WNY Young Writers' Studio

Left to Right

Row 1: Monica, Nina, Sarah      Row 2: Catherine, Andrew   Row 3: Sarah, Laura, Jenna   Missing: Abby

Studio mentors spent this evening contemplating the influence that meaningful feedback has on a writer’s work and how to go about providing it. Monica started the conversation by revealing how overwhelmed she feels when others ask her to share her thoughts about their writing.

“I never know what to say,” she quietly admitted, and everyone in the room (seasoned teachers included) nodded empathetically. As we discovered tonight, providing high quality feedback is challenging work. If it were easy, all of these folks might be out of business.

So, where did we begin? By studying a bit of mentor text. Mentors received their own copies of 100 Trait-Specific Comments: A Quick Guide for Giving Constructive Feedback on Student Writing. This is a text that I often share with teachers who are new to writing instruction and who often suffer from feedback block. I find that it empowers inexperienced teachers of writing with a vocabulary and a lens for analysis that enables keener assessment and far more specific feedback. Is it an end-all-be-all rule book? Absolutely not. It’s a place to begin, and I know that is how the 11-16 year-old crowd that we were coaching tonight approached it.

“Some of these comments are way too sophisticated for kindergarteners,” Laura determined. “The book gives me some ideas about how I might think about kindergarten writing, but I’d never say some of this stuff.”

Fair enough.

What will they say, though? More importantly, how will they say it?

“This writer was really creative,” Andrew mentioned, referring to one of the writing samples shared by Steve Peha.

“Where?” I asked him. “Can you point out a specific line or segment of the text that was particularly creative? What made it so?”

“Well, when the main character scattered his grandmother’s ashes, some of them blew back into his face. There was a bigger meaning behind that whole scene, but the author didn’t come right out and say it.”

Specificity is key.

The truth is that it is very difficult to provide meaningful feedback on anyone’s writing unless you’ve received an abundance of it yourself. Sadly, I know few people of any age who can say that they have had this experience. And here’s something else I’ve begun to notice: people tend to repeat the feedback that has been provided to them:

More detail please.

Nice use of imagery!

Proofread.

Great job!

Sheri Barsottelli made this important point as well: it’s easy to feel pressured when asked to provide feedback. Often, what we need most is some time to think and plan what we will say and how we will say it. Sheri encouraged our mentors to take this time and to model what it means to provide a thoughtful response.

When feedback is specific,writers will know that we have taken the time to read and think carefully about their work. This is a gift that enables every writer to feel real. It matters.

So, we want all of the fellows within our program–young writers and mentors and teachers alike–to feel comfortable providing one another feedback and to do so with tremendous skill. This is going to require far more than a handbook and a handful of sessions. Practiced writers and veteran teachers of writing would probably tell us that this will take years to accomplish.

We’ll start with the one that’s in front of us.

The season ahead is devoted to three r’s: research, reflection, and revision. Improving our abilities to ask for and provide useful feedback will support us in each of those other endeavors. If the conversations that await us are anything like those that began to unfold in my living room tonight, we have a lot of learning to look forward to this year.

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone very soon!

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