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.
These discussions need to be meaningful and have purpose to create a higher chance of student engagement and participation. The article states, “cooperative learning is a natural way to provide opportunities across the curriculum” (Wright, 2016, p. 28-29). The smaller the group, the more likely the ELL student is to add to the conversation, as native English speakers typically dominant whole group discussions. It is important that every student in the small group contributes so the ELL student can hear and practice their own oral language. There are many activities that could be used to ensure this engagement, such as think-pair-share, that requires students to work together and actually get information from each other. Activities that cannot be completed alone and require the thinking of another student would be best for this
Both of the articles “Dancing with Professors” by Patricia Limerick and “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott resolve the issues faced by college students when writing papers. The first article, “Dancing with Professors,” explains why college professors expect more elaborate papers even though they assign dull and un-motivational reading to their students. On the other end of the writing spectrum, “Shitty First Drafts” explains how valuable the first draft is to students, and why students should not feel weary about writing them.
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
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
Hyland, Ken. “Disciplinary Discourses: Social Interactions in Academic Writing.” Writing about Writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. Print.
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While the difficulties in teaching students not only to be good writers, but also to enjoy writing are easy to complain about, they are not immediately changeable. Consequently, as a teacher of young writers, one must find a way to make the system work. Ross Borden found a way with me, and I feel I have found a way with many of my students, but not all of them. So I continue to read, and I continue to write, and I continue to teach, though I also continue to struggle with the many problems surrounding the field.
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Gradually through the whole semester, Peer Review sessions became a great and positive influence on my writing. It is very helpful to have two people with different views on writing read and critique my paper, and give me feedback on what they think I should improve or correct. We didn’t change peer review groups and I was very delighted because I have gotten a chance to see my group members grow as a writer. When it’s time to revise my paper before I turn it in for a grade, it is very helpful to have some options on what to exactly revise in my paper. For example, in my comparative analysis essay, both of my peer reviewers wrote that my introduction was not effective and i...
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
During the course of this semester; the variety of writing styles and essays assigned to me in my communication skills class encouraged the development of my writing skills, as well as provided me with more self-assurance in my abilities. My writing, research, and presentation abilities enhanced through practice, determination, and the understanding I gained during this course. With every single writing assignment, I learned new innovative approaches and skills, which enhanced my abilities to improve my thoughts logically, enabling me to write more clearly, and to organize my papers more effectively. At the beginning of this semester; despite the fact that I already knew the terminology MAP: message, audience, purpose; I never really understood the significance of MAP. For this reason, my writing lacked clarity, organization, and my writings appeared less focused on the topics. As a result my research papers and essays did not flow as smoothly from one passage to the next. Furthermore, I was unaccustomed with the precise procedures used when writing an essay. For instance, my previous classes before college, although requiring a reference page, did not require me to include proper citations in my writings. After evaluating the quality of my writing toward the end of the semester, I recognized vast improvements in several areas of my writing. By concentrating on the beginning stages of my writings, I could distinguish ahead of time my audience and my message. As a result, my essays are clear, and I remain on topic. In addition to that using transition phrases efficiently also helps my writing to flow smoothly. The proper use of transitions makes my writings easy to follow from one topic to the next. I also learned that pre-writing...
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Building self-esteem, enhancing student satisfaction with the learning experience, and promoting a positive attitude toward the subject matter are all benefits of collaborative learning. A higher degree of accomplishment takes place as a group because you essentially are a team. An example of this is a sports team. In a collaborative situation it takes every member to do his or her part in order for a situation to have a greater resolution; as where a sports team needs everybody’s individual talent to win a game. In retrospect, as a group; the contributions of our own talents can make the difference between a “win or Lose situation” it gives you a sense of competition, and knowing that you can win as a group; self esteem in one’s self is accentuated. Johnson and Johnson (1989), Slavin (1967). Another benefit to collaborative learning is based on the members of your group. Every individual in the group demonstrates their own input based on where they were born, what nationality they are so on and so on. The benefit of this is that you get a different perspective on things rather than always knowing what you know. You can take information from other cultures and add or apply it to what you already know.
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