#TFW You Can’t Tell If They’re Learning or Just Nodding Along
Teachers, we’ve all been there. You’ve just wrapped up an awesome mini-lesson on a new-but-also-maybe-review skill and you look out into the sea of faces staring back at you and ask: “Is everybody with me? What questions do you have?” Only to be met with silence, blank stares, a few blinks, and, after a little teacher wait time, some nods. “No, seriously, do you all get it? Or should we go over another example?” You might add, hoping for some feedback. More nods ensue. You think to yourself, “Are they actually getting this, or are they just nodding along so that I’ll stop talking?”
As teachers, how do we know when what we are saying is truly sinking in for our students?
More specifically, how do we know if students are truly understanding why they are being asked to make changes in their writing based on feedback? How do we know they are not just accepting and making those changes because it’s “what the teacher says” or to “be done with the assignment” and move on?
This has been my challenge with writing-assistance tools. I have been using Grammarly with my students this year, and those red marks just look so official. If the computer says it’s wrong, it must be wrong…right? Most of my students readily accept all the changes, without a second thought. But, is it possible that the correction isn’t always the best one for their paper? Could they maybe say “Nah, that’s how I wanted it! Thanks but no thanks”?
This got me thinking about how we can steer writing revision to become more intentional. Instead of just changing everything automatically based on Grammarly’s feedback, I want my students to learn what they need to fix at a conceptual level and learn how to improve for next time. They need to learn the process, not the product.
So, what if instead of fixing all the errors, students had to analyze them? They could make a list of the type of feedback that they are consistently receiving and we could categorize them. Data! Knowing this would not only help them realize what the “thing” is that they actually need to revise, but it would also help me as the teacher to know what skills I might need to review. Data-informed instruction!
Which would lead me back to another mini-lesson. But maybe this time, fewer blank stares and empty nods.
