Conferences in Addressing Errors
Depending of the course that I am teaching, the proficiency and the confidence of the students, and the platform of instruction (hybrid/blended, brick-and-mortar, fully online), I rely on conferencing (along with multiple other strategies) to address surface (grammar/ syntax) and in-depth (argument/ organization) level errors in the students’ writing.
Tate et al claim in Guide to Composition Pedagogies that a Basic Writing key principle and practice is to “engage in ‘extra’ student-centered work- whether in the form of time, conferences, feedback, or other related scaffolding techniques” ( Tate et al, 2014, 21). The conferences allow the students complete access to me which seems to provide some sort of comfort and seems to help the student accept the place of unknowing they may find themselves in (writing is a scary process), and build confidence in the road ahead. Conferences help me to explain commenting and the resultant discussions help both of us to hash out the meat of the argument, many times eliminating many of the surface level errors, as Bean points out in his section “Errors in Student Writing Increase with Greater Cognitive Difficulty of the Assignment” (Engaging Ideas 2011, 77) , research has shown that the more heavy the concepts or the lack of student understanding is reflected in the number of surface level errors in the writing.
Wow! Mellissa! This is such a great idea! I love this a lot! I think that having conferences with students who struggle with a lot of errors would really help us as teachers identify the bigger issues that are causing those errors. It's exactly what Bean was talking about when he stated that "student errors are systematic and classifiable" (pg. 76). My only hesitation to this idea is how in the world do we find time to have one-on-one conferences with all the students who need them when we teach 100 plus or minus students per semester! AHH!! :) I'm sure you have found the trick, so please share! Haha!
ReplyDeleteHey John,
DeleteYes, the answer is the flipped classroom; students learn concepts outside the classroom, but they work and do in the classroom. Furthermore, the classes that I am able to do this more often with is a class that assigns me an undergraduate assistant. The flipped classroom and the assistant allows for a much more workshop oriented class with accessibility to me.