Cover: Responding to Student Writers, 1st Edition by Nancy Sommers

Responding to Student Writers

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First  Edition©2013  Nancy Sommers

ISBN:9781319502362

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Table of Contents

Contents

Note to fellow teachers

Introduction

       Why comments matter

       Considering a writer’s development

       Seeing comments through students’ eyes

       The call-and-response of commenting

1 Setting the scene for responding

       Offering one lesson at a time

       Understanding the purpose of comments

       The dangers of overcommenting

       Responding to rough versus final drafts

       Finding the right tone

       Developing a common language

       Creating a link between classroom and comments

2 Engaging students in a dialogue about their writing

       Establishing a role for students in the dialogue

       Revising with comments

       The Dear Reader letter

       Making the most of comments

3 Writing marginal comments

       Marginalia

       Less is sometimes more

       Developing a scale of concerns

4 Writing end comments

       End comments on early drafts

       End comments on final drafts

       Taking students seriously

5 Managing the paper load

       Focusing on student learning

       Varying the purpose of comments

       Varying the style of comments

       Mentoring students to become thoughtful readers

       Resisting the urge to correct grammar and punctuation errors

       Finding a role for grading rubrics

6 A case study: One reader reading

Bibliography

Responding to student writers: Best practices

Nancy Sommers

Nancy Sommers, who has taught composition and directed composition programs for thirty years, now teaches in Harvard's Graduate School of Education. She led Harvard's Expository Writing Program for twenty years, directing the first-year writing program and establishing Harvard's WAC program. A two-time Braddock Award winner, Sommers is well known for her research and publications on student writing. Her articles “Revision Strategies of Student and Experienced Writers” and “Responding to Student Writing” are two of the most widely read and anthologized articles in the field of composition. Recently she has been exploring different audiences through publishing in popular media. Sommers is the lead author on Hacker handbooks, all published by Bedford/St. Martin’s, and editor of Tiny Teaching Stories on Macmillan Learning's Bits Blog.