Assessing, me? Yeah..!

Our lecturer give us her students' essays for us to assess. At first, each of us were given different essay each and we need to assess it. I paused, and blur of course. I remembered I felt like I want to give a huge X sign on that paper after I read it. XD

But I try to read it again and read it as a whole, then I understood it. It is true, he got so many grammatical errors but as a whole essay, he succeed in telling his story to the readers which means he has a good command of the language. But still I don't know what to write on his paper.

And then, our lecturer told us that we cannot correct all of our students mistakes because it can demotivate them to write more. So I chose to talk to the writer one by one for them who has serious problem in writing and motivate them. Because for me, if we just mark their mistakes, and turn their writing into a piece of art of red pen, it will demotivate them. So I think, discussing together their mistakes is better. For those who have a little problem, I will just correct their essay a bit and write down a little motivating words for them.

Peer editing?
Of course, I encourage it. I did it myself when I was in my secondary school, but I don't "it" has name. PEER EDITING. XD
I told my friend to read my essay and if they feel something is wrong, feel free to correct it. Same goes for me when my friend told me to read their essay. So I will encourage my students to do peer editing before the next submission.

Back to the essay, from what I see, this writer's mistakes is more to usage of not suitable term, incorrect spelling and incorrect usage of tenses.
Here is the activity that could be helpful for those who facing the same problem with the writer.
Enjoy!

1. I will provide a number of pictures and ask my students to fill in the blank on what the pictures tell them. For example :

What is this? (promoting suitable term)
BEEHIVE instead of bee house.

*students can learn on how to spell correctly, indirectly.

2. Complete this sentence with correct tense.

My family and I have ________ my sister to the airport this morning.
A.sending
B.sent
C.sended
D.send

The answer is B.

But what is the most effective way, in my opinion, is to provide the students with a simple, a catchy and a well written stories or context that can motivate the reader to write better and write more.
Even someone that read less will be motivated, I think, because I read less back in time. But one of my lecturer in matriculation did gave us essays about true stories, sometimes one's perspective of life which can open our mind of what real life is. Thanks to her for the life lesson. And also I'm being grateful that I still get the chance of having some lecturers like her in here, Universiti Malaysia Sabah. A round of applause to all my teachers and lecturers.!