Poar 203: How can writing multiple drafts help improve student morale?

Post 203: How can writing multiple drafts help improve student morale?

When students write multiple drafts, usually the first draft is not so good. I then would provide feedback on how that student can improve on his essay structure or grammar. Then, I would have students in group work improve each other's papers.  In an online classroom, I would have students peer edit each other's papers in the discussion forums.

Portfolios first began to be discussed in the late 1980's and early 1990's as a form of assessment consistent with Writing Process pedagogy which emphasized revision, multiple drafts while at the same time de-emphasizing the grading of individual essays. (Elbrow & Belanoff, 1986)

After many drafts, students gradually improve their paper and gain confidence in their writing skills thus improving morale.

Lew (1999) had a Chinese American student named Linda who wrote about her immigrant experience of her family coming to America as a 9th grade writing assignment. Then, Lew gave Linda that same writing assignment in 12th grade and Linda in 12th grade wrote a much more sophisticated essay about her family immigrant experience because from 9th to 12th grade, Linda had learned from the teacher how to tell a story by 'showing rather than telling'. As a result, her 12th grade draft was much better than her 9th grade draft. This improvement in writing for Linda raised her morale. (Smagorinsky, 114)

In my online classes, students who post early in the week and participate completely in the peer editing process received better grades than students who posted later in the week or students who posted their rough draft to the forums at the same time they posted their final draft to assignments. Students who posted late in the week did not get as much peer editing feedback than students who posted earlier since posting late did not provide other students enough time to look at the paper and students who did not participate in the peer editing process at all got overall lower grades than the students who did participate in the collaborative peer editing process.