And the Notebook Says... Brisk!

After a relaxing break from thoughts of education, I'm back to deciphering my notebook.  Towards the end of November, I tried the extension Brisk.  It's free (for the most part) and is a tool to give writing feedback.  I used it with the Diary Entry Assignment.  When students finished their rough drafts, I used the Grow and Glow feature.  I showed them how it worked with an example from my computer.  I told them I wasn't reading their entries; I was merely using AI to give them suggestions.  Most found the suggestions helpful yet somewhat vague.  They did, however, appreciate the feedback and used it to improve their rough drafts.  Brisk allowed me to use my rubric in their application.  The next step was to use Brisk's Rubric Criteria.  It uses my rubric to give students feedback.  Again, I told them that I was not reading their papers.  They found this feedback more helpful.  We then discssed some of the specific expectations from their checklist that Brisk might have missed.  They realized they needed to use my checklist and rubric as well as Brisk.  

When I used Brisk with the Diary Entries, it was only for my honors students.  I used it again when students wrote fables following the same process.  Students used was similar, however, since the honors students had more complex understanding of writing, it was a different experience.  

I will certainly continue to use Brisk as the year continues.