Rough Drafts

One of my writing classes is handing in rough drafts tomorrow.  I'm not going to edit them.

I'm sitting here feeling guilty about this.  I've never had students hand in an essay without helping them with their drafts...ever.  I'm officially cutting them loose to do it on their own.

The reason I'm doing this is because I'm auditioning the concept.  Lately I've been talking with other teachers about their process and almost none of them comment on rough drafts.  I believe in the process I've used over the last couple of years.  I've seen improvement, real improvement, in student writing, but I can't maintain.  I've commented on every students' rough draft on every essay assignment for every semester since I've begun teaching.  That means I have marked 1320 essays in the last three years.  It's exhausting.

So, I'm going to let them do it on their own.  I'm going to see if there is a significant difference in the quality of their finals.  I'm giving them a page and a half worth of peer review questions they will have to answer (single spaced) and I'm giving them until next Wednesday to complete the final.

I have to do this.  Something has to give.  The class I'm doing this with has received my feedback on six different occasions.  That only includes major essay assignments and not the blog assignment or other prewriting activities.

I know this post is a giant justification.  It's me working past my guilt.  I'm hoping it works.