The first thing I said to myself when reading “Responding to Student Writing” by Nancy Sommers is teachers spend all that time on papers but some of that time fails to be reflected. This article served as evidence for my thoughts. Nancy Sommers’s article ended up showing the downside or ineffectiveness of teachers’ comments. The article highlights how some comments are basically pointless.

            Continuing, I learned the importance of a person or place that helps students beyond grammar corrections, and I further see how important effective communication is. I thought about my own papers. I also thought about an article read in my writing center class entitled “Minimalist Tutoring: Making the Student Do All the Work” by Jeff Brooks. Jeff Brooks was advocating writing centers that help students by engaging in techniques that removes grammar among other things from the equation. At first, I was a little reluctant. As I read more articles and my understanding of the approach increased, I now feel differently. “Responding to Student Writing” makes me appreciate or value the teachers in my life who were specific more. I would rather feel overwhelmed with a lot to do than have a teacher who did not care what I did or wanted me to figure everything out.

            Furthermore, when reading “On Reflection” by Yancey I never realized how many different understandings and viewpoints can be established just from hearing the word reflection. But, I understood how several of those definitions can be used to describe the term. I loved the statement “reflection makes possible a new kind of learning as well as a new kind of teaching” (Yancey 8). I agree with this quote and it makes me think about what reflection has done for me. Yancey's article makes me appreciate reflection so much more.

Final Project Comments

I’m leaning more towards the Handbook for Writers. I would like to discuss the co-written publication a little more. I also hope our conversation will lead into a discussion about the mock syllabi with lesson plans. Since I have an interest in becoming a teacher, this will give me an opportunity to learn how to do a lesson plan.