Okay writing teachers, raise your hand if you’ve ever been in this scenario: you hand back essays, all with tons of feedback in the margin and a rubric stapled to the back.  Kids take the precious writing from your hand, unceremoniously flip to the rubric, look at their grade and either smile widely or give you the evil eye.  Then they proceed to either crumple it up or slip it into their backpack, feedback completely ignored.

I’m raising both of my hands right now.  I can’t be the only one who has been in this situation, right?

Well, this year, I just couldn’t take it anymore.  After students had labored over their best writing yet–the argumentative essay–and I spent hours upon hours grading them and giving meticulous feedback, I couldn’t bear to see the kids ignore it and move on.

I put my foot down.  And came up with a new way to return work.

Students turned the final draft of their essays in on Google Classroom, but rather than do a digital rubric that I put right on their essay, I completed the rubrics on paper, which turned out to be an excellent (and accidental, mostly fueled by laziness) choice.  When I finished grading, my students were in the middle of a sort of transition period; we were finishing A Streetcar Named Desire and beginning short stories, plus Friday was independent reading day. So, as far as having time for what I’m about to explain, it was perfect.  Kids were working on their own for a day or two, which allowed me to meet with each one of them for a few minutes.

The steps I followed:

• I returned the essays on Classroom with my feedback, but did not give students their rubric.
• I told them to read their essay and my comments, and at the bottom (or as comments), come up with THREE things to talk about. These three things could be questions, comments, observations, or whatever they wanted to discuss.
• I told them we would not discuss until the next day and that they would get their grades after our discussion.
• Then, after class got started for the next couple days, I would call kids up one at a time.  
• When they sat down, I’d say, “Okay, what do you want to talk about?  What did you notice?” and the kids would go through their comments, questions, and observations.
• I would then ask them how they thought they did and/or what they could have done better.
• Finally, I gave them the rubric and discussed why they received that grade, and how they could complete a redo if they were interested.