{"id":829,"date":"2020-01-01T10:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-01-01T10:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writing993.sweetland.lsa.umich.edu\/?page_id=829"},"modified":"2026-01-07T14:39:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:39:34","slug":"3-responding-to-student-writing-part-2-making-time-working-with-writers-more-effectively","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/writing993\/modules\/3-responding-to-student-writing-part-2-making-time-working-with-writers-more-effectively\/","title":{"rendered":"3. Responding to Student Writing: Working in Class"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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How Do I Work With Writers in Class?<\/svg><\/summary>\n

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Developing strategies to work more efficiently with students on their upper-level writing can not only help GSIs save time, but also improve the method and quality of our instruction.  In this week’s module, we provide multiple activities and strategies for working with your upper-level writing students through<\/em> the writing process.  We start with important work you can do in providing comments for revision and productive ways to use peer review. Later, this module provides several things you can do in class including Low-Stakes writing strategies and ways to motivate and improve student reading — with several practical exercises.  We provide more grounding for your work with multilingual writers, and, finally, this module concludes with valuable approaches to conferences and one-on-one discussions with our students in office hours.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

How Can I Encourage Good Revision?<\/svg><\/summary>\n

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Good commenting practices encourage students to create substantive revisions. Offering your more detailed feedback on drafts that students will revise puts your comments to their most efficient and effective use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To see several suggestions of how to encourage revision, please begin with the first reading by Gottschalk and Hjortshoj entitled, \u201cAssigning and Responding to Revision.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a time-saving tip: When you have responded to student drafts, final essays need only a summative<\/em> comment noting the success of the revision and the essay\u2019s overall strengths and weaknesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweetland has developed several useful handouts including this one on how to encourage “substantive revision.”  You can learn ways to develop a good revision plan for your students that helps them broaden their approach to rewriting and becomes a road map for the work ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How To Write A Revision Plan<\/a><\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

How Can I Use Peer Review?<\/svg><\/summary>\n

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In addition to the feedback you offer on drafts, peer groups can also provide helpful feedback for one another through the drafting and revision stages.  Students receive many benefits from successful peer review. The Sweetland Center for Writing explains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Having students give feedback to one another on their papers can have many advantages: the students get opportunities to develop their ability to give constructive feedback, they receive advice on their drafts, they have a broader audience for their work than just a single instructor, and they see different approaches other students have taken in responding to an assignment.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Peer Review can also create more opportunities for providing feedback to your students in their ULWR.  However, how<\/em>  you build Peer Review into assignments and then structure and use Peer Review groups is critical to their success for your students.  Follow this link to the Sweetland Center for Writing\u2019s page \u201cUsing Peer Review to Improve Student Writing<\/a>.\u201d  You\u2019ll find a general overview of Peer Review practices and several pdfs with guidelines for planning small group and whole-class Peer Review workshops, examples of peer critique handouts and commenting forms, and grading criteria.  Please explore the models and types of Peer Review to consider how you might best utilize this practice with your students.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

How (and Why) Should I Use Low-Stakes Writing?<\/svg><\/summary>\n

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Low-Stakes writing is a valuable tool that you can use in a variety of ways– and for a variety of purposes.  High-stakes writing, like major assignments, comprise a large portion of students’ grades and requires your careful reading and response. You do not need to collect and respond to low-stakes writing. You could use low-stakes writing exercises to help students generate ideas, think critically about course materials, and practice important skills, like constructively responding to peers’ writing. Low-stakes writing can also be used to provide scaffolding for high-stakes assignments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sweetland handout Integrating Low-Stakes Writing into Large Classes<\/a> highlights successful features of low-stakes writing to keep in mind:<\/p>\n\n\n\n