Raise or Raze?

Let’s imagine a classroom that has been set up perfectly – with the student desks arranged in pods of 4 – perfect for interactive and student-centered activities. Let’s say that you even got supplies for each pod so that they each had their own which would alleviate any need for students to get up and cause disruptions all around. The perfect setup, but perhaps you are unsure now how to use this new setup effectively.

This is what comes to mind when I read about having groups of four read and respond to the same student’s essay. What I’ve seen happen from first-hand experience is 2 things: 1) the students aren’t willing to give any relevant or thoughtful feedback. They say things like, “It’s OK” or “nice job” because they are more self-conscious about the others in the group judging them than they are to responding well to the essay. 2) They may gang up on the student receiving feedback and flood them with negative criticisms that just aren’t helpful or useful for improving their writing. I think it works better to have one-on-one feedback sessions and then switch partners and go around the table this way switching with partners until finished. But still – these are overall good strategies.

I think the classroom scenario that I would have the biggest concern with would be the classroom that focuses on form form form: how to write a proper sentence, how to organize a proper paragraph and essay. Sometimes form has to be taught as I’ve mentioned before, but it is tedious and hard even for the teacher to get through I can only imagine how the students must feel about it. Providing forms and models for students works in the beginning stages of writing, but this format of copying does not allow for any creativity or writer’s voice at all. They are so worried about copying and getting things right that they really don’t care at all about how they need to put themselves into their writing.

I did have my classroom in a broken U-shape for a short time. It worked well for a couple of reasons, and was disastrous for a couple of more reasons. It was nice to see everyone’s face from the front of the classroom, and I was definitely able to check on their work easier. But I had LARGE classes: 30-40 students in middle school!!! So for me, it was disastrous. I see how it works well in graduate seminars, but it definitely has a lot of disadvantages for larger numbers of students. It also got the students to all see each other which didn’t help at all. They would yell across the room, pass notes, and their focus was on their classmates and not the teacher.