In the article
Writing Partnerships, the author mentioned that writing partnerships effect two
key changes in the writers’ workshop. First, it changes the student’s
orientation from focusing on the teacher and waiting for the teacher to get a
chance to get some help to focusing on each other and support one another in
their writing partnership. The figure 1 in the article visually supported this affect and I can see the students will be more
engaged and both learning and teaching could be more effective and active.
Second, it fosters frequent student-to-student conferencing; students’
critiquing writing will be practiced and they could learn how to respond and
communicate to give feedbacks to each other. It's a great way to make sure the
students are all well participating and help students to get more chances to
experience and think actively before they get help from the teacher.
I really like the sample one-week
implementation table that has been given in this article. It gives teachers an
idea of how to plan writing partnerships and the aspects that a teacher should
think of before teaching the lesson. It also provides the purpose behind the
aspects and the details of how would students be involved in the lesson and
what should the teacher do to instruct and engage the students.
Matching writers is also mentioned as an
important part in the article. When I was observing during my placement and
planning my lesson, I have also been noticed and told by my MT that pairing
students is a very important part of the lesson preparation. When pairing,
avoiding social combinations and try to pair by mixed-gender partnerships are
good ideas. The author groups her students according to ability and pairs with
similar ability usually will be paired together. Matching should always be a
rough draft while preparing a lesson and it also should be adjustable. Teacher
should be able to make changes and tweak the pairs based on different
situations such as missing students on the day of the lesson.
The article also provided a menu of
actions during independent writing table that listed the things that what
students can do and what teachers can do during independent writing groups.
However, since I have been observing a kindergarten class for my placement, I
feel it is hard for lower grade levels’ students to apply this approach. My MT
did something similar to this strategy is that she lets students to get into
pairs to talk about their stories that they are going to write about later. But
students will be working individually and I think it is really hard for them to
help each other with their writing since they can’t really spell well. So the
last part that the author has mentioned that partners should get a chance to
assess writing together will be a better approach to higher-grade levels’
writers than lower-grade levels’ writers.
It sounds like your article had many great ideas about using collaborations between students to foster stronger writing skills. I like the idea of having writing be more student-centered as you mentioned because it allows them to learn from each other and use their peers and resources. Not only does this teach writing and reading skills, it also creates a sense of community and teamwork. You mentioned that your MT does a lot of pairing in her classroom. Last semester we spent a lot of time looking at group work in both social studies and science. I think that pairing students together strategically is a valuable tool for teachers and allows the students to be more successful than working alone. At the end of your post you mention that you did not think Kindergarteners could help each other through the writing process and I do not believe that is true. I think that this works similarly to pairing students to work on any assignment because they can help each other with difficult things such a spelling. They may not have perfect spelling, but they can assist each other in invented spelling. I read the Tompkin's chapter Reading and Writing in the Content Areas this week and there are many ideas that can be linked to your post. In this chapter they talk about different reading and writing activities that can be used with content areas such as science and social studies. Tompkins mentions several activities intended for pairs and groups such as listening to the information gathered by a student for his/her research paper to identify any gaps or missing information. They also suggest using groups of similar ability for literacy circles to integrate readings on a particular topic. I think partnerships in the classroom can be a valuable for teachers and students for every subject.
ReplyDeleteYour article sounds interesting! I agree that writing with partners could be very helpful. It helps when students check other student’s work. In my opinion they are from the same generation and may understand each other better and could help re-word things before it reaches the teacher’s hands. When reading Gibbon’s chapter for this week, I realized how MANY different types of writing styles there are. Such as poems, stories, news articles and etc. So many different types of writing styles are written for a purpose and have to be written a specific way. I can see how this would be hard for ELL students. Your idea from your article of writing partnerships, could help ELL students form their ideas and write them the proper and expected way before handing them into the teacher. Students could help the other ELL students and that way ELL students are learning how to write certain writings without getting marked down points. Gibbons and Tompkins had similar approaches in the steps of writing, but I could see how writing partnerships could be worked into those steps to make a better and greater writing sample.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned that you see a lot of children working together in your classroom. I do too! I see the importance of it and I know I love working with others as well. You mentioned at the end of the article that you do not think your kindergartners could use this strategy because they cannot spell well. I think that it would be a great strategy to use because the students can learn how to spell together. One student may think a word looks funny and correct it. That adds a new word to the words the other child now knows how to spell. I think it is important to start this at a young age so they get good at helping each other when they are older, but I can see how it would be difficult for younger students.