Recently I came to the conclusion middle school students need
instruction on how to effectively reflect on their writing. I
just got done handing back my 7th graders book reviews. My
classroom is essentially paperless and they had to complete the
assignment using Google Docs. As I grade papers, whether it is
7th or 8th grade, I make notes on the areas my students struggle
with throughout the particular writing assignment. Throughout
this assignment, students struggled with basic spelling,
sentence structure, and capitalization. In addition, students
struggled with one major concept with the review, which was the
compare/contrast section of the review. Upon returning the
student’s papers I asked the students to have me help them. I
was frustrated with them not following directions. After all, I
am well into the second semester and I needed them to realize
their mistakes were nothing more then following simple
directions. When I asked them what I can do to make them more
successful…silence. Why couldn’t my stud