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Power Struggles with Students

How Should Teachers Negotiate the Power Struggles When Giving Feedback on Student Papers?

by Meredith Graupner

Styles for giving feedback on student papers varies, yet the majority of researchers seem to agree that teachers need to find a balance between expressing control over student writing and giving that control to students themselves. One way that instructors struggle with letting go of this control is when they read student papers with an “ideal” text in mind. “When teachers have an ‘ideal text’ in mind, they cannot see the text under construction, except in the ways that text relates to—or fails to relate to—the teacher’s ideal” (Hester 6). Having a dialogue with students and playing the role of reader is the best way for instructors to let go of that control. It can also help instructors avoid comments that reflect disappointment when their students have not yet mastered the skills they have expected them to master (Connors and Lunsford 215).

Instructors inevitably spend an enormous amount of time commenting on student work, which is why student perceptions of these comments are at the center of research and practice on the issue of providing effective feedback. The most general goal for writing comments on student papers is to help students become aware of their strengths and weaknesses as writers in order for them to be addressed in papers that need to be revised and/or in future assignments. For students to take instructor comments and make changes in their writing based on those comments, it is necessary for instructors to adopt a tone that resembles a conversation with a student rather than a lecture. The following are features of conversational response:

• Comments have little to no technical language or teacher-like jargon.
• Comments refer to the actual words in the student paper, which helps in creating a common ground with the writer. This is especially important when giving suggestions for revision.
• Instructors approach student writing as readers first and critics second. Doing so creates a tone that students are more likely to read, process, and act upon.
• Comments model to the student how writing can be used as a way of thinking, rather than just reporting what the writer already knows.
• If the purpose is to help students revise, comments inspire students to think of exploring new topics that are not on the page or topics that can be inquired about in more depth.

(Straub, “Concept”, 223–51)

Keeping all of the above in mind, here are some sources to turn to. The following sources are a small cross-section of the research available on the issue of commenting on student writing. Additional sources for other areas of feedback are listed on the references page.

This paper explains how it is necessary to respond with explicit teaching methods and constant feedback to help developmental writers accomplish their writing goals. Such feedback, Boehnlein mentions, is a way to keep students on task throughout the writing process.

This paper explains a method for implementing peer review in the classroom to give students ownership over their papers. The author explains how this strategy works in his classroom and how it affects his students writing skills.

These authors take a large scale look at the commenting strategies of teachers and analyze the trends among them. These trends indicate that instructors easily fall into the trap of responding as authority figures rather than readers of their students’ papers.

Dickinson refers to how her technique of giving computer-aided feedback to students helped her respond in a more conversational style to her students. She recommends that other instructors experiment with online commenting in order to manage the paper load they face.

This article explores the ways in which teachers respond to student writing, how their responses affect student writing, and in turn how students influence the ways in which teachers respond. Exploring these relationships gives readers ways to think about their own practices of commenting in the classroom.

This paper explains how instructors view their feedback methods as having conversations with their students about their papers. After drawing from several panel discussions that have explored this method of feedback, the author concludes that instructors need to consider the contexts of their classrooms and assignments before implementing these strategies for themselves.

The author explains that only looking at errors as the result of social and cultural differences limits the ways in which instructors teach editing practices in the classroom. Horner believes that teaching editing as negotiation through small group conferences and classroom discussions alleviates situating students as powerless against the academic standards of grammar.

Hunt explains how the use of taping comments to give audio feedback on student work aids in helping instructors save time during feedback. He also feels that giving students audio feedback makes them take a more independent approach to revising their papers.

This article explores the nature of instructor feedback and explains how instructors should questions their practices of responding to student writing. Straub poses a series of questions to help instructors evaluate their practices. One such question asks, “What kind of comments will be best for this student, with this paper, at this time?” (247).

Straub explains that teachers need to learn how to talk with their students rather than to their students during the writing process. He offers several guidelines throughout the article for teachers to consider as they incorporate conversational response in their classrooms.

BestPractices-ProvidingFeedback

• Surface Conventions and Negative Perceptions
• Time for Effective Feedback
• Power Struggles with Students
• Efficient and Thorough Feedback
• References for Providing Feedback