Students learned a lot about how to edit their paper. I spent a lot of time going through my example paper and editing it based on peer editing questions. I went through my paper paragraph by paragraph asking the students questions from the peer editing list such as “is the central idea or point supported by important and relevant details, examples, and/or anecdotes?” If they told me no, I asked them what they would change and for suggestions. They did a great job giving me suggestions of how to make the paper stronger. They learned how to use the peer editing questions to help their partner improve their paper. They were then given time to do this with their partner and as I walked around I heard a lot of good conversations. They were staying on track and really working to give each other comments and suggestions. I also heard them asking questions when they were unsure of something in their partner’s paper, which I was very impressed by. I did of course have a few students who said they had no comments or questions for their partners so they were struggling with the peer editing process. As I was walking around I noticed two groups who had written this on their peer editing form, so I sat with these groups and asked them more specific questions in order to help them peer edit with their partner.
Beyond my objectives I learned that my student really value the opinions of their peers. They were very open to the suggestions of each other and really wanted to help each other improve their writings. I was worried they would give quick comments and not fully engage in this activity since they have not done anything like this yet this year. I also had to remind them that they do not have to change everything that their peer suggests, but that they should take it into consideration. I learned a lot about how my students work together and that they enjoy learning from each other, which is good to know for planning future lessons. I will try to incorporate partner work and group work whenever possible so that they can learn from each other and enjoy their learning process as well. I think it’s important for literacy learners to engage in peer work and I’m glad that my students realized the importance of this as well.
As I walked around to work with students while they were peer editing I also noticed a couple students who are still struggling with their rough draft writing and needed additional help. After they finished their peer editing they were given time to make any changes their friend suggested and then work on writing their final draft. I spent this time working with struggling students to help them improve their rough drafts. I looked at their five square organizers with them and helped them to organize those in a way that would help them to fix their rough draft. I asked them if their draft was saying what they wanted to say, including all of the details they wanted the reader to know about. With all 3 students who I worked with this led to a conversation about what they wanted to say and what they were missing in their paper. I helped them to form their thoughts and then gave them some of the remaining time to fix their rough draft. I reminded them not to rush into their final draft until they were satisfied with their rough draft. I will be sure to pay extra attention to these students’ papers when I’m grading their final drafts and I will conference with them to continue to help them with their writing process. I will conference with other students too, but I will begin with these to be sure they have their ideas fresh in their mind when we are talking about their papers. We have team time at the end of the day every day where we only go to work with our team time buddies Thursdays and Fridays so Mondays through Wednesdays we do mini grammar lessons or work to catch up on work. This is the time that I will be able to conference with students about their writings while others are catching up on other work or working on their grammar.
If I were to re-teach this lesson I would require the students to write comments and suggestions for their partner and give that piece of paper to their partner to help them partner edit. I did not do this because I wanted them to have a conversation with each other about their papers rather than just writing on each other’s paper, but then I think that some students went to make their changes and forgot some of the things they had talked about with their partner. I think a good way to solve this would be to tell them to discuss their work first and to go through both papers and the comments for each paper and then to take a minute to write a few of the most important comments for each other. I would also ask them to write a question that they have for their partner that they would like to be clarified in their final draft. When I asked the students what they would change if we were to do peer editing again, a couple students said they would like to have written comments and I agree with them, but I also do not want to lose the discussion element of peer editing. I think by having the conversation and the written comments the students would be able to edit their rough draft better before moving on to their final draft.
An alternate read or something that I learned about my students that I did not know going into the lesson was their peer editing skills. I knew that they had not done it yet this year, but I had assumed that they would have past experience with it. It was interesting to listen to their conversations. Some students had great conversations that seemed to be helpful to their partners, but others weren’t sure what to say. The questions I gave them seemed helpful, but sometimes they still weren’t able to answer them or help their partner. I had modeled what to discuss with their partner for peer editing using a paper that I wrote on the same topic, which seemed to really help them understand what I was asked for. However, some seem to lack the oral skills to have this type of conversation with their peers. They were answers the questions yes or no and not continuing with the conversation about what made the answer yes or what to fix in order to change the answer from no to yes in their partner’s paper. That is certainly something I will have to think about before I do peer editing again. My CT and I have talked about doing more Readers’ Theatre to help my students with their oral skills, but I also think they need conversational skills. If anyone has any suggestions for the students who got stuck that would be great!
Here are the peer-editing questions that the students were given to start their discussions of each others papers after reading their paper aloud to their partner:
· Do they have a strong/exciting lead?
· Is the central idea or point of the writing clear?
· Is the central idea or point supported by important and relevant details, examples, and/or anecdotes?
· Does the writing begin with an interesting and engaging lead, continue with a middle that supports and develops the point, and an end that summarizes this point?
· Is the writing interesting with engaging words and different sentence lengths and types?
· What do I as the listener think is good about the writing?
· Do I have any questions and/or suggestions for the writer?
· Do they have a strong ending?
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