What Students Learn from and use Teacher Comments
Introduction
“Comments aren’t written with a
clear lesson in mind, or even a clear sense of how a student might use these
comments”(Sommers, 2013). It is
suggested that students are sometimes overwhelmed by the amount of teacher
comments on their papers, and sometimes do not know how to use the feedback
given to them. When it comes to
education in America, particularly in college, there are certain things that
students expect from their professors on their assignments in terms of comments
and feedback. But often times, students
will receive feedback and comments they might not know how to use for their
future assignments. The research done in
this study will focus on what students want from their professors and how
students will apply what they are given in terms of comments on their
assignments. There will be an in depth
look at how students really use what they are given in the comments on their
assignments and how they apply what they gain from the comments on future
papers. On top of that, those participating
in this research will be asked if they were ever frustrated by their professor’s
comments on their work, and why they were frustrated by the comments. Participants were also asked if they were
ever confused by any of the comments, as well as if they managed to figure out
what those comments meant. The research
done in this study will be viewed somewhat similarly to how Sommer’s views her
research, as well as being viewed from the point of view of a student. Firstly well look over the literature used in
this research, looking at what Sommer’s says on the subject in her book, Responding to Student Writers. We’ll analyze what she means when she says
that students have expectations on comments from their teachers, while teachers
have expectations from their students in terms of using the comments and
feedback they provide. Then there’ll be
an overview of the general categories that can be identified from the data
gathered, both from the literature and the research done. Secondly, we’ll delve into the mind of the
student, analyzing what it is exactly that a student thinks about the comments,
how they react to the comments, and what they end up learning and using from
those provided comments.
Research Question
I have always felt that my teachers' and professors' comments were
inadequate and did not meet my expectations for feedback on my writing. But I am not the only one who feels this way
about teacher comments. The purpose of this essay is to determine what students really want from
their teachers’ in terms of comments on assignments. In other words; What do students expect to
see in the comments from teachers and professors? Also, how do students react to those comments
and how do they end up using those comments? The data gathered in this study will aid in answering
those question with evidence clarifying the notion that students expect to see
adequate comments from teachers on work in return for working hard on said work
and completing it.
Literature Review
For this study, I focused most of my research
using Nancy Sommers’ Responding to
Student Writers, as there are a couple sections with good relevant material. In her book, Sommers focuses on creating a
model of “responding as a dialogue and not a fix-it operation – and for
thinking about the benefits of responding to writers as well as to their
writing.” While her study focuses on
responding to student writers through dialogue, she brings up some important
things that I saw as useful information for this study.
(There has been a lot more work and revisions done on this since last Thursday, so this is not EVERYTHING that I have so far today. I just thought I'd post some early work up to serve as a first draft to show the work I've done, rather than not have anything to show for work.)
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