The Writing Process & Video Feedback

This is a bit of a followup to my last post about our cross-curricular writing project about Andrew Jackson with language arts.


As I was going through the process of grading all 100+ essays (20 hours of winter break...well spent...) I recalled a foggy memory of reading about someone who used screencasting tools to provide audio-visual feedback to their students in lieu of the standard written feedback...which for me consists of a lot of chopped off thoughts scrawled on a page, penmanship declining as I slog through the papers. So after grading about 60 essays, off to Twitter I went and was reminded that Greg Kulowiec was the one who wrote the original post, which included a link this blog entry . Anita Swigart also had experience with it as well. Bolstered by their insights I decided to give it a go...if you're curious to know how it went, read on. Otherwise, I'm sure there are better things you could do...

For starters, you need to make sure that your student has completed their writing in Google Docs and shared it with you, and granted you editing privileges. Otherwise, there's no way to screencast the feedback...


For the longest time I have used Screencast-O-Matic for all my screencasting needs. It has been my standby and I have nothing but love for it.  However, I decided to switch it up to Jing this time around (that's what the others had used) to give Jing a try, and because I could quickly and easily upload my feedback to Screencast.com, and then easily paste the link to it right in to the Google Doc (student essay) that I was reading . So, with that all in mind here are the steps that Greg provided:


The Process:
1. Run Jing - a little yellow sun will appear on the top of the screen
2. Choose your workspace to record
3. Begin recording and commenting on the student blog entry.
4. When the recording is done, click "share with screencast"
5. Login to your Screencast account and retrieve the URL for the video.  I also suggest renaming the file with the student name and project.
6. Paste the URL into the comment section below the student blog entry and you are done.  Now the student has authentic communication about their writing.


I slightly modified the process...
1A. I read the student's essay first and made a couple of minor written notations. One, to help them follow along with the audio, and two, to help guide me as I gave the feedback. Less awkward pauses and "uhms...."
1. Run Jing - a little yellow sun will appear on the top of the screen
2. Choose your workspace to record
3. Begin recording and commenting on the student blog entry.
4. When the recording is done, click "share with screencast"
5. Login to your Screencast account and retrieve the URL for the video.  I also suggest renaming the file with the student name and project.
5A. Once the file is uploaded to Screencast.com it automatically "copies" the link to your "clipboard" - no need to retrieve the link.6. Paste the URL on the top (or bottom) of the student's essay...and boom, you're done.


Reflection:
I think I liked it...  My one hesitation is that in the long-run I think it took an extra minute or three per essay, which can really add up with a 100+ essays. That won't always be feasible for me, or for many others out there.  I'm sure if I do it again, which I think I will, I can become more efficient at the process, specifically with my feedback. Most recordings were 4-5 minutes (Jing has a 5 minute limit). I know I can be verbose, so if I could trim the recordings to 1-3 minutes, I'd be golden.  Some students didn't share their essays with me for one reason or another, so I had to switch back to the old school written feedback and I found myself thinking "I wish I could just record what I'm trying to say, rather than write it out by hand..."  I loved that I could provide a bit of a visual for them to look at, but more importantly that I could really explain what I was looking for and where they could improve their work.


When I asked the students about it today, the student response was almost unanimously positive.  In fact, I had two 8th graders email me last night: "Thank you so much for all your help in the making of my paper. I really like how you did the screen cast, that really helped me and got me interested in fixing my paper to try and get a 100%." and   "The new way you corrected my paper I think was very helpful for me and I think you should use it again if we type a paper on docs." I think that sums it up...8th graders aren't known for emailing their teachers to thank them for critiquing their work. Also, those that did not receive the feedback were bummed and as we were in the lab today (and yesterday) those were the students that required more one-on-one work with me. 


Though this example screencast isn't free of "uhms" and pauses, it gives you an idea of the finished product.

History & Language Arts - Andrew Jackson: Superman or Scumbag

One of the big units that we focus on, as do many US history classes (I imagine) is Andrew Jackson and the role he played in the early Republic.  Since my first year teaching we have had the students write persuasive essays about Jackson to answer the (albeit, cheeky) essential question "Was Andrew Jackson a Superman or a Scumbag?"  Over the years this project has really grown in to a beast. As a history department we've really beefed up the historical component by adding in a lot of primary sources for the students to use. We've also put in a lot of work with the Language Arts department to make it a really strong cross-curricular assignment that even aligns with the Common Core standards (huuuuuzah!!!).  I have all the resources, handouts, primary sources, rubrics, outlines, etc...available on my class website if you're interested. Also, you can see the schedule of the writing process that we used by clicking here.

This definitely took a good chunk of class time. We had to front load the Jackson information, while Language Arts took on the task of teaching persuasive writing. Then we both dove into it, head-first.  We are fortunate to have a media center with numerous computers and open space available to us. The open space was important for the outlining and peer-editing portion, and the computers were vital to allowing the students access to complete their essays without having to do a lot at home.

Lastly, one of the perks of team-teaching this assignment is the grading. I am free to focus on solely historical content and thinking. Many would argue that in a history class that's all I should focus on, ignoring writing conventions, technique, etc...I would tend to disagree (save that for another day), but I don't have to worry about that debate with this assignment as Language Arts is all over it!

Overall we're all pleased with the outcome.  Because we teach 8th graders we had to be highly structured, which is why the outline we provide for them is so key. Students are now allowed to write until the outline is approved. This sets them up for success and saves many headaches in the long run. Another key to success is having the students type their essays in Google Docs and share them with me. Greg Kulowiec wrote a nice post on how to use Google Docs to promote the writing process and staying organized.

The essays aren't quite done yet - they're graded, and feedback has been provided, but students will be making revisions this week.  Once they're done I plan on taking Diana Laufenberg's suggestion and students will share links to their final drafts, with comments enabled, via a Google Form and I will then publish that form so the student's work will get published for all to see.

I'm curious - what tools, methods, techniques do you find helpful when it comes to teaching writing, especially as it pertains to the history classroom?