Lindemann on Responding to Student Writing

I think Diagnostic Reading was the most useful part of this chapter of Lindemann. Classroom diagnostics (early assessments of skill and goal-setting meetings) are useful in multiple ways. For one, it/they help the teacher identify student strengths and weaknesses, which in turn helps with classroom management, group assignments, individual learning, and testing. At the elementary school level, we call diagnostic reading "goal-setting conferences" and these are done one-on-one with the parents not the students. These typically happen at the end of the third full week of school and are a review of the classroom behavior and work ethic the teacher has observed from each student. Then he/she meets with each child's parents individually to talk about realistic goals they each have for their child.

I imagine this situation would work for conferences between teachers and the students themselves at the high school+ levels. Once students are old enough to be held accountable to their own expectations, a teacher can do a lot to enhance their learning. A teacher that knows what a student wants out of a course has the power to reach those goals, or at least has the tools, whereas a teacher who "blanket teaches" may never reach the outliers.

"Comments that enhance learning differ from traditional methods of hunting errors and identifying what's wrong with a paper" (226).

This is another important part of the diagnostic process. Teachers that poach errors and only comment on the negative are the types of teachers that teach students that they are stupid or inept. Teaching with high standards is very different from condescending teaching and belittling behavior. Goal-setting conferences also help teachers to manage their own "red-penning" and belittling tendencies because once you have a one-on-one conversation with another human being and learn about their specific struggles in the field that you teach, you are more likely to ease-up when you see those grammatical errors in an actually interesting piece of writing that came from a student who openly told you they are embarrassed by their vocabulary and spelling skills, but proud of their thoughts and writing abilities.