A high school publications class provides a real life group learning activity that few other classes replicate. Students work as a team to create a newspaper, yearbook, website or broadcast, and while individual assignments are important, the class needs to come together to make sure all the work gets done, is done well and is put together as a whole. I want to see if teaching students to do peer writing conferences would help them become better writers and team members, because they would practice both writing skills and social skills by giving and receiving feedback. However, after some early difficulties with having my students give short, vague, grammar focused writing conferences I want to find out if writing conferences, especially peer writing conferences are useful and how I can improve the comments students make with each other.
Importance of writing conferences
I am interested in the dialogues that can happen when two people discuss writing. I have been experimenting with teacher-student writing conferences since reading Teaching Writing to Adolescents by Kelly Gallagher, where he discusses how students are more likely to pay attention to conferences with a teacher than comments written on a paper.
A teacher-student writing conference writing conference is a meeting between a teacher and one student to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a student piece of writing (Walker & Elias, 1987). Walker and Elias found that writing conferences tend to receive higher ratings from students when the instructor and student can evaluate the student’s work together, rather than when the instructor takes over and discusses what he or she thinks the paper should be about.
While writing conferences are most effective when...
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...hen discussing writing with their peers.
Conclusion
Peer writing conferences are important because they offer students a way to receive in depth feedback on their writing, as well as practice writing skills by evaluating the writing of others. However, even strong writers do not know how to give effective writing conferences, and when students do not have practice with writing conferences and or are not given instruction on how to give them, the conferences are short, vague and can become off topic. Teachers can increase the effectiveness of peer writing conferences by using scaffolding strategies such as modeling feedback, discussing writing as a large group, and using different techniques to have structured small group discussions. With guidance and practice, the teacher should be able to step back from these discussions as the student voices take over.
Thinking about a topic to write about is not always easy, and sometimes the process of writing can end up being difficult. Jennifer Jacobson discusses strategies to overcome the struggles that young writers can encounter while writing. I was interested in her book No More “I’m Done!” Fostering Independent Writers in the Primary Grades because I feel like as a future teacher this could be a frequent problem among students. From reading this book, I hoped that I would learn useful strategies that I could use to help students overcome their problems with writing. After reading this book, I do believe that Jacobson has provided me with plenty of methods to use. I was surprised at the depth that she goes into in her text. There is a vast amount
Ms. Calkins calls these conferences as “one of the most powerful ways of differentiation writing instruction and improving writing proficiency, because they provide us with the opportunity to offer individualized instruction at the point of need” (Rog 8). There are three main types of teacher conferences: “quick “status-of-the-day” conferences to determine each student’s plan for the day, “TAG” conferences for revisions, and editing conferences for final polishing before publishing (Lori Jamison Rog 8). All these conferences are designed to help the student to improve their
In today's society student writers are constantly focused on the mistakes that they make. While this may be useful in some situations, it does not help in the writing environment. When students constantly edit themselves as they write, they are hindering their thoughts and ideas. In doing this, they will eventually lose their voice. In his essay "Freewriting," Peter Elbow (1998) discusses the process of freewriting and how it allows the reader to freely express their thoughts without the need to edit as they go.
In his essay, "Teach Writing as a Process not a Product," Donald Murray outlines the major difference between the traditional pedagogy that directed the teaching of writing in the past and his newly hailed model. Traditionally, Murray explains, English teachers were taught to teach and evaluate students' writing as if it was a finished product of literature when, as he has discovered, students learn better if they're taught that writing is a process. For Murray, once teachers regard writing as a process, a student-centered, or writer-centered, curriculum falls into place. Rules for writing fall by the way side as writers work at their own pace to see what works best for them.
Looking back at my initial free write, I am amaze by the amount of information I have learned and by the skills gained. The writing workshop helped me gaining a method, a tool, for collecting ideas before writing them on paper. However, the most helpful tool was the peer review. It was comforting being able to share opinions and ideas with other writers and having the possibility to expose the say to a real
Teachers are often discouraged and frustrated with class discussions, I know I often have been. Either they don't say a word or they all talk at once, rudely interrupting one another. I have often walked out after class feeling like I had utterly failed. Yet, I press ahead with them. Why? Are they appreciating them? Are they learning how to write better? Why should I commit class time to something that could so easily go wrong? Why not just lecture, or just write or just discuss in small groups? Because I honestly feel that class discussions are important in not only learning, but in learning to write.
Weiner, Harvey S. “Collaborative Learning in the Classroom: A Guide to Evaluation.” The Writing Teacher’s Sourcebook. Eds. Gary Tate and Corbett. New York, NY: Oxford UP: 1988. 238-247.
Bruffe, Kenneth A. “The Art of Collaborative Learning: Making the Most of Knowledgeable Peers.” Composing Knoweledge; Readings for College Writes. Ed. Rolf Norgaatd. Boston:Bedford/St.Martin’s, 2007. 399-407. Print.
Kenneth A. Bruffee talks about the important facets peer-to-peer dialogue brings to the tutorial setting. In his essay, Peer Tutoring and the ‘Conversation of Mankind,’ he discusses conversation and its place within the context of “collaborative learning.” Bruffee argues that “thought and writing are special artifacts grounded in conversation. As such, both are fostered by teaching that emphasizes conversational exchange among peers” (Intro, 3). He believes that thought originates in conversation. In general, conversation is a social artifact that can be internalized to encourage thought. Bruffee values peer tutoring so much because, as he said, it "provides a social context in which students can experience and practice the kinds of conversation that academics most value” (7). The dialogue that takes place between tutor and student fosters this kind of thought-provoking conversation. The interaction is one of a kind because it provides a unique setting whereby “status equals, or peers” (Bruffee, 8) can discuss matters that are closely at the heart of the writing process.
During the transition from a high school writer to a collegiate writer, my strength at understanding the basic principles of good writing has remained consistent. I grasp the ...
In “Expectations for College Writing,” the author highlights general expectations of academic writing in the United States and presents advice to aid students’ performance in social and academic writing. The author warns his readers about employers’ and instructors’ expectations regarding students’ writing capabilities. In addition, the author provides recommendations to enhance their necessary skills. According to the author, to effectively convey messages students have to write with authority, understand their audience, and organize their ideas.
Every animal on the planet is capable of communicating, be it verbally, physically, or possibly by some means yet discovered. Writing on the other hand is a form of communication exclusive to human beings (and maybe the occasional ape). Children are taught to read and write almost as soon as they can speak. Writing becomes a part of everyday life, and because of this it is easy to forget that writing "is a means of "communication [one] must consciously learn" (Heffernan and Lincoln 3). For this reason writing in college can be a challenge for even the most skilled of writers. While the basics of academic writing may seem like common knowledge, knowing them and understanding them can prove to be quite different. In the writing center it is our job to help writers take what they know about writing, and begin to understand it. Understanding is the basis for ...
My peer review writing workshop went very well. I learn that my peers writing are unique, but Donnovan and Mayari seem to lack on introducing the definition from the dictionary or their own definition. Their writing topic is interesting, but they are still in the process in adding examples to it in order to make a stronger essay. The feedbacks they had given me was somewhat helpful,but the suggestion given by Ms. Siegal seems to be more helpful. I did enjoy the comments given by my peers it made me feel quite impressed they enjoy my paper.
Writing is an important part of everyone’s life, whether we use it in school, in the workplace, as a hobby or in personal communication. It is important to have this skill because it helps us as writers to express feelings and thoughts to other people in a reasonably permanent form. Formal writing forms like essays, research papers, and articles stimulates critically thinking. This helps the writer to learn how to interpret the world around him/her in a meaningful way. In college, professors motivate students to write in a formal, coherent manner, without losing their own voice in the process. Improving your writing skills is important, in every English class that’s the main teaching point; to help students improve their writing skills. Throughout my college experience I have acknowledge that
According to Liu (1998), peer correction is a process in which learners read each other’s writings and provide comments on grammar, usage, content, word choice, and the structure of the essay. Hansen and Liu (2002) defined peer response as “the use of information and interaction between each other” (p 1). They found that peer comments could lead to meaningful revision. Revision based on peer comments can be better in vocabulary, organization, and content. Also, Nelson and Murphy (1993) described peer review as a process-based technique in which students evaluate each other’s' working drafts for the purposes of exchanging feedback. Hyland (2003) explained that peer review is a process in which students exchange their papers with one another and provide comments in oral or in written form during class