Reading & Responding to ‘Error’ in International Student Writing

1. Reading & Responding to ‘Error’ in International Student Writing

2. Cultural Practices of Reading Goal: To develop asset based pedagogies for responding to error in international student writing.

3. Overview Purple title = handout • Discovering our perceptions of error • The logic of errors • Helping international students become stronger writers • Developing productive and helpful responses to writing • What we learn from our students’ writing

4. Discovering Our Perceptions of Error

5. Survey Says: Understand and analyze how we perceive error and our attitudes toward it. • Instructions: If you have already done so, please complete the survey located here: https://broad.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_5cZv6ezQw4axOWV

6. Survey Says: Understand and analyze how we perceive error and our attitudes toward it. • Results: • Q1 • Q2 • Q3

7. Survey Says: Understand and analyze how we perceive error and our attitudes toward it. • We’re not alone: • In her 2011 study of 129 instructors from 4-year and 2-year instructors, Dana Ferris found four trends in teachers’ attitudes and approaches to L2 learners:

8. Survey Says: Understand and analyze how we perceive error and our attitudes toward it. • Teachers Unaware of L2 Students’ Needs Teachers Focused Primarily on L2 Writers’ Errors • Teachers Unsure of How Best To Help L2 Writers • Teachers Responsive to L2 Writers’ Varied and Differentiated

9. Why Consider Error? What research finds about the logic of error How we understand error is a matter of retention • Monolinguistic Assumptions (Matsuda) • Reproduction of Failure (Inoue) • Asset-Based Instruction (Kirkland, Kinloch, Ladsen-Billings)

10. Logic of Error: What research finds about the logic of error All Error Has Logic • Sign of cognitive overload (Waes et al) • Sign of social knowledge (Hull and Rose) • Sign of students’ growth and development (Shaughnessy) • Always has patterns to it (Polio, Ferris, Bitchener)

11. Logic of Error: What research finds about the logic of error All Error Has Logic • Signals our own linguistic and cultural expectations as readers • Cued by cultural and linguistic gaps • Understood when educate ourselves about students’ language and culture

12. Logic of Error: What research finds about the logic of error All Error Has Logic  “Error marks the place where education begins” (Rose 1988, 189) for both teachers and students.

13. Helping International Students What research suggests are best practices • Types of feedback matter [direct corrective written and oral (in form of 30 min. mini lesson); corrective oral; direct corrective written; indirect corrective]. • Types of errors relate to types of language heritages but several common errors emerge (across Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Russian, & Turkish)

14. Helping International Students What research suggests are best practices Feedback should • Respond to what is being communicated as well as how • Uncover the knowledge and linguistic assets the students are demonstrating • Target a specific problematic linguistic domain • Happen at all points of drafting • Reinforce cumulatively across assignments in rubrics

15. Helping International Students What research suggests are best practices Targeted & Specific Sample Mini-Lesson • Targeted and specific to problematic linguistic domains (Bitchener 2008) • Discovers of the linguistic/cultural logics behind these lessons • Students look at section of own writing with articles (first mention and second mention) directly corrected above. • Teacher models correction with further sentences • Offers sample sentences to correct • Students apply corrections to selection of their own text • Teacher and aid circulate & give oral feedback of corrected texts • Peer reviews and rubrics reflect this lesson

16. Helping International Students Create 5-7 Mini Lessons Together Targeted & Specific Mini-Lesson Creation • Group into 6 • If you have a mini-lesson already in use, please share • Apply to the student writing models (Credit Consumption and Water Splashing) • If not, assign roles and together create a mini lesson (see handout) • Load your lessons to Angel

17. Helping International Students Adapt These Mini Lessons Targeted & Specific Mini-Lesson Adaptation • Students need time in class to integrate with verbal feedback given • Integrate only those patterns covered in mini-lesson into the peer review and rubric (total of 10-12/semester will cover the majority of common errors) • Grade these iteratively through the semester in rubrics (week #1 articles, week #2 articles and affixes, week #3 articles, affixes, verb tense, etc) 4. Use 1-2-1CF only when a student needs differentiation across language or ability background

18. Reflections • Let’s see if we moved the needle on our perceptions of errors • https://broad.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_5cZv6ezQw4axOWV • Post survey and results