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.