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Multiple pathways of feedback and critique contribute to beginning students' understanding of the concepts and practices of journalism, while also providing opportunities to sharpen their critical teeth on more advanced writers' work. As the figure below illustrates, at least five critical relationships can be observed in beginning journalism: 1-Teacher to individual student
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Thicker arrows in the figures indicate greater amounts of critique and feedback. Esther provides oral and written feedback to her individual students and the whole class on their draft articles (arrows 1 and 2). She conducts informal individual conferences with students on their writing, marks individual papers heavily, and highlights class wide problems with anonymous examples. When the student paper comes out both Esther and her beginning students spend time as a group critiquing the content, layout and writing (arrows 3 and 5). Students particularly relish using their new skills and knowledge to criticize the senior journalists. Occasionally Esther will bring in newspapers from other high schools to perform the same exercise. Local papers fill the classroom daily and provide a third source for evaluating other journalists' writing, reporting and design. Finally, students are frequently asked to critique one another's papers (arrow 4). Esther guides these critiques with handouts detailing the questions to ask of the piece (e.g. one handout asks "Is there a transition to background detail in the personality feature?"). Occasionally two students will read the same student's article, so that the writer receives comments from more than one reader. These relationships contrast with those in the advanced class, where the teacher's role is less central and the student editors-in-chief lead the class. Back to Writing Styles and Cycles...
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