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Peer Revising Writing with Precision and Self-Reflection

3/2/2015

21 Comments

 
Picture
So I was looking over my students' Human Body Research Papers in preparation for report cards, and I noticed that some students have been forgetting some of the writing requirements that we had for this assignment.  We've been writing these research papers for almost two months now (as we learn about each system of the human body), so it's not a huge surprise that they would start forgetting all the small details.

What I decided to do, though, was to partner my students together and have them peer revise each others' essays.  Of course, when I was a kid, that didn't go very well and that thought immediately crossed my mind.  Some kids just used that time to chat, while others read each others' stories, but said they were great as they were even though there were tons of mistakes.  I wanted to make sure this was different.  I drew on some of the energy from our "Quality Boosters" lesson to try to make sure that my students would take it seriously, while also being confident and helpful.

Here's how I did it:

  1. I told my students what was going on.  I wanted them to know that I was about to partner them up with someone in class in order to help them revise their writing, based on perceived strengths & weaknesses.
  2. I told everyone that they were not to act judgmental (even though they were evaluating another person's work), but rather to find areas of their writing that could be better and politely suggest ways to improve it.  I also asked students not to think that others were full of themselves when they were giving suggestions, because they're just following my orders!
  3. Next, I asked my students to move to three different parts of class.  One area was for students who felt confident that they had nearly all of the components and requirements necessary for these essays and could confidently explain it to another student.  One area was for students who worried that they might be missing some components and would appreciate another person looking over it with them.  And a third area was for students who fell somewhere in between.  I told them that after I have them move to the proper areas, that I might ask them to adjust slightly later in order to help even out the numbers. 
  4. I thought I would have too many over-confident kids, but what I had were a lot of students wanting someone to look over their writing, and a lot of students in the middle!  I asked the students in the middle to reconsider joining one of the other groups if they were comfortable doing that.  Some moved.
  5. Now, I had the same number of students in the "Confident" group and the "Wanting Help" group, so I partnered them up randomly with each other using sticks, matching a confident student with one who wanted help.
  6. Next, I asked the students in the middle to divide based on slightly more confident and slightly less confident, then I partnered them up with each other.

Here's what that all looked like using sticks (the names have been randomized):

Students first attempt to divide up.
After asking the kids in the middle to reconsider.
Partnering up the students.
Partnerships and the middle group.
All of the partnerships.
PictureWe display the Online Stopwatch in our classroom.
After I partnered everyone up, I gave some directions about what I wanted them each to do while revising their partner's writing, and how I wanted them to do it (read each others' writing out loud, etc.).  I set a timer for 20 minutes and said we would switch to the other partner's writing when the timer went off.  I then walked around and checked that students were following directions properly (one group wasn't, so that was important).

I observed each partnership reading and giving suggestions, making corrections, and improving word choice.  Since each partnership was asked to start with the most recently completed essay and then work backwards, my students were working with their best piece of writing (theoretically, since they should be learning from each prior piece), and had plenty of essays they could work with in case they finished early.

PictureTaking a Stretch Break!
Once it was time to switch to the other partner's writing, I shared how I just managed to publish my first book despite the fact that my high school English teacher called me "the worst writer he had ever had!"  It just shows that you can accomplish great things if you work hard and have a great team around you (my editor & publisher for me, and their partner for them).

I told them all to revise confidently with their partner no matter if they feel they are the weaker writer. Everyone has something valuable they can contribute, and no one should feel that they are not a good enough writer to help out one of our peers!

I asked them all to take a stretch break and then get back to work!  It was important that we made sure that each partner got equal time and effort in revising their story!

When the period was over, my students were drained, but their writing was drastically improved!  Although it was now a collaborative effort, it became a new opportunity for my students to learn.  I may struggle to identify exactly what each student did on their own, but that shouldn't be what matters most.  I'd rather know that each of my students are going on to middle school more confident writers because they got the attention they needed and their questions answered.  I can't always provide that for each of my students as often as they need it, but when we work collaboratively, many of my students' needs get met!  The power of collaboration!

The comments section below contain my students' thoughts on the activity. These are the reflection questions they were asked to answer:
  1. How do you think today's peer revision activity went? Explain.
  2. What was most beneficial for you during today's activity?
  3. Would it be a good use of time to do this peer-revision activity again on other human body systems?

I only gave them 5 minutes to answer, because another class needed the computers, but you get the idea from their answers...
21 Comments
Aidan
3/2/2015 03:04:58 am

1. I think it went really well cause me and my partner found lots of things we did wrong and then fixed them.
2. I got to read my story and figure out if some of what I said made sense because when I wrote it it didn't seem to make sense.
3. Yes because you can hear the story you wrote and fix what you did wrong. Also it could help you see what you need to fix next system.

Reply
Charlie C.
3/2/2015 03:05:04 am

1. I think that it went good today. Me and my partner got a lot of work done.
2. It was really beneficial to have another kid read it. I think that it really helped me with my story to have a person read it.
3. I think that it would be because it really helps kids with their writing. With out it it would be hard to have a better human body research paper.

Reply
Ryan S.
3/2/2015 03:05:26 am

1. I think it went pretty well. There was some things that helped and some constructive criticism.
2. Lucas Really helped because I found a different way to write the paper. I think the Nervous System will be the best.
3. Yes especially earlier ones because those were the worst. So it would have been good to get to those in time.

Reply
Luke
3/2/2015 03:05:51 am

1. Explain. It really helped me to realize the mistakes that I made. It helped me make my story better.
2.Realizing how bad my grammar was in the paper. It really showed me how I could make my story better.
3. It would be a GREAT use of time. My story would be terrible if we didn't do this activity. I should reread everything that I type to make sure it makes sense.

Reply
Bela E.
3/2/2015 03:05:52 am

1. I think it went fine, although I had to edit my partner's work a lot. This also helped us when we had to edit mine.
2. We got to edit some things of mine that sounded strange when you read them aloud. I also got to edit my partner's work and apply some things that could be better to my paper.
3. It would be a good use of time to apply this to other papers because it helps boost the quality of the paper by a lot.

Reply
Tucker K.
3/2/2015 03:06:02 am

1. I think it went very well. It was very good I gave some quality boosters to him and he gave some to me. I thought Chris's was better than mine by far.
2. I think it was getting the comments and quality boosters from Chris and they were very nice said and not in a mean way.
3.Yes, I think it would be a good time during homework club or passion time. I think that because they are both subjects you can do at home like passion time.

Reply
Chris
3/2/2015 03:06:13 am

1. I thought it when well that me and my partner did really good. We both did really good quality boosters to each other.
2. Tucker gave me a lot of good suggestions that Ill think about and most likely do. I also felt like he made me feel good about how good I did.
3.YES. I really liked this and I thought that we should definitely do it again. I would say if you could fit it yes.

Reply
Nicholas G
3/2/2015 03:06:21 am

1. I think it went pretty good because I got a lot done and fix a lot to.
2. I think getting to fix my work because I had a lot of mistakes and was glade to fix them.
3. I think this would be a good use of time because we would get another chance to fix it with a partner.



Reply
Kaela
3/2/2015 03:06:44 am

1. I think that today's peer revision went great! I thought that when When Hanna went over sentences over and over she would give me ideas for what to write and it made a lot more sense!
2. I think that the most beneficial thing today for me was when I didn't know that we were supposed to put clinchers at the end of each body paragraph and when Hanna told me I did it and it helped me!
3. Yes it would be absolutely fantastic! It would be nice to have people actually reading my story instead of Mr. Solarz because I know that he's a teacher but kids aren't. They just look for sense and it would be nice!

Reply
Nicole
3/2/2015 03:06:50 am

1. I think that it went very well. I think it went really good because me and my partner got lots of work done and tons of revision done.
2. I think that there were lots of beneficial thing during this activity. But the most beneficial for me was working with a great partner that helped me fix mistakes that I would have not found on my own.
3. Yes. I think it would be a good use of time. I think it would be good because Lots of people got work done and I think that we worked with people that we got along with. I also think it is good because people found mistakes that needed to be fixed.

Reply
Lucas V.
3/2/2015 03:07:26 am

1. I think it went pretty good, although I think we could have given a little more advice to one another. It would have been a better thing to do for next time.
2. Ryan told me that I really didn't have really anything big to work on. He did help me with some spelling mistakes and things like that though.
3. Yes, because it is very important to go over these kinds of things. I feel like it was very important to have this period today.

Reply
Mikey
3/2/2015 03:07:40 am

1. I think it went grate because I got a lot of help from Aidan and added some stuff in.
2. The most beneficial was when he told me what to add in and where.
3. Yes so you are confident about what you are writing so when the would sees it you are not remembered badly.

Reply
Mikey
3/19/2015 02:50:16 pm

I ment world not would

Reply
Kendall
3/2/2015 03:08:05 am

1. I think that our peer revision activity worked well. I thought that it was helpful to partner up someone that was more confident with someone that wasn't very confident in their paper. I found a lot of small mistakes when Charlie was reading my story, so we helped each other a lot.
2. It was most helpful to hear how my story sounded out loud, because I was able to find places where I could make it sound better. It was also helpful to compare my story to my partner's and see what I was missing in my paper.
3. It would be because I found some mistakes in my most recent system, so it would be really helpful in the older systems.

Reply
Hasanain
3/2/2015 03:17:25 am

1. I think it went good because it made our writing better and fixed silly mistakes.
2. I got to fix most of my silly mistakes.
3. I do think it is a good idea that we do this because it helps people make there story better and fix silly mistakes.
Delete

Reply
Emily
3/2/2015 03:18:27 am

1. I think it went very well! I loved how I got the feedback I needed from Hasanain. When he asked me nicely to change something I knew it would be better fit.
2. I think the feedback we got today was most beneficial because once he explained to me how it would fit into the sentence I really got it and why he wanted to change it.
3. I think it would because I really liked this activity and it got me to think about different ways of sentencing things and putting things in a different ways. I would like to do this again.

Reply
Demetri
3/2/2015 03:19:50 am

1. I think it went good because we got a lot of the work done but not the hole research paper. Also my partner did very well finding most of the mistakes, we read the paper out loud to listen for the mistakes and that went well.
2. I was great full for the time because I did not want it for homework.
3. This was definitely a great use of time.

Reply
Alison
3/2/2015 03:26:04 am

1. I think today's activity went very well because Nicky showed me the right things to type in my paper. I think it also went well because we got along well and cooperated, also he helped me get better at my typing the next time we start it.
2. The most important activity was when Nicky corrected me on almost 1/3 of my piece, that helped me with when I was typing my words next time I will be more careful when I'm typing.
3. Yes, I would want to do this again because it helped me with my HBRP.

Reply
Stacy
3/2/2015 03:26:35 am

1. I think that today's peer revision went really well. Me and Nicole got a lot done and even suggested a few things for each others HBRP's. We both needed some lead offs and follow ups so we gave each other some ideas that could fit well for our stories. After today's peer revision, Our stories looked a lot more put together than before.
2. The most beneficial thing for today's activity fixing my digestion system. I was missing a few things and this time was super valuable for me because I was able to get done what I needed to. Also, I was super happy to know that I was caught up so this time was definately beneficial.
3. I think that this would be a very good use of our time to make our papers better and to get caught up with things. This time should totally be used again if needed so.

Reply
Hanna H.
3/2/2015 11:48:48 am

1. I think that it went really well because my partner gave me a lot of info and great advice. Kaela, my partner, would listen to me and in return, I would listen to her. I had a really fun and GREAT time

2. I think the thing that was most beneficial was that Kaela helped me a lot with my clincher. Kaela just mentioned that she put clincher too! So I think that we helped each other with our clincher but we didn't know how to do our own!

3. It think that it it would be good. I think that because it was great fun and great advice!

Reply
Maria link
1/6/2021 04:11:22 am

Grateful ffor sharing this

Reply



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