Feed The Birds...

I love and really connect with the way that Kittle starts off the chapter by saying, "Writers need feedback not evaluation."

 I completely resonate with that statement because as a current student I don't just appreciate the grade, but I appreciate the reason behind the grade, whether it's good or bad. Students feel the pain of not receiving feedback as we. As soon as you give a student a final letter grade without the feedback, it's as if the work they put in was secondary. Their smiles immediately turn to frowns. An instance, like this occurred when my fifth period English class was doing a poetry unit. The majority of the students were really engaged and into their autobiographical poems, however, there were a few that really didn't care for it. When one of those students received their grade, even with a rubric, he was confused and sad. I couldn't understand why he would feel that way if there was a rubric. His emotional disposition was changed when he understood my words to him. This made me think: "Even though there is a rubric, my students want to hear from me..."

I loved this book and actually during this make-up process went from renting the book to buying it for myself. It has been such an amazing aid for me now that I have my own students. Another thing i truly loved about this chapter (chapter 12) was the example on the Feedback on Drafts that Kittle talks about on page 121. They were doing a peer editing activity and one of Kittle's classmates gave her some constructive feedback. The feedback, as you might imagine was truly not helpful in anyway, which unfortunately can be the same case in our classrooms. The feedback she gave Kittle was nothing but a myriad of crossed out words and black ink all over the paper. That ink could have very well been a knife which assaulted Kittle's confidence and joy. This allowed me to be mindful of the feedback that I give my students. Being mindful of their PROCESS, not rushing but lovingly pushing them to excellence. Feed the Birds...they are hungry.

The Mess That Became The Message

Chapter Nine, to be honest professor, needed its own blogpost. I really would've liked to get into 11/12/13, however, this was an intense set of practical and interesting tips. As I always emphasize, and probably will continue to do forever, I love how Kittle begins the chapter by talking about her personal struggles and writing. The number one thing that I admire about Kittle is her fearlessness and ability to be courageous. She shows this courage in sharing one of the major topics that always show up in her writing, the loss of her childhood friend. This reminds me of a student I have whose name is Amir. Amir, without fail, writes very morbidly about life and his situations. Everything is sad. Everything is meaningless. Everything is pointless. It's challenging for me because when reading assignments like this, I often want to dictate what is being written on their papers. Kittle always has a plan though. I appreciate her discussion of multi or two-voiced poems. They definitely introduced me to something new, fresh and different.

Another thing I appreciated from this chapter was the "Holistic Impact of the Paper" page? (I think). The language in it is really powerful and impactful. I may borrow some of her ideas for my own class. I kind of do something similar and I call the activity, "HotSeat". I believe teachers need to pull students out into the unknown place of uncomfortability. Kittle teaches the educator how to pull your students from the kiddy pool into the deep end.