Using extracts of student work Patrick Andrews

Outline ›Context – courses taught ›Purposes of using student extracts ›The practical issues ›Student responses to the extracts ›The writers’ responses

Varying contexts ›2 level one language skills courses (L185 and LB160) ›1 level one “content” course (L161) ›2 level 3 courses about the English language (E303/E304 and E302 ›1 Masters level course. ›Some face to face (L161 and E303/304) ›Some entirely online (L185, LB160, E852) ›Students from UK and other parts of the world ›All of these are English language courses - would like to hear other perspectives from you. How much is generalizable?

My original purposes ›To provide models that are: ›- authentic ›-realistic ›To encourage (more) interaction ›To discuss options for meeting communicative aims through writing

The practicalities ›Asked for permission from students ›Chose extracts – how long? Why these extracts? Link with skills students need to develop? ›Consider what kinds of discussion points there could be ›Design tasks

Encouragement of interaction ›Interaction and discussion is vital. ›Can be less structured in face to face sessions than on Tutor Group Forums ›Have not used extracts in OU Live. Screen seems too small.

Examples used in face to face tutorials – level 1 ›First we look at examples from level one (L161). ›What seem to be the biggest challenges for level one students when writing assignments?

My comment ›In my experience, they are: ›Being academic in the sense of: ›- showing knowledge ›- providing evidence ›- being concise.

Examining extracts ›What is going on in examples 1 and 2? How much potential for discussion does there seem to be?

Other areas to cover in level 1 ›Using sources – eg paraphrasing rather than quoting ›Writing introductions and conclusions

Examples used in face to face tutorials – level 3 ›Now we look at examples from level three (E303). ›What kinds of writing skills might need development at level 3? ›What kinds of skills are focused on in extract 3?

My comments ›Higher level analysis ›Providing detailed analysis ›Perhaps using effective visuals – perhaps this depends on the course (in E303/4, visual representations are encouraged).,.

Examples used on tutor group forums – level 3 ›A chance to provide a focus for discussion on a Forum. ›What do you think of what is going on in example 4? ›How does example 5 compare? ›What seems important about example 6

My comment on example 4 ›The answers are useful but some passing comments are also interesting. ›“It's one of the things I miss with distance-learning that it's rarely possible to learn from other student's essays” My interpretation = it allows for more of a sense of belonging to a course. ›“These are not suggestions for improvement, but rather a request for clarification concerning some formal points in this paragraph: ›- Throughout my OU studies so far, I was told not to use "I", "we", "our", etc. in an essay, with the exception of reflective essays. Why is it ok in this context? My interpretation = allows for discussion about aspects of style. Also scope for discussion about assumptions (eg is this extract perfect? Was what she had been told justifiable?)

My comment on example 6 ›The answers are useful but some passing comments are more interesting. ›“However I obtained the same results this student did. The contradiction between my own expectations and the search results puzzled me, so I decided not to use them as evidence because I continued believing these were not specialist terms (!!!))” My interpretation = it was interesting to me to see this very strong student had not got enough confidence to believe the evidence she found. She will perhaps be more willing to trust her findings in future. ›“I remember wondering if I was supposed to include references” ›My interpretation = showed lack of clarity about expectations. So opportunity to clarify

Reactions of students whose work is used. ›In almost all cases (actually all cases I remember), students say they were “flattered”. ›This message seems interesting: ›“Dear Patrick, very flattered by your request. I would have no objections at all to what you suggest. Spent a long time on that assignment and rewrote it several times.” ›Sometimes interesting to observe reactions of students in face to face tutorials. One person “outed” himself as the author.

What could be done with this level 1 introduction in response to the title “Critically discuss the causes of and solutions to the problem of deforestation”? ›The rainforest decline is having a serious effect in causing global warming, the result of which affects all the world’s economies. The reasons for this decline are an interaction of international market forces, together with a compliant society. The solution will involve society, and the market, coming to an agreement on conservation, and the education of both the producers and the consumers. The causes will be explored first, and then it will be argued that these causes can be rectified, leading to a solution of the deforestationeffect

Choices of texts ›Seems important for the extracts to be good but not “exemplary” ›Rogers, T and Feller, A (2016) “Discouraged by Peer Excellence:Exposure to Exemplary Peer Performance Causes Quitting” Psychological Science January 2016 Available at [Accessed 20/04/16]

Any areas you would like to discuss? ›Any further developments possible? ›Possible problems/negative aspects? ›To what extent are the examples applicable to other languages? ›Examples presented have been fairly high level skills. What is possible at beginner levels?