Today we held our second class on Zoom so we could do some peer conferencing in small writing groups. I spent hours over the weekend researching the best way for students to share their work. While I really wanted to use Google Drive, our campus uses OneDrive, so after several back-and-forth emails with tech folks on campus, I set up shared folders for each small group. Receiving feedback can be scary for new writers (and old writers, too!), so I always take care to establish comfortable norms and procedures for peer conferencing. While the sense of community isn’t quite the same in a world of masks and Zoom meetings, I felt confident that students were ready to interact in this way. Because I’m teaching at a Christian university, I have the freedom to incorporate some faith perspective during each class. Today I encouraged students to use the chat box to share a one sentence prayer. “God can read your chats. Are you convicted” I joked with them. “Lord, thanks for waking us up and keeping us healthy,” one student wrote. Another added, “I pray we not take for granted the opportunity to learn, even though our circumstances are different.” Nearly every student added something. Sometimes tech is better. Our use of breakout rooms went fairly well. I gave students instructions to read and comment before moving to a verbal conversation about each piece of writing. I modeled how to use the commenting feature in OneDrive shared documents, and then I sent them to their groups. Normally at this time, I would be walking around the room to monitor each group’s progress. Instead, I have to magically pop in to check on each group individually. It quickly became clear that the entire process was going to take way longer than I had anticipated because of the technology issues different groups had at the beginning of their breakout room time. Despite some tech glitches, though, the entire process seemed to work well. I went back through students’ essays after class to see rich, worthwhile discussions about their writing. Most writers made a list of action points at the end of their essay as they start their next phase of revision. Hearing from their peers was helpful; we don’t learn in isolation. During my second class, I shared my screen and modeled the norms and procedures for several minutes before one student commented in the chat: “I don’t think we can see the screen you’re trying to show us.” Sometimes tech is not better. Ugh. I was so embarrassed and still have no idea what they were looking at that whole time. I’m working with a dual monitor system that feels clunky and awkward for me. Am I Luddite? Probably. (Today I had to look up how to switch audio so I could still hear my music from my laptop when I plugged in the extra monitor.) I got them sent off to the rooms when one student reentered our meeting to ask me some questions about the feedback she should be providing. Then we both struggled to figure out how she could put herself back in her breakout room. “Technology is not my thing,” she confessed. I laughed and pointed at myself. “Well, clearly it’s not mine,” I said as she was whisked back to her breakout room. At least we are learning together.
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September 2020
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