"Teachers usually do not receive formal training in commenting and rarely share their written comments with each other." (249)
and
"Unfortunately, the positive-only convention in the evaluation of the paper is so strong that some teachers may write positive evaluations of the paper without actually belileving them, simply to confrom to the generic conventions." (253-254)
I was astonished that the author really found these conclusions from reading selected papers in a random paper drawing. In response to the first quote I know for a fact, from seminars and talking with veteran teachers, that most teachers do in fact go to tutorials and seminars on how to evaluate, comment, and assign a letter grade to student's papers. Also relating to the first quote, any first year teacher can tell you that the teachers in your community are the greatest resource you can have. That discussing with other teachers about evaluating students papers and what to say/do with their papers is of high importance. So that one can gauge what to expect from a student and what they should correct or help a student on.
The second comment all I have to say is that if a teacher were to write on a paper anything completely negative not only would the student's confidence completely diminish but also have to deal with parent's reactions as well (which can get pretty ugly). Writing can be a very personal experience, and to outright say that it was poorly written or other such things could cause the student to have anxiety for the next paper or any assignment the student might have to turn in.
I absolutely agree with your comments on "The Genre of the End Comment". From my digital story interview, I learned that professors and teachers not only have experience commenting on their students' papers but on their peers as well, and thus they have great experience and (hopefully) knowledge on commenting and criticizing papers.
ReplyDeleteIn reference to the second quote, I think it is extremely disrespectful for a teacher to just give positive feedback he/she doesn't really believe in. Evidently, it is important for teachers to give constructive criticism, but lying to students about their work in extremely insulting. In essence, what lying does is it doubts the students' skills. There are plenty of constructive ways to tell a student that her writing needs more work. Honesty is always better, but it must be done with respect.
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