[Teacher-talkhswriters] Developing Writers- Workshop 6
It can be difficult to help ABLE students learn how to peer review other ABLE
students’ writings. Attendance in our classes is often too inconsistent to
build the skills and to build the trust peer reviewing requires. We try hard
not to discourage our students, and we know adult students can be very
sensitive to comments from teachers and comments from other students.
I have good luck using sample essays in GED writing books to assist students
with the peer review process. The essays come with specific questions to help
the students analyze parts of the essay, and there are discussion prompts and
writing prompts to extend the activities. Sometimes the discussion questions
ask students to rate the essay. It is easier for students to respond to an
essay when they know the writer is not in the class.
Contemporary’s GED Essay and Steck Vaughn’s GED essay both have sample essays
for students to evaluate. Contemporary’s Real Writing is out of print, but it
is a good source of writing samples for students to review. Students do gain
confidence and skills in reviewing writing from these exercises.
Using these samples from books is not the same as peer review in a writing
workshop setting, but I think it helps students understand how to review
writing and hopefully how to review and then revise their own writing.
Students learn to compare writing and better understand the strengths and
weaknesses in two different samples. Students better understand the criteria
used to review writing and see that a teacher’s or reviewer’s comments are not
random or personal. These activities also help students review the work in
their own portfolios. They can compare samples of their own writing, and they
can use the checklists and criteria from the text book examples to evaluate
their growth as writers.
Kathy Petrek
Hamilton City ABLE
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Received on Thu Feb 24 2011 - 16:06:06 EST
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