Madeline M. Craig
Instead of written feedback in the form of a red pen, students will receive their feedback orally from both their classmates and teacher. Furthering the idea over autonomy, the critical period of sharing your writing and receiving feedback can often be the most intimidating part of the workshop process. Enforcing the antiquated idea that authors need to remain silent while facing the critiques of their instructor (33) and peers separates them from their work and eliminates the opportunity for students to practice important communication skills such as advocating for themselves and asking clarifying questions.
By setting the expectation that writers must come to the feedback portion with targeted questions for their peers to provide criticisms or compliments on, students are forced to assess their own strengths and weaknesses. Shaking up the feedback process provides them with an opportunity to self-evaluate, a much more valuable skill than simply learning to sit quietly and comply. This also provides peers with a chance to communicate their own thoughts and build rapport with classmates, furthering the idea that the classroom is a community based on mutual respect and equity. “When we unsilence workshop, when we invite students to participate in the discussion of their own work, everything changes: the writer is no longer passively accepting comments. Rather, they become who they should be: the creators and navigators of their own work” (34). By requiring the author to come to the feedback portion of the workshop with targeted questions on what they would like feedback on, it also alleviates their peers of the pressure to perform or fumble for commentary, creating an opportunity centered around growth, not comparison or competition to be the best.
