Establishing Effective Writing Groups for Peer Revision

“We must teach them to respond meaningfully to each other’s paper.”

“Though many students do not have the skills to carefully edit, they do have the ability to help one another revise.

“Whole class peer editing is an ineffective strategy.”

(Gallagher, 2006)

Teachers are doing too much work!

Student Gains

1. Chance to revise draft before it’s too late.2. Increase confidence 3. Practice in reading for revision4. Expanded idea of audience5. Enhance communication skills

(Flash)

Teacher Gains

1. Better Writing2. High levels of student engagement3. Less teacher work4. More student work

(Flash)

To Ensure Success

1. Modeling2. Response Guidelines3. Time4. Teacher is facilitator5. Practice

(Flash)

Finding the Black Ninja Fish

Ideas For Before Beginning Groups

1. Spend time working on ideas and reading pieces aloud.

2. Modeling begins here when you as a teacher comment. (Positives!)

3. Allow students to comment on teacher samples.

4. Compare good vs. bad examples

How to set up groups?

1. Start Small 2. Be Random (Sign-up?)3. 3-4 Students4. Don’t assess student drafts.5. Writers don’t need to take all feedback.

(Caprino, 2014)

6. Own papers vs. others’ papers7. Expectations: Start with positives

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8. MODEL...model...model

Suggestions-Model

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/peer-review-narrative-122.html

One day I went to the zoo. I bought a ticket and went inside. I saw some neat animals. I saw monkeys and zebras. My favorite was the white tiger. It was as white as snow. After a while I got extremely hungry so I bought a hot dog and a coke. It was a fun day.

Likes, Questions, Suggestions

Praise, Question, Polish

+ - ?

Other activities...

1. Papers on a Desk (Cady, 2013)

2. I heard, I noticed, I wonder (Cady, 2013)

3. “I Like” conversations (Gallagher, 146)

4. Golden Line Exchange (Gallagher, 147)

SourcesCady, P. (2013). Peer Review Activities. Washington State University. Retrieved July 1, 2015 from http://libarts.wsu.edu/english/composition/Peer%20Review%20Activities.pdf

Caprion, K. (2014). The Why and How of Writing Groups. Literacy Daily. Retrieved June 30,2015 from http://www.reading.org/literacy-daily/classroom/post/engage/2014/06/10/the-why-and-how-of-writing-groups

Flash, P. (2015). Creating Effective Peer Response Workshops. Teaching with Writing: Center for Writing. Retrieved June 30, 2015 from http://writing.umn.edu/tww/responding/peerworkshop.html

Franklin, J. (2005). Finding the Black Ninja Fish: Revision and Writing Groups in the First Grade. National Writing Project. Retrieved from http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/2185

Gardner, T. (n.d.) Peer Review: Narrative. Readwritethink. Retrieved July 1, 2015 http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/peer-review-narrative-122.html

Gallagher, K. (2006). Teaching Adolescent Writers. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers

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