Entry #6- Don't Dismiss the Purpose of Their Writing- Seek the Message!

Sommers article (1982) makes many interesting points that spark up a lot of thoughts. I have read some of my other peers' blogs about this article, and I seem to share many thoughts with them about the comments teachers leave for their students and the types of comments we have received from previous teachers in elementary or high school. I really enjoyed this reading because I was able to relate to it, and I feel that reading about teacher's feedback and comments is not something I have had much experience doing just yet in this program at Nazareth or during my undergraduate teaching certification program.

I think the reason I found this article to be so interesting is because it sort of hits home. It makes me think about the type of feedback I have received from teachers in elementary school, high school, and more recently-college. One of my creating writing journals from third grade had circles around misspelled words (from what I remember), and I don't recall much about the other feedback I had in elementary school. It does make me wonder what common errors I had in my writing, and it makes me wonder how teachers' feedback might be much different than the type of feedback we're educated to give to students now.

Sommers' article helped me to realize that teachers do not need to solely focus or stress on the mechanical and grammatical errors of student work, but we need to focus on the meaning behind their writing and the message the student was trying to convey as we read their work back. The research conducted in Sommers' article helped me to sort of wake up and realize that teachers often concern themselves with the "accidents of discourse" before we attend to the meaning of the text of our students.

This article makes me think of the times I have worked with young students, substitute teaching or at the daycare working with pre-school aged children. I will sometimes be asked to correct students' work, or I will help them with the lessons the teacher has left for me and find myself wanting to correct any little error a child makes! This could pertain to backwards letters, punctuation, fragmented sentences, and most of all-spelling errors. I find it so difficult at times for me to hold back on telling a student how to spell something! I'll realize the importance of the student using his or her phonemic awareness to record the sounds they hear and pay attention to spelling patterns he or she has been taught. I have just come to realize that teachers care more about students trying to record the sounds and that spelling does not have to be perfect (mainly for primary ages). I had to take a step back a few times to realize the student's purpose of the assignment. I had to realize the meaning behind what the student was writing, and if it made sense if he/she read it back to him or herself. The important message for me here and with any student I work with is to not completely skip over writing or misspelling errors, but I need to make sure I am aware of the purpose for my written comments or oral feedback to my students.

I found this statement in Sommers' article and I realized how much I zeroed in on this and read it more than once: "....teachers' comments can take students' attention away from their own purposes in writing a particular text and focus that attention on the teachers' purpose in commenting" (Sommers, 1982, p.149). This statement means a lot to me because when I read students' work, I will need to focus on the message that my students are trying to convey. I cannot simply chop up their work with every error I see or what I was expecting to hear if I was the one writing it. It does make me wonder how I will find that balance between too much feedback, or too much of how I would have written the piece/text myself. Moreover, I think it will be extremely important to really listen to my students. I will need to explore their thoughts and really hear their questions and comments about the message they convey through their writing.

Even as a writer myself and the experiences I have had in college, I know that I do not only want to hear all about every error I made in the text I wrote. I want to hear the positive things about my writing as well so I can continue to do those things and further develop in those areas. I want to hear about the errors I make, but in a constructive manner so I am not hesitant to write again for that particular audience, whether it is a teacher, peers, or other professionals in education.

This article made many interesting points about the negative habits teachers make when commenting on students' writing. One of the comments Sommers' makes really meant a lot to me in the small suggestive feedback section. She stresses that "...written comments should be an extension of the teachers' voice-an extension of the teacher as a reader" (Sommers, p.155, 1982).  When I am providing my students with feedback on their work, I want them to understand fully I am there to help them, and I will do my best to help them convey their message or understand what message it is they want to convey to their audience. I don't want my students to feel discouraged by me, and I want to learn what it takes to help my students become confident writers and readers (and questioners) of their own work. I think it will be important to have conferences with my students as frequently as I can about their writing pieces. It is imperative in the pre-writing processes of their work so they can learn what it is they need to develop or rework. I have learned that a written piece doesn't really have to be "completed". You can always add on it to develop it into a well established-piece of work!

By reading Tompkins other peers' blogs within my 618 class, I took a deeper understanding about the importance of using rubrics and the benefits of utilizing them for student work. Not only can students self-assess their own work, but teachers are able to have a more reliable and consistent evaluation process (Tompkins, 2012). Alexis made an excellent point that teachers can teach children and address them about how to use feedback as a tool for improvement in their writing. Perhaps students can use better judgment of their writing without becoming too frustrated with feedback when teachers better prepare them after writing their initial pieces.