Our reading this week brought up an interesting question. "Papers, Papers, Papers" explains new technology that actually grades student writing by computer -- shockingly for those of us who have never heard of this before, this method is used for scoring the writing section of the GMAT and correlates between 87 and 98% with human scores. The "robot" grader checks grades based on style, organization, and grammar and can keep track of a writer's most frequent grammar errors.
After reflecting a bit on whether or not this method of grading had a place in modern classrooms... I decided that the answer for me is yes. But here are the conditions. Never should the electronic grader be the only source of feedback -- every writer needs a human audience. Rather, if find that the electronic scorers can be used to reinforce teacher feedback and to do the time-consuming work of tallying a students most frequent errors.
An article we read recently suggested that grammar practice such as drill worksheets be individualized as much as possible. I agree with this because, why make the whole class work on using commas around non-essential phrases if only a small percentage of the class is still missing it? Electronic scoring could objectively point out mechanical errors, allowing teachers to quickly diagnose what needs focus for each individual student, and then prescribe practice based on students own weak points. I don't know about you but I love this!! Love love love.
On a similar note, check out this website -- it has mentor texts, writing prompts, mini-lessons, and suggestions for peer editing techniques: http://writingfix.com/index.htm
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You had good comments about this in class as well, Brittany. I think being open to how this can improve student writing is the way to think about it.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the next post!
Jessie