Peer response seems a central concern of yours throughout this writing. Particularly, you seem anxious about how to get peer review to work in the classroom. As I read this, I wondered about your own peer review experiences--in grad school, but particularly in college. Having not had any peer response throughout my education (a shortcoming that I lament), I wonder what you did and, especially, what you liked. I wonder if you'd be able to reproduce any of these exercises from college in your class here at John Jay. I suspect that you'd need to adjust the exercises in some way, but, I wonder, how?
I love how palpable your prose is in this piece; it reminded me of transcriptions of Roland Barthes' lectures. Very engaging!
Anyway, yes, I agree with Erin--much concern conveyed about how to facilitate effective peer response in the classroom. And, to a larger degree, you convey an interest in general classroom operations/environment(relationships between student/teacher, student/student, student/writing--how to manage them so that they're effective, mutually beneficial). Reading your thorough descriptions of Erin's class and your own class, I had the thought that a class is like a composition in and of itself. You can really only determine so much of its shape. Aesthetically, it's the result of so many factors brushing up against one another, and this is anxiety-inducing. We can have a seemingly solid class plan and clearly defined learning objectives, but in the execution of this plan everything can go wrong. How do we cope with that?
I think i too was similarly keying into the prescriptive vs. descriptive divide as it is immanently present even in the form of peer review workshops to begin with. Overly prefiguring their responses with hyper-specific peer-review questions (a favorite, mixed-result habit of mine as well) offers the benefits of having them not wander all over the page, but prevents them a bit from intuitive, gut-level reactions. "Gut level reactions" then run the risk of having things become amorphous and "I hate this" or "this sucked"-ish. The degree of 'investment' on the students' behalf also seems to be primary in the writing -- how to get them to be involved enough to take the thing seriously, or 'take up the reins' of their own education? I think Nolan also keys into an interesting factor of 'relationship' with regard to this, as at some level you have to trust students enough to have them edit substantively without overly guiding them, and they also have to trust you to be giving them the proper questions/nudges to achieve this. But how to get there?
I love the sense of urgency in your writing. Though I do worry that everything has the sky is falling feel. Remember that teaching well happens over time. No one classroom session defines your course. SO keep the urgency because class sessions are short and need that tightly wound focus I think. But no need to chastise your efforts so completely.
Two out of three of your pieces that you chose are related to group work. Seems like this is a key thing you are trying to figure out how to do well. There's certainly plenty to read on this subject. Group work is a key component of the pedagogy because there is no way you can teach the students everything they need to know. They have to learn from each other. The curriculum is totally based on a process theory of learning. Group work reinforces process.
People don't do group work because they say it does not work. Usually it doesn't work because it was not designed or facilitated at all ("get into groups and talk about your papers. Come up to my desk if you need me.") or it is over-designed and the students have no say over what happens or how it happens. I think you are in the middle somewhere, which is right where you need to be.
Professors also give up on group work because it's a lot harder to teach this way. So much easier to walk in lecture about stuff you are an expert on and then walk out.
I'll be interested as to where you take this project.
Hi Meria,
ReplyDeletePeer response seems a central concern of yours throughout this writing. Particularly, you seem anxious about how to get peer review to work in the classroom. As I read this, I wondered about your own peer review experiences--in grad school, but particularly in college. Having not had any peer response throughout my education (a shortcoming that I lament), I wonder what you did and, especially, what you liked. I wonder if you'd be able to reproduce any of these exercises from college in your class here at John Jay. I suspect that you'd need to adjust the exercises in some way, but, I wonder, how?
-Erin
Hey Meira,
ReplyDeleteI love how palpable your prose is in this piece; it reminded me of transcriptions of Roland Barthes' lectures. Very engaging!
Anyway, yes, I agree with Erin--much concern conveyed about how to facilitate effective peer response in the classroom. And, to a larger degree, you convey an interest in general classroom operations/environment(relationships between student/teacher, student/student, student/writing--how to manage them so that they're effective, mutually beneficial). Reading your thorough descriptions of Erin's class and your own class, I had the thought that a class is like a composition in and of itself. You can really only determine so much of its shape. Aesthetically, it's the result of so many factors brushing up against one another, and this is anxiety-inducing. We can have a seemingly solid class plan and clearly defined learning objectives, but in the execution of this plan everything can go wrong. How do we cope with that?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMeira,
ReplyDeleteI think i too was similarly keying into the prescriptive vs. descriptive divide as it is immanently present even in the form of peer review workshops to begin with. Overly prefiguring their responses with hyper-specific peer-review questions (a favorite, mixed-result habit of mine as well) offers the benefits of having them not wander all over the page, but prevents them a bit from intuitive, gut-level reactions. "Gut level reactions" then run the risk of having things become amorphous and "I hate this" or "this sucked"-ish. The degree of 'investment' on the students' behalf also seems to be primary in the writing -- how to get them to be involved enough to take the thing seriously, or 'take up the reins' of their own education? I think Nolan also keys into an interesting factor of 'relationship' with regard to this, as at some level you have to trust students enough to have them edit substantively without overly guiding them, and they also have to trust you to be giving them the proper questions/nudges to achieve this. But how to get there?
-Casey
I love the sense of urgency in your writing. Though I do worry that everything has the sky is falling feel. Remember that teaching well happens over time. No one classroom session defines your course. SO keep the urgency because class sessions are short and need that tightly wound focus I think. But no need to chastise your efforts so completely.
ReplyDeleteTwo out of three of your pieces that you chose are related to group work. Seems like this is a key thing you are trying to figure out how to do well. There's certainly plenty to read on this subject. Group work is a key component of the pedagogy because there is no way you can teach the students everything they need to know. They have to learn from each other. The curriculum is totally based on a process theory of learning. Group work reinforces process.
People don't do group work because they say it does not work. Usually it doesn't work because it was not designed or facilitated at all ("get into groups and talk about your papers. Come up to my desk if you need me.") or it is over-designed and the students have no say over what happens or how it happens. I think you are in the middle somewhere, which is right where you need to be.
Professors also give up on group work because it's a lot harder to teach this way. So much easier to walk in lecture about stuff you are an expert on and then walk out.
I'll be interested as to where you take this project.
Tim