Reflection and Revision for Assignment Writing
Reflection and Revision Assignment
Overview:
The reflection and revision assignment allows teachers an alternative to the traditional complete revision process of a piece of writing. After students write the first draft of a major writing assignment and receive teacher feedback and a rubric score, teachers may find that they would like students to have the opportunity to revise, but the amount of time involved in writing and assessing complete revisions may make it difficult to always have a fully revised final draft. There are several benefits to this assignment:
-It helps students engage with revisions since they must pinpoint two specific types of issues they had in the piece of writing and focus their attention on improving those problematic aspects of the writing.
-Since teachers often get bogged down in providing so much feedback, and students may feel overwhelmed by the number of problems identified in an essay, this method of revision lends itself to teachers and students identifying patterns of problems and/or the most major issues, so revision can be a more efficient process for teachers and a more effective learning experience for students.
-It lessens the amount of time teachers need to assess student revision.
Sample Student Directions:
Look over the assignment rubric and feedback you received from me. In a new document:
*Identify up to two types of problems you had on the writing assignment from different categories of the rubric. Choose your two lowest scores, but NONE of these should be Mechanics issues; focus on Content (analysis issues), Organization (transitions), and/or Style/Voice (integrating and using text).
*Identify the problem and provide an example of what went wrong by quoting or paraphrasing the issue.
*Revise that aspect or section of your essay to demonstrate your understanding of how to improve upon this skill or aspect of writing.
*Explain how your revision is superior to your original writing. Be specific.
Suggested Logistics:
When to Use:
This assignment works well for writing tasks that aren't going through either:
(1) a first draft with teacher feedback and a final draft or
(2) a first draft with peer feedback, a second draft with teacher feedback, and a final draft.
So, for assignments such as timed in-class writings that the teacher has assessed or assignments that have only received peer feedback before students write the final draft, this can be a way to ensure students have teacher feedback and an opportunity to improve their skills and score based on that feedback.
It could also work well after assessing what was intended to be a final draft. If teachers find that the performances and scores are lower than is acceptable, they might offer this opportunity for improvement.
How to Assess:
It works well to offer this assignment as an opportunity for students to earn up to ten percent back on the previously assessed piece of writing. For example, for a 40 point assignment, each identified problem (1 point possible) and revised solution (1 point possible) would mean students can earn up to 4 points back for successfully identifying and revising to solve 2 problematic aspects of the writing.
A simple question can be used to determine if the student has earned points: Does the student demonstrate an understanding of problematic aspects of the draft and how to successfully solve them?
The reference in the student directions above to a rubric demonstrates one way to approach the assignment. If I have a four part rubric, I can ask students to identify problem areas from two different areas. Depending on the focus for that piece, the type of rubric used, and the teacher's goals, different directions may be given if, for example, the teacher wants to focus on organization and using reliable sources, they might require the revisions to focus on those aspects. Or, perhaps teachers may want to increase or decrease the number of areas of revisions required. Note that above, the directions disallow revisions of mechanics issues to ensure the revisions are more substantial in nature, but that is a choice teachers can make.