Making Feedback Meaningful: UDL-Based Solutions for Responding to Student Writing
Loading...
Authors
Laist, Randy
Issue Date
2023-03-24
Type
Other
Language
en_US
Keywords
Education , Curriculam , Universal Design for Learning
Alternative Title
Abstract
Revision is universally acknowledged by compositionists to be an essential stage of any writing process. Beyond simple editorial corrections, a meaningful revision process can encourage students "to engage with their own texts in a more advanced way" (Garner and Shank, 2018). Instructor feedback on student writing is a critical component of the revision process. In the best of cases, responding to a student draft can be an opportunity for an instructor to challenge students to build on their own best ideas. Instructor feedback, however, can also be unproductive or even counter productive to the learning process. Ryan and Henderson (2018) observe that "Unfortunately, when students experience adverse emotional reactions as a result of the feedback process, their receptiveness may be limited," adding, "it is unsurprising that critical comments from educators can reduce students' self-esteem and perceived self-efficacy" (p. 881). Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a model of instructional design that analyzes educational encounters in terms of three elements: engagement, representation, and action/expression (CAST, 2011). Applied to the particular case of instructor feedback, UDL can help illuminate some basic principles for supporting a meaningful, culturally sensitive, and student-empowering revision process.
Description
UB RISE 2023, English Department, College of Science and Society, University of Bridgeport.