2.11: Helpers

This chapter will cover the elements that should HELP students in learning, whether it’s through writing or reading.

College Resources

If we try to handle every challenge alone, we can become frustrated and overwhelmed. Following are some resources available at NDSCS…\(^{46}\)

• Your instructors can clarify information and give you strategies to succeed. To contact an instructor, use My Messages in Blackboard or email them directly using the email listed in their syllabus or by using the Directory on the NDSCS website.
• Tutors can help you see, understand, and fix problems before you submit work. You can find them over in Old Main (the building with the “S” on top).
• Tech support is available for Blackboard; you can find information on this by logging into Blackboard.
  • If logging into Blackboard is the issue you are having, reach out to Distance Ed (use the Directory on the NDSCS website to find contact info).
• Librarians can quickly guide you to exactly the information you need. Contact information for the library is in the Directory on the NDSCS web site.
• Free, confidential counseling services can help a student cope with difficult personal situations or academic problems. Their information is available through the NDSCS Directory, too.
• Don’t have a device or is yours not ultra-reliable? Seek out the computer labs on campus, bring a friend and/or some headphones, and conduct your own WORK ZONE.
• Advocate for yourself!

Many students are reluctant to seek help. They feel like doing so marks them as slow, weak, or demanding. The truth is, every learner occasionally struggles. If you are sincerely trying to keep up but feel over your head, ask for help as early as possible. Most instructors will work hard to help students who make the effort to help themselves.

Regarding Technology:

• If you don't know how to use a computer or if you aren't all that confident in your computer skills, get some help. As you've noticed, we have class in a computer lab. You will need to know how to log on to our computers.
• Do you have a back-up if your computer gets a virus or your roommate decides to delete all of your work off of her computer? Consider saving all documents you write for this course in a safe place like Google Drive and/or a flash drive. Strange things can happen when technology is involved. Be prepared.
• Even though we have all of this wonderful technology in front of us to use, please don’t make that the focus of every class period. In other words, try to save your texting, email checking, and fantasy football roster trades for your free time.

Questions:

• Do you advocate for yourself? Give an example.

Reflection and Self-Assessment

This chunk covers the importance of reflecting on your learning and how to go about assessing your learning, too, if that process or activity is built into your course.

Definition of Metacognition

Metacognition is the process of thinking about thinking… Here are some questions we ask ourselves when we employ the process of metacognition, especially the third one called evaluating…

• Planning\(^{47}\) - What do I already know about this topic? How have I solved problems like this before? What should I do first?
• Monitoring - What should I look for in this reading or assignment? How should I proceed? What information is important to remember?
• Evaluating - What did I learn? Did I get the results I expected? What could I have done differently? Can I apply this way of thinking to other problems or situations? Is there anything I don’t understand—any gaps in my knowledge? Do I need to go back through the task to fill in any gaps in understanding?

Change the Way You Think\(^{48}\)

Reflection can be an invaluable tool in changing a person's thought patterns and responses to situations. Many people lapse into "auto-pilot," our day-to-day way of dealing with people, places, and situations. However, without frequent reflection and evaluation of the way we respond to these external stimuli, it can be easy to fall into patterns of behavior that are unproductive or even damaging. Reflection can help you actively assess your situation and reappraise it to feel more positive and in control.

Analyze Experiences.

You will have so many experiences every day that over the course of a lifetime it may be difficult to take stock of what they all meant. If you take the time to reflect each day on what a given experience meant right after it happened, however, it can be easier to process the event and your reaction to it.

Think about your reaction to the experience/assignment…

• How do you feel the experience/assignment went? Does that match how you anticipated the experience/assignment might go? Why or why not?
• Did you learn anything from the experience/assignment? Is there anything you can take away from the experience/assignment that will help you better understand yourself, other people, or the world around you?
• Does the experience/assignment you had affect the way you think or feel? Why, and in what way?
• What can you learn about yourself from the experience/assignment and the way you reacted to it?

Don’t Criticize or Beat Yourself Up as You Reflect\(^{49}\)

Self-reflection isn’t about judging or criticizing your past decisions. Instead, self-reflection helps you learn from your past so you can reach a healthier, happier future.

• Instead of thinking “I can’t believe I made that mistake,” think “I’m glad I have the opportunity to reflect on my mistakes so I can do better in the future.”
• Instead of thinking, “I shouldn’t have X,” think “I’m now better prepared for X.”

Questions:

• Let’s return to the “Analyzing Experiences” part of this chunk of information. Think back on ANY assignment or project you’ve completed in ANY class and answer at least half of these questions:
  • How do you feel the experience/assignment went? Does that match how you anticipated the experience/assignment might go? Why or why not?
  • Did you learn anything from the experience/assignment? Is there anything you can take away from the experience/assignment that will help you better understand yourself, other people, or the world around you?
  • Does the experience/assignment you had affect the way you think or feel? Why, and in what way?
  • What can you learn about yourself from the experience/assignment and the way you reacted to it?

• Let’s return to the “evaluating” part of metacognition. Ask yourself these questions about a current project:
  • What did I learn?
  • Did I get the results I expected?
  • What could I have done differently?
  • Can I apply this way of thinking to other problems or situations? Is there anything I don’t understand—any gaps in my knowledge?
  • Do I need to go back through the task to fill in any gaps in understanding?

Peer Workshops and Feedback

Peer workshops and receiving feedback are typically a HUGE part of most writing/composition courses. It might be difficult for some students to receive feedback from others but always remember: writing is subjective. Since it is, the best other humans can do is give you their opinions based on the things they’ve read (remember: everyone is a writer and everyone is a reader). With that said, this chunk of information breaks down peer workshops (or peer review sessions) into manageable pieces… THREE pieces, to be exact.

Peer revision\(^{50}\) has added benefits over self-revision. Other people can notice things in your paper that you didn’t. Other humans might ask questions or give you suggestions you HAD NOT considered, which may be uber helpful.

Some instructors set aside class time for peer review, but even if your instructor doesn’t, it’s a good idea to seek out feedback from a classmate, roommate, a tutor (if your college has a tutoring center), or anyone who can offer a fresh perspective.

Possible Steps in the Peer Review Process:

1. Exchange a draft with a classmate, or group of classmates. This might be done online.
2. Read it. (You might want to read it aloud?)
3. Give feedback based on the table below.
4. Revise your own draft taking into account the feedback you receive.

Feedback Strategy: WWW / TAG

WWW	TAG	Examples
WOW.	T – Tell classmate something that WOW’d you about their draft.	Your introduction is very controversial; this will shock readers.
What If…	A – Ask a question about the content in the draft.	Why did you leave out the history of how you met this weird person?
I Wonder…	G – Give a suggestion to your classmate about their draft.	I would add in more details about the situation that lead you to deciding that adoption was the route you were going to take.

Questions:

• Are you open to the kinds of feedback you’ll get using that table above with the WWW/TAG pieces?
• What do you typically want feedback on when it comes to projects and papers? Why?
• What do you feel comfortable giving feedback to classmates on? Why?

Ungrading

If writing is subjective then assessing writing is subjective.

Boom!

Indeed\(^{51}\), grading does very little. Music theory teacher Kris Shaffer says that “letter grades do an absolutely horrible job” of three things that would help students improve their writing: (1) determining whether students understand a concept well enough to implement it, (2) identifying elements of student writing that need improvement, and (3) helping students learn to better self-assess. Shaffer makes his argument specifically about writing music, but I’ve recast it here for writing words. Each of these three goals presents a helpful perspective on developing authors’ needs. An author’s ability to compose requires skill, understanding, and situational familiarity. None of those goals are met through a letter grade. Grades help label, sort, and rank students; they don’t inform students, target instruction, or encourage self-awareness. Those who have left school and begun their careers have long stopped expecting grades to help determine what they do and don’t do well because grades aren’t appropriate measures of learning. Schools need to stop relying on grades, too.

Instead, we should teach people how to improve their writing through reflection and peer review. Variations of peer review help us write in many of our day-to-day situations. We learn what sorts of text messages work best by observing how our friends text and respond to us. We learn what makes an effective email by reading the ones we get and responding or deleting as we see fit. We learn how best to craft Facebook posts by seeing what kinds of content can garner the most likes—at its heart a form of quick (and addictive) peer review. Consider, too, all of the review features available on websites such as Yelp, Amazon, LinkedIn, Angie’s List, and so on. Reviews offer feedback and critique by users/peers.

In other words, situations, not teachers, define the importance of writing.

If grades tell nothing meaningful about writing ability, and if learning to work as/with peer reviewers provides insights into and feedback about writing performance, then the traditional structure of writing education is backward.

Writing should not be done for a grade. Teachers should not grade writing; instead, they should empower their students to meaningfully assess the effectiveness of writing.

Questions:

• Do you learn more when you have intrinsic reasons versus extrinsic ones? Give an example…
• What does it mean to you to know you may assess yourself and your learning in this course?
• When have you written effectively for a situation, and not a teacher?

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\(^{46}\)Edited from 1, 2, 3 Write! by Gay Monteverde is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

\(^{47}\)Multiple Wikihow authors. “How to Put Metacognition in Process for Teachers.” Wikihow. https://www.wikihow.com/Put-Metacogn...s-for-Teachers Updated 07 Oct 21.

\(^{48}\)Rogers, Tracey. “How to Reflect.” Wikihow. https://www.wikihow.com/Reflect Updated 26 March 20. Licensed Under an Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Creative Commons License

\(^{49}\)Klaphaak, Adrian and Janice Tieperman. “How to Self-Reflect.” Wikihow. https://www.wikihow.com/Self-Reflect Updated 29 Oct 21. Licensed Under an Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Creative Commons License.

\(^{50}\)"Basic Writing/Print version.” Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project. 9 Sep 2008, 16:02 UTC. 11 May 2016, 17:37 <https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php...&oldid=1273791>. Licensed CC-BY-SA.

\(^{51}\)Snippet from = Friend, Christopher R. “Student Writing Must Be Graded By The Teacher.” Bad Ideas About Writing. Edited by Cheryl E. Ball and Drew M. Loewe. Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Libraries, Digital Publishing Institute, 2017. CC-BY.