English 1539 (Friday, Sept. 23)

During Friday's English 1539 class, students swapped working rough drafts of their episodic descriptive narratives. Using a pretty detailed evaluation sheet, they then identified parts of the essay (like transitions used, the thesis statement) and made suggestions for the final draft. Nikki emphasized, similar to what Karen did in English 1550, that students are "helpers" responsible for helping their peers improve their essays, not "editors." Although most students swapped papers with their classmates, Nikki gave students the option of evaluating their own work. I understand her reason for doing so (in case students shared "sensitive information" in their narratives), but I think that a couple of students felt a normal level of uncomfortableness about their writing and didn't share their papers for that reason. I think that these students would have ultimately found their peers' suggestions helpful and that they missed out on the peer reviewing experience. However, this self-evaluation option might only be available for the first essay since it was a narrative (which could verge on the personal).