing circles will work immediately, because my students are all in different stages of the writing process at any given time.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I can tell them, "Before I look at your story, why don't you have Suzanne or Aaron look at it?"
I have used this strategy with limited success in my Journalism I class. I tell my students they have to get three peers to read and edit their stories before they give them to me. The problem is that their peers are usually as bad or worse at editing.