Poor students

My poor students can’t trust me one little bit.

Before they turn in an essay, I have them do a day of workshop/peer review in which they give each other structured feedback about each other’s writing.  For their first essay, I had them bring three copies, one for themselves to read, evaluate, and write on, and two for their classmates.  A student asked me, with a bit of panic in her voice, whether I was going to read their Essay 1 drafts before the final version was due.

“Of course not,” I said, affecting surprise.  “Peer review is a time for you to make improvements to your essay based on each other’s responses, not mine.”

So they worked really hard on their first drafts for nothing.

This week held the workshop day for my students’ second essay.  They wrote their first draft of Essay 2, believing that I wasn’t going to read it, and they trustingly brought three copies to class.  So I led them through the peer review exercise, in which they traded essays twice and gave responses.  And as they were packing up their backpacks to leave for the day, I told them to wait a moment more.

“I want the third copy of your drafts,” I told them brightly.

You should have seen the looks of horror on their faces.

They had been ready for me to read Essay 1 but I didn’t; they weren’t ready for me to read Essay 2 but I did; and from now on, they’ll always have to be prepared because they won’t know what I’ll do.

Gotcha.