Responding to Student Writing

Feedback in ESL Classroom

Authors: P. K. Jayaraj & Dr. K. N. Anandan

“It is disappointing; it is terrible; it is ugly; I wish I could find one single grammatically correct sentence in their writing; they know nothing.  How to overcome this; I don’t know!” This is what teachers often talk about students’ writing.  How can we help our learners improve their writing?

Giving appropriate feedback is one of the ways to improve student writing. Good feedback will encourage learners and make them learn better.  The most important aspect while giving feedback is adopting a positive attitude to student writing. While marking mechanically we may not realize that we are showing the student only his mistakes – negative points. If the student receives only negative feedback, they may easily be discouraged.

Teachers who love students will not be hesitant to appreciate their performance verbally (good, excellent) or even visually (smile, gesture, thumbs up). This is certainly a kind of feedback for the learners giving them assurance that they are going in the right track. This has been in vogue from good old days onwards because teachers have always known that such feedback can motivate children. This is just one side of the story. There are also teachers who are keen to point out the errors that learners make and are cynical about the poor standards of the learners.

From the pedagogic point of view whatever the teacher does in the class is to be directed towards facilitating knowledge construction. Since the classroom that we have envisioned is neither teacher centered nor learner centered but learning centered we have to use feedback as a powerful tool for elevating the learners to the next higher level of performance.

What is not feedback?

• Pointing out errors is not feed back
• Mere appreciation of the learner’s work is not feedback
• Grading their work is not feedback
• Prescribing  do’s and don’ts is not feedback
• Giving them a model to follow is not feedback

Then what exactly is feedback? How can we make feedback effective? What are the points to be taken care of while giving feedback?

An effective feedback is

• Level specific (you cannot give the same kind of feedback to stage 1 learners and stage 3 learners)
• Discourse specific (the feedback required for refining a narrative  is different from  that given for refining a conversation)
• Learner-specific (all learners cannot be given the same feedback. For example CWSN need different kind of feedback)
• Process-specific (whether it is individual writing or writing in groups; is it the first draft or a later one. Etc.)

Above all, the language that teacher has to use for giving feedback also matters

Let us consider a few cases:

WORKSHEET

Analyze the learner products given below based on the following:

1. What evidences of learning do we get from each product?
2. How do we bring these evidences to the attention of
   • Learner
   • Teacher / HM / parent / expert
   • What are the errors that can be found in these write –ups?
   • What feedbacks can be given to the individual writers?
   • How do we address learner’s errors?

Student Sample:

This opinion piece about a work of literature was produced in class.

What evidences of learning do we get from this product?

The writer of this piece

• tells the reader the name of the book (in the title of the paper). - My fabit (favorite) Book is do you Want to be my FRIEND
• states an opinion or preference about the book. - My fait (favorite) pot (part) is the hos (horse)

I also read your favourite book. I like it. The horse and mouse are good friends, aren’t they? Your picture is very good. Did you read any other book? What is the story about? Who are there in the story? Keep on reading.

Student Sample: Narrative

This narrative is a process piece that was produced in class.

What evidences of learning do we get from this narrative?

The writer of this piece

• establishes a situation by naming a place.  Disnand (Disneyland)
• recounts several loosely linked events and the order in which they occurred.

I had a fun on vacshne (vacation). . . . I see lot (lots) of rids (rides). I went on the mader hon (Matterhorn). . . . I went my house.

• provides a reaction to what happened.  I had a fun on vacshne (vacation).
• offers a sense of closure.  I went my house.
• demonstrates command of some of the conventions of standard written English.

This piece illustrates consistent control of beginning-of-sentence capitalization and endof- sentence punctuation. The writer also uses capital letters appropriately in the title of the piece.

Why do we give opinion statements like these highlighting the positive aspects of the student-writer? This will be necessary to convince the parents and all those who are used to looking at students’ writing skeptically. It is also necessary to convince teachers who have always been cynical about the poor academic standards of the learners.  When our teachers get well-versed with materializing continuous assessment it is expected that they only need to write statements like this in the response sheets and portfolios of learners. There won’t be any need to grade the students’ writing.

How will you give feedback to this narrative?

Positive statements alone will not take the learner to go to the next higher level of learning. For this, feedback is essential. It will help the learners reflect on what they have worked out and refine their writing.

Go through the feedback given by a teacher for the above narrative:

Well done dear! You can write excellent narratives. Your narrative has a beginning and a nice ending. There are many events in between. That’s really good. Do you want to write about other happenings?

Where did you go first, to Disney land or to the desert?

You saw many rides at Disney land. You went on a merry go round!

What was in your mind then? Did you tell something to your friends then?

You had fun on vacation. Hadn’t you? I am happy about it!

Ajay, very good. Your picture is very beautiful. You draw morning and evening scenes. Do you like honey? Lotus is very cruel, is n’t it? Which flower do you like? Rose or lotus? The butterfly cried. Why did it cry?

Go through the following narrative written by a student of class II. Give feed back to the student writer.

Well done. Do you have a garden at home? Are there rose flowers in your garden? Do butterflies come? Will they drink honey? They come in the morning. Don’t they?  In the evening they go to the lotus flowers. Anyhow, your conversation is very nice to read.