Sustaining Teacher and Student Sanity: An Examination of the Effectiveness of Various Methods of Instructor Response - Jill Dahlman, Patricia Eagan, Tialitha Macklin, Piper Selden, and Stacy Wittstock

1. Sustaining Teacher and Student Sanity:
An Examination of the Effectiveness of Various
Methods of Instructor Response
Jill Dahlman
Patricia Eagan
Tialitha Macklin
Piper Selden
Stacy Wittstock

2. 3:20-3:25 – Introductions
3:25-3:35 – Stacy Wittstock
3:35-3:45 – Patricia Eagan
3:45-3:55 – Jill Dahlman & Piper Selden
3:55-4:05 – Ti Macklin
4:05-4:35 – Small Interest Groups
Panel Outline:

3. Share the Load!
Combatting Feedback Fatigue with
CPRR and Dialogic Response
Stacy Wittstock
Washington State University

4. Theory on CPRR
Respondents to a 2010 survey noted that good CPRR:
- must be taught
- should include clear guidelines and modeling
- should include some form of accountability and assessment
- requires patience from both teachers and students
- clearly shows that the teacher is invested in the process, and
- demonstrates a clear purpose, a clear set of goals, and clear
links to course objectives or learning outcomes.
-- Corbett, LaFrance, and Decker

5. Theory on CPRR
“Proponents of CPRR demonstrate that rather than having the
teacher play the role of all-wise and all-knowing, systematic
CPRR can send a loud and clear message to students that they
have much to teach as well as learn...By conducting CPRR in a
systematic and collaborative way...students and teachers can
learn to internalize the writing strategies and moves they wish
to continue using and developing...so they can externalize
these writing techniques in other composing, pedagogical, and
communicative situations…”
-- Corbett, LaFrance, and Decker

6. Peer Review Activity
- Break students up into groups of 4, and then
further into pairs.
- Each pair exchanges essays
- The pairs work together to discuss, review,
and respond to each essay
- This can be done either face-to-face or online

7. Student Response
“It’s nice to have another student who is in the same boat as me
read and provide feedback on my papers. It helps me answer
questions or parts I was confused about on the assignment, and
it’s also nice to have another set of eyes other than the
professor.”
-- Courtney Wendt, ENGL 101, Spring 2015
“I don’t have a preference when it comes to electronic or face-to-
face review, I do think an advantage of face-to-face is that we
communicate more as a group and it becomes easier to think of
new ideas when we can all add our opinions together.”
-- Alia Jaeger, ENGL 101, Spring 2015

8. Relations to Dialogic Feedback
- Dialogue between students and teachers in
the feedback process encourages agency and
investment in the process from all parties.
- The writer should be the center of the
response process in order to encourage
revision and knowledge transfer.

11. Share the Load!
Combatting Feedback Fatigue with
CPRR and Dialogic Response
Stacy Wittstock
English Instructor
Washington State University
stacy.wittstock@wsu.edu

12. Apps and Aurality: Cross-Talk and Computing
in the Composition Classroom
Patricia Eagan
University of Nevada, Reno
pats.e.edu@gmail.com

13. Student Perception of Writing Process:

14. Media
Overload?
Students today read from a
variety of sources, including:
• Social media
• Online forums
• E-mail
• Instant messages
• Blogs
• E-readers
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Print books

15. …Or
Media
Crossroads?
① Finding the “I” in writing
(and using the whole brain)
② TED Talk rule: 18 minutes
③ Pre-writing with a
hyperlinked outline
④ Composing within a gaming
or virtual reality context
⑤ Workshopping and
annotating essays online
⑥ Assessing using visual and
auditory feedback
⑦ Editing for narratives in
every medium

18. Cynthia Selfe
“For students, the stakes are even more significant. Young people need to
know that their role as rhetorical agents is open, not artificially foreclosed by
the limits of their teachers’ imaginations. They need a full quiver of semiotic
modes from which to select, role models who can teach them to think critically
about a range of communication tools, and multiple ways of reaching their
audience. They do not need teachers who insist on one tool or one way.”

19. Apps and Aurality: Cross-Talk and Computing
in the Composition Classroom
Patricia Eagan
University of Nevada Reno
pats.e.edu@gmail.com

20. Grading Conferences as an
Egalitarian Means of Improving
Student Self-Efficacy
Jill Dahlman
University of Nevada, Reno
Piper Selden
University of Hawaii System

21. We hate grading… right?

22. The Grading Grumpies
Does this look familiar?

23. What we want

24. Yes, I am the king

25. Is this really feedback?
Do they read it?
Do they understand it?

26. Craft versus Grade

27. Assessment: Questions we need to ask
• Student understanding
• Teaching effectiveness
• Existing problems

28. The Importance of Revision

29. Classroom Grading Exercise
VALUES
• Thesis
• Organization
• Attribution
• Content
• Formatting
• Grammar/Punctuation

30. Grading? It’s simple, right?

31. Commenting on Grammar
“Refer to page…”

32. Grading Myths
How students perceive teachers and the grading
process.
• It’s easy to grade a paper.
• Grading is only grammar.
• It takes only a few minutes
for my professor to grade each paper.

33. Objects in Mirror…

34. Negative Self-Evaluation

35. Assessing the Assessment
• What written
words do I use?
• On what am
I concentrating?
• How often do we concentrate on those items?
• Is it grammar? Punctuation? Rhetorical Moves?
Content? What do I value most?

36. One-on-One Grading Conference

37. Psst! Good stuff. Pass it on.

38. A quick look for the grade, then…
All the comments and feedback,
most of it unread.

39. Why write all those comments?

40. Instead, let the student make notes

41. During the Grading Conference…
Sit on them if you have to.
Your part

42. Just like pizza delivery:
30 minutes or less!

43. The people in John McPhee’s, “The Control of
Nature” tried doing just that. They wanted to cool the
lava that was headed straight for the town that they
were in. The problem is that when there is an influx of
lava, you won’t be able to stop it all. The people of the
Pahoa Islands in Hawaii had the same problem. The
lava flow was coming straight for the town that a
couple of thousands of people lived in, but instead of
trying to stop what Mother Nature had started they
decided that this was happening for a reason. They
accepted that their town may be destroyed because
there was no way that they were going to stop the
powerful flow of lava. They did, however, build a safe
roadway that they could use to evacuate the town
when that time came about. They decided to work with
Mother Nature instead of working against her.

44. Shifting the focus from grade to craft

46. Working together
Egalitarian, student-centered learning

47. And if you weren’t convinced…
• Frequent check-ins (students on track)
• Rapport building (student/teacher)
• Course retention
• Persistence
• Less grading!
• Less frustration!
• Happier teachers and students!

48. One-on-one interaction

49. Meet with your students
and cure those grading grumpies!

50. Grading Conferences as an
Egalitarian Means of Improving
Student Self-Efficacy
Jill Dahlman
University of Nevada, Reno
jilldahlman@yahoo.com
Piper Selden
University of Hawaii System
piperselden@gmail.com

51. Staying Sane Together:
Using Dialogic Response as Best Practice to
Sustain Stakeholders
Tialitha Macklin
Washington State University

52. Problematic Response

53. Dialogic Response as Best Practice
Conversational
Control
Global Concerns vs. Editing
Limit Scope & Number
Comment According to Stage
Individual Comments
Praise

54. Digital Programs

55. Teacher to Student

56. Linear Asynchronicity

57. Dialogic Response

58. Many Ways to Respond

59. Play to Your Strengths
“In the final analysis, the best route for teachers is to
keep checking the response to their response and, of
what is workable, to go with what they know works.”
-Richard Haswell

60. Staying Sane Together:
Using Dialogic Response as Best Practice to
Sustain Stakeholders
Tialitha Macklin
Washington State University
tialitha.macklin@wsu.edu
@ti.macklin

61. Break into small groups based on your
interest(s) in the various presentations
to discuss the topics more fully.
Small Interest Groups:

62. Panel Participants:
Stacy Wittstock - stacy.wittstock@wsu.edu
Patricia Eagan - pats.e.edu@gmail.com
Jill Dahlman & Piper Selden - jilldahlman@yahoo.com
piperselden@gmail.com
Ti Macklin – tialitha.macklin@wsu.edu
Prezi - http://tinyurl.com/nnbbscl
PowerPoint: http://tinyurl.com/qxxfy5z