Today I passed around a couple of student examples of research papers. One was barely passable and one was "A" level work. I passed around the barely passable version first. The students weren't even halfway down the first page when they began scoffing at the work.
I was amazed at how quickly they are able to identify the faults of another piece of writing and yet so blind to how closely their own papers resemble the poor example. It wound up being a great exercise for them. After we got beyond the snarky comments and the smart ass remarks, they were forced to actually dig into the paper and identify the things that made it poor.
This is the first time I've given a bad example of a writing assignment. I suggest it. It's a great way to get their critics working before you turn them loose on their own work. Cheers to a successful lesson plan.
No comments:
Post a Comment