Commenting on Poems

Writers love feedback. One way that I've found to give students lots of feedback very quickly is to have students display their work on their desk. On another sheet of paper, they make a chart with two columns--"Name" and "Comments". (This quick sharing method has been around for awhile, by the way, to the point where I forget where I originally learned about it.)

After their desks are ready, students move to the back of the room. I pull popsicle sticks (my favorite classroom management routine--popsicle sticks with every student's name!) and tell students where to sit to start. Then, they silently move around the room, reading what other students have done and writing their comments. At the end of the session, students return to their own desks and read what others have written about their work.

The first session
When students do this for the first time, it's important to model respectful, polite commenting. I usually don't introduce this until my students are well-practiced with oral sharing and questioning, and we've had many opportunities to share our thoughts. I tell students, "Don't just say that you liked it. Tell the writer what you liked!" I'm always surprised by how many of them complain about the handwriting of other students. I tell them, "Let the writer know that you had trouble reading their writing, but try to comment on what they were saying as well."

Honing skills
With our bubble poems, I took this sharing another step. Students started by thinking about what they wanted someone to notice in their poems. They had been working on using different kinds of figurative language, so many of them wanted their readers to notice how they had come up with an interesting simile, or used personification to show what bubbles are doing. Then, I told students that they would have to use specific details in their comments. Just writing, "I liked your personification" was not enough. What was unique about the personification? What made this piece of writing stand out?

It worked quite nicely. I was able to wander the room as well, adding my own comments to the mix. One student wrote, "I like the bursting volcano simile that's a comparison I never thought of. Cool!" Another wrote, "I love how you made the bubble the narrator."

After students returned to their seats and read their comments, we talked about the process. Many writers were glad that their readers had noticed what they had wanted them to notice. This was great! But some also had some unexpected surprises. "They noticed things about my poem that I didn't even notice," one writer said. "I didn't know that everyone would like my pictures so much," said another writer, who had illustrated her poem with careful, intricate pictures of each simile. Another one said, "I think I need to rewrite my poem. I don't think that anyone got it."

Giving students a chance to share and get feedback in a calm, low-risk environment builds our writing community. Students get to hear what other people think about their writing, and they can use this feedback to inform their future writing.

End of the Year Moments

One of the reasons why I decided to stay in fourth grade instead of transferring back to sixth is that end of the year fourth graders are such a delight. At the end of sixth grade, with approaching adolescence, the students are trying to make a break with childhood. For many of them, the best way to do this is to make a break with adults and adult authority. This makes the last few weeks a difficult time, to say the least. Just when we want to celebrate and recognize our students, they go and pick fights.

But end of the year fourth graders are another creature entirely. They have come through the difficult transition from third grade to fourth grade and emerged, self-confident and ready for the world. Abstract ideas that were once beyond them are now within their grasp. They have begun to understand that there is a world beyond their family, beyond their school, and they want to know more. They can now appreciate subtle jokes and gentle sarcasm.

The new maturity of fourth graders is a bit of sunlight in the gloom and doom world that I often create for myself at the end of the year. May and June are always times of great guilt for me. The units I haven’t covered! The papers I haven’t graded! The anguish of it all!

This week, I observed something that changed my thinking. A student was at the front, sharing a piece of work, when I had to help another student who was taking an assessment. It turned out that the student needed quite a bit of help. I took some time, working on the question, when I realized what was happening at the front.

The first student writer had finished. She had answered two questions from other students about her writing. Then she said, “Who else would like to share?” Another student came up to the front. I stayed at my desk, just to watch what developed. The student shared his writing and asked for questions or comments. Eager hands went up, and questions and comments (all related to writing!) flew back and forth. “Who’d like to share next?” the student said, and yet another student took his place at the front.

What a moment. I was at the back of the room, but the community of writers kept sharing, kept talking. The conversation had not strayed, the students had not sat there chattering as they tried to figure out what I wanted them to do next. I was no longer a necessary part of their sharing. They could do it all on their own.

So now, when the end of year guilt tries to overwhelm me, I think of that conversation. And I begin to realize that, despite all of my mistakes of this past year, a few things must have turned out right.