Whenever I work with teachers, I advise them to look at the world like a poet or photographer might.
Viewing things in this manner adds that certain spark to the creation of good lesson plans and classroom ideas.
And that’s how I got the idea for the following alternative grading method … going to see The Price Is Right live.
There is a game on the show in which a pirate walks a plank.
Every wrong answer … the closer you get to making the fatal plunge into the terrible waters.
And it occurred to me … BINGO … there’s an alternative grading method in this game.
As we all know, revision is one of the toughest things to teach.
So, here’s a surefire way to get your students to revise.
I call it – Walking the Plank.
On my whiteboard, I have a cutout of a very friendly looking pirate at the tippy-top of a plank.
Three wrong moves sends him over.
Here’s what we do …
Students submit their essays for full-class review. Their work is projected on the overhead slide. Let’s say you have a class of sixteen. That means you have sixteen sets of eyes on one paper.
The idea of the writing workshop is to equip each student with three specific and exact learning targets for their next subsequent draft.
Those sixteen sets of eyes find three things for the writer to focus on for revision.
Three learning targets … and off the plank you go into the waters of revision.
Giving students concrete things to focus on is key to the art of revision.
And the kicker – you can fly through a stack of essays in these workshops.
And it’s 100 times more effective than the traditional method of slapping gobs of red-ink in the margins.
These types of activities are at the heart of what we’ll be doing in our Alternative Grading Methods Two-Hour Intensive on November 13th.
In fact, you’ll be equipped with forty such alternatives by the end of the session.
I think we all agree that traditional grading methods yield very little growth and maturation in our student writers and that they absolutely consume our time.
Come learn a new way of doing things that will not only liberate you from the ceaseless “NEED” to chronically grade, but also learn guaranteed methods that allow your students to absolutely flourish as writers.
Reach out with any questions or visit my webpage at
http://teachinghow2write.com/alternative-grading-methods-intensive/
Happy teaching and happy writing!
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