Week 5: TAG Feedback... and Let's Pretend!

This week I want to introduce you to two more feedback strategies. One of them, TAG (Tell, Ask, Give) is very similar to the WWW strategy you practiced last week. ** If you did not do the Week 4 Feedback, read through that page (link); you don't need to do the assignment, but it's good to learn how WWW works, and you can use that technique OR the TAG approach this week.

The other one is a really cool idea that someone suggested in a brainstorming project about feedback from last year: it's "Let's Pretend," and the idea is that you write the feedback from the point of view of a character in the story, pretending to be that character. More details below.

So, this week's assignment has three parts: first, you will review the components of TAG, next you will learn about the "Let's Pretend" strategy, and then you will practice using either or both of those strategies, looking at some more stories in people's blogs. And then in Week 6, the projects will be up and running so you will start giving actual feedback on the projects (and getting feedback on your project too).

TAG: Tell, Ask, Give

(Mari Venturino)

As you can see from the graphic, the TAG approach has three components:

TELL: You can tell something you liked or something that made a big impression on you in the story. (This is a lot like the "Wow!" element of the WWW strategy from last week.)

ASK: There are all kinds of questions you can ask about any story! You might ask about something that you found intriguing, or maybe something you found confusing. The idea is to ask questions that will help the writer to develop their story in the future, responding to the kinds of questions that readers might have. (This is a lot like the "I wonder" element of the WWW strategy.)

GIVE: You can give the writer specific suggestions about things to do, or maybe you can share some knowledge you have that is relevant to the story in some way. (This is a lot like the "What if...?" element of the WWW strategy.)

So, either way you remember the strategy, WWW or TAG, it's a good way to think about different approaches you can take as you give someone feedback about their writing.

Let's Pretend

This is kind of weird, but it really works... and you might find it helpful if writing feedback in your own voice makes you feel uncomfortable or awkward. With "Let's Pretend" you write the feedback in another voice: instead of writing the feedback comment from your own point of view as the reader of the story, you write the comment from the point of view of one of the characters in the story. Putting yourself into the point of view of one of the characters in the story can be really liberating, in the same way that creative writing itself is liberating, allowing you to write in a new voice from a new point of view.

So, for example, should "your" character get to do something different in the plot of the story? Is there something your character really needs to say? Something you think is not clear about your character's role in the story? It might be a matter of life and death: if your character gets killed off in the story, I am guessing you might have something to say about that, maybe even persuading the author to let your character live!

Now... practice!

Just like last week, you will find TWO stories in people's blogs and leave specific, detailed comments on them. I hope you will try writing at least one "Let's Pretend" comment just to see what that is like. (Yes, it's kind of weird, but sometimes weird is good! And I am just personally very curious to see how those comments will turn out.)

Browsing the stories. You can browse stories the same way you did last week or try a new approach. There is a page that shows just the story posts in both classes: Myth-Folklore and Indian Epics Story Posts. You can also use the Class Directory to find specific people in class and look for stories in their blogs, and you can also use the randomizer on the Blog Comments page. 

Comment length. Each comment should be 150 words minimum (use a word counter if you are not good at guesstimating the length).

When you are done providing feedback on two stories, you are ready to complete the Gradebook Declaration: