Reply to No feedback on writing in elementary school

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]HS English Teacher here. We do our best. But the kind of feedback OP is talking about it not physically possible anymore.

All of my 5 classes are 29 students+. If I was to give the time I wanted to all students, it would take 5 minutes per essay AT LEAST. I’m not a math teacher but….
29x5=145 students. 
145x5mins=over 12 hours of grading

Not to mention we have two large papers per 9 weeks or so. We only have 1.5 hours of planning per day. 7.5 hours per week to plan, grade, cover classes, attend meetings..

I refuse to work past the duty day anymore. The only solution is to reduce class sizes and allow us our full planning time during the school day.

I leave feedback on the rough draft and encourage them to come in at lunch or go to the writing center. I also conference during class time. However, the main feedback is given on the rough draft. If I provided them feedback on the rough draft, I don’t give feedback again on the final. No time. [/quote]

Thank you for this response and I do empathize. I’m wondering if you can answer a question my middle school kids have. They have English teachers who provide feedback on the rough draft, as you do. They say that they take all that feedback, revise according to the feedback, and are then frustrated when they end up with a grade of 8 or 8.5 out of 10. In their minds, if there was something else that needed revision they would have happily done it, but they thought they were doing everything asked of them. What is the best way to handle this situation? [/quote]

More than likely, the students revisions are still not at mastery level (10/10). For example, maybe the teacher gave them feedback that their dialogue punctuation on a narrative assignment needed work. The student could have fixed 1-2 lines of dialogue but still has many more errors. If this was my child, I would encourage them to go back to the teacher at lunch to ask for specific feedback on the final draft. Teachers often give a rubric on the final, so the student could reference that.

Not only will a lunch conference help the student know how to improve but also will probably cement the feedback in their learning for future assignments. I would never turn down a student who wanted more in-person feedback.

In the years that I’ve taught high school, I’ve realized that most students do not even read a lot of the feedback given. Not to say that that is the case in your child’s situation. What I’m trying to say is that a lot of students think they’ve “fixed” their writing but still have things to improve. I think it’s important to remember that there is always room for improvement.[/quote]

Thank you. I really appreciate this very helpful perspective. You sound like a wonderful teacher. [/quote]

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