8.23 Writing - The Other Writing War

Bestest Friend and I are in the middle of a blog project. Each day of the month we will post a picture on a pre-determined theme and write a little something about it. The theme for the twenty-third day of each month is "Writing."
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I don't use red. A grad school professor I had once remarked that he only used green to grade because he'd gotten a course evaluation from a student that said the red all over her papers actually dissuaded her from actually looking at the comments the professor had written, so he switched colors. When I got my first paper back from him and two entire pages of my writing had been crossed out (in green, natch), I thought that maybe it wasn't so much the color of the pen that was intimidating.  So, I take a lesson from that great man and I don't use red.

Sometimes I even use pencil.  Because then the students can erase it all if they want. They can write their own grades, their own comments, and their own word choice corrections. They can ignore everything I write because, honestly, what I write doesn't matter.  Only one-quarter of them read it and a smaller fraction than that actually internalize what I write and make a change.

Cynicism: thy name is teacher.
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To see what Bestest Friend wrote about the theme of the day, check out her blog, Too Legit to Quit.