Blog Assignment #3

   

After watching What is Peer Editing? and Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes, and also reviewing Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial, I have come to realize I may be taking the easy route with my comments.  My first comment I made on a students blog had light criticism, which I thought was the assignment, and then I noticed no one else was giving anything other than comments.  Let's face it, no one wants to be the "Mean Margaret" and makes things awkward.  I feel like these materials contained things I already knew, but had since forgotten.  Teachers start slamming peer editing into your brain in middle school and I think by the time you have gotten out of high school most students have slacked off here and there.  I am one of them!  This was a reminder to not be afraid of giving positive criticism to help others and also to look for grammatical errors.  I'll be honest, I haven't been looking for those!
     After this revelation I went back and reviewed my group member's blogs, and although I couldn't find anything wrong with them this time I'm sure i'll be more aware of things from now on.  If the criticism isn't too harsh I have no problem with throwing it in with a few compliments publicly, however, if something comes to my attention that might be better said privately I have no issues with that.  My job as a teacher isn't to embarrass a student, I am there to educate!  I feel a student will be more responsive and open to you if you have their trust, and you won't get that by calling them out in front of their friends.