\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Usually, when students are completing a writing assignment for a class it is not for the\u00a0sole purpose of getting their message across. It\u2019s never to spread information or because they are\u00a0genuinely interested or passionate about what they are writing. Majority of the time, they are\u00a0writing to serve a grading scale. We have been in school long enough to know what gets you a\u00a0higher grade on the grading scale, and what to avoid in order to stay away from the lower end of\u00a0the scale. This results in students concentrating more on staying within the boundaries that they\u00a0think the rubric is creating, rather than exploring their ideas and way of writing. When teachers\u00a0grade student writing assignments, they are so used to relying strictly on the boundaries of a\u00a0grading scale which keeps students from taking risks in their writing out of fear of not executing\u00a0it correctly, and therefore losing points from the grade they worked so hard for.<\/p>\n
Chris Friend, a writing professor at Kean University, put it best when he argued against\u00a0the idea that student writing should be graded by the teacher by saying \u201cwhen students write for\u00a0a grade, they come to see writing as transactional (given to someone in exchange for credit)\u00a0rather than actionable (created with purpose and designed to achieve a goal)\u201d. Students will\u00a0never think or write outside of the box when one person is in charge of the fate of their paper\u00a0because of the risk that it comes with, which has deprived us of some amazing papers written by\u00a0students. Typically when teachers are grading papers, they are using a rubric or set of criteria to\u00a0guide them. By grading only based on a specific set of rules and not being open minded towards\u00a0other ideas or forms of writing, it limits the students because they know they are being graded by\u00a0that criteria and it leads to unoriginal thoughts or less risk taking in order to preserve their grade\u00a0and get their credits.<\/p>\n
Students are around literary texts all day everyday and have been getting graded for\u00a0years. We know what sounds good, what needs to be tweaked, and have plenty of ideas that can\u00a0be shared amongst our peers. Students' are naturally more open minded when it comes to writing\u00a0and ideas which makes them a great fit to grade each other's papers. They keep an open mind to\u00a0different ideas and forms of writing, while also being aware of the technical and grammatical\u00a0pieces writing should include since that's how they were graded by their teachers for a really\u00a0long time. This is why students reading and grading each other's writing is imperative to\u00a0encouraging the creative outlet that these writing assignments could be for students. Students\u00a0would feel a lot more comfortable writing how they really want to write if they knew that the\u00a0people who would be reviewing their work would be their own peers. Students have gotten years\u00a0worth of feedback from teachers to be able to constructively critique their classmates' work while\u00a0still giving room for non-traditional writing techniques.<\/p>\n
Not only will peer reviewing and peer grading benefit the students who are writing the\u00a0paper, it will also benefit the ones who are critiquing the writing. Over the years, students have\u00a0already gathered a lot of the skills and knowledge that they need to be able to grade their peers'\u00a0writing. But, by giving them the constant access to their classmates' papers and allowing them to\u00a0gain the experience of giving constructive criticism to other peoples writing it could benefit them\u00a0in the future. A skill like that is essential to have in multiple professions and this is a great way\u00a0to allow students to nurture and excel at that skill. Whether students are going into teaching,\u00a0science, counseling or even are just pursuing writing as a career, being able to analyze and\u00a0critique writing is a great skill to have. But students won\u2019t have that if all of their writing is\u00a0graded on a strict scale by one person who is in charge of determining whether they did good or\u00a0not, rather than having feedback from multiple peers who have fresh and new ideas in their head.\u00a0All of this is not to say that teachers are not necessary in the grading process at all. Teachers also\u00a0have a lot of experience that is needed in the progression of students as a whole so some\u00a0comments and small notes on the more technical side of things are definitely necessary. But, the\u00a0main source of grading and critique should come from the students themselves.<\/p>\n
When students write something and get a bad grade, if they get a chance to rewrite it\u00a0(which isn\u2019t always the case in certain classrooms and that can also contribute to students\u00a0becoming unmotivated) they are focusing more and becoming more in line with the rubric and\u00a0how to add points to whatever grade than earned rather than trying to improve the quality of their\u00a0writing. However, when peers are able to review each other's work and give feedback students\u00a0use those comments and discussion with their peers to fuel their ideas and improve the content of\u00a0their writing which in the end is what is going to help them improve on future projects. Students\u00a0can benefit each other just as much, if not more, than teachers can.<\/p>","rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Usually, when students are completing a writing assignment for a class it is not for the\u00a0sole purpose of getting their message across. It\u2019s never to spread information or because they are\u00a0genuinely interested or passionate about what they are writing. Majority of the time, they are\u00a0writing to serve a grading scale. We have been in school long enough to know what gets you a\u00a0higher grade on the grading scale, and what to avoid in order to stay away from the lower end of\u00a0the scale. This results in students concentrating more on staying within the boundaries that they\u00a0think the rubric is creating, rather than exploring their ideas and way of writing. When teachers\u00a0grade student writing assignments, they are so used to relying strictly on the boundaries of a\u00a0grading scale which keeps students from taking risks in their writing out of fear of not executing\u00a0it correctly, and therefore losing points from the grade they worked so hard for.<\/p>\n
Chris Friend, a writing professor at Kean University, put it best when he argued against\u00a0the idea that student writing should be graded by the teacher by saying \u201cwhen students write for\u00a0a grade, they come to see writing as transactional (given to someone in exchange for credit)\u00a0rather than actionable (created with purpose and designed to achieve a goal)\u201d. Students will\u00a0never think or write outside of the box when one person is in charge of the fate of their paper\u00a0because of the risk that it comes with, which has deprived us of some amazing papers written by\u00a0students. Typically when teachers are grading papers, they are using a rubric or set of criteria to\u00a0guide them. By grading only based on a specific set of rules and not being open minded towards\u00a0other ideas or forms of writing, it limits the students because they know they are being graded by\u00a0that criteria and it leads to unoriginal thoughts or less risk taking in order to preserve their grade\u00a0and get their credits.<\/p>\n
Students are around literary texts all day everyday and have been getting graded for\u00a0years. We know what sounds good, what needs to be tweaked, and have plenty of ideas that can\u00a0be shared amongst our peers. Students’ are naturally more open minded when it comes to writing\u00a0and ideas which makes them a great fit to grade each other’s papers. They keep an open mind to\u00a0different ideas and forms of writing, while also being aware of the technical and grammatical\u00a0pieces writing should include since that’s how they were graded by their teachers for a really\u00a0long time. This is why students reading and grading each other’s writing is imperative to\u00a0encouraging the creative outlet that these writing assignments could be for students. Students\u00a0would feel a lot more comfortable writing how they really want to write if they knew that the\u00a0people who would be reviewing their work would be their own peers. Students have gotten years\u00a0worth of feedback from teachers to be able to constructively critique their classmates’ work while\u00a0still giving room for non-traditional writing techniques.<\/p>\n
Not only will peer reviewing and peer grading benefit the students who are writing the\u00a0paper, it will also benefit the ones who are critiquing the writing. Over the years, students have\u00a0already gathered a lot of the skills and knowledge that they need to be able to grade their peers’\u00a0writing. But, by giving them the constant access to their classmates’ papers and allowing them to\u00a0gain the experience of giving constructive criticism to other peoples writing it could benefit them\u00a0in the future. A skill like that is essential to have in multiple professions and this is a great way\u00a0to allow students to nurture and excel at that skill. Whether students are going into teaching,\u00a0science, counseling or even are just pursuing writing as a career, being able to analyze and\u00a0critique writing is a great skill to have. But students won\u2019t have that if all of their writing is\u00a0graded on a strict scale by one person who is in charge of determining whether they did good or\u00a0not, rather than having feedback from multiple peers who have fresh and new ideas in their head.\u00a0All of this is not to say that teachers are not necessary in the grading process at all. Teachers also\u00a0have a lot of experience that is needed in the progression of students as a whole so some\u00a0comments and small notes on the more technical side of things are definitely necessary. But, the\u00a0main source of grading and critique should come from the students themselves.<\/p>\n
When students write something and get a bad grade, if they get a chance to rewrite it\u00a0(which isn\u2019t always the case in certain classrooms and that can also contribute to students\u00a0becoming unmotivated) they are focusing more and becoming more in line with the rubric and\u00a0how to add points to whatever grade than earned rather than trying to improve the quality of their\u00a0writing. However, when peers are able to review each other’s work and give feedback students\u00a0use those comments and discussion with their peers to fuel their ideas and improve the content of\u00a0their writing which in the end is what is going to help them improve on future projects. Students\u00a0can benefit each other just as much, if not more, than teachers can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"menu_order":5,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"Students Should Grade Each Others Writing","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["rodrigeb"],"pb_section_license":"cc-by-nc"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[105],"license":[56],"class_list":["post-127","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-rodrigeb","license-cc-by-nc"],"part":117,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/127\/revisions\/128"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/117"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/127\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}