Workshop 7: Responding to Writing: Peer to Peer

Velvet McReynolds' Lesson

Velvet McReynolds' students apply a mini-lesson on revision.

Graphic organizers and acronyms are often helpful tools for students as they acquire new skills. To introduce peer conferencing, Velvet McReynolds uses the acronym PATS (Praise, Ask a question, Tell what stuck in your mind, Suggest a change for improvement), a response protocol that gives her students an anchor in unfamiliar waters.

To familiarize the class with the PATS technique and with responding to writing in general, Velvet relies on another successful instructional strategy—sharing her own writing. Velvet reads a draft of a personal narrative and then uses PATS to solicit feedback. After modeling the peer conference, Velvet organizes the students into pairs. Then the students share and respond to each other's writing using the PATS technique.