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Writing Research Project in Clark County, NV

Submitted by Peter Brunn on Tue, 02/14/2012 - 9:57pm
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Last night we had our second meeting with a cohort of teachers who are engaged in a research project with our Being a Writer program in Clark County, NV (Las Vegas). The focus of this particular meeting was on how we can better support peer partnerships in our writing instruction. I was impressed with the work and thinking that went on, so I thought it might be helpful to share what we did here.

We opened the session by examining the speaking and listening sections of the Core Common Standards. We used this as a frame for our session. We discussed how we want to move beyond doing simply what the standards say just to comply with them. Instead we want to ask, “Why is doing this an important thing for my students' development?” “How will meeting this standard help my students as thinkers and writers?”

We then took a look at some classroom video. The video captured a grade 4–5 combination class working on the grade 5 nonfiction unit in Being a Writer. The video shows the class at three key points in the six-week unit. The first part shows students generating ideas for writing with a partner. The second shows the partners discussing how to share their work fairly while they research their topics. Finally, the third part shows partners in groups of four getting peer feedback on early drafts of their writing.

The teachers noticed a few key things about peer partnerships:

  • Student are most engaged with partner talk when they are discussing topics they care about. They stay on topic, they look at their partner, and they show they care about each other when the topic is important to them.

  • Students will use discussion prompts like “I agree with __________ because…" or "I disagree with __________ because…" if we are consistent in supporting the use of them by checking their use each day.

  • Clear and concise directions are critical for students to work together successfully.

  • Setting up partner discussions at the beginning of the lesson and then debriefing it at the end are essential to student success.

After this discussion we broke up into grade-level groups and each team looked at a Being a Writer lesson in depth. Teachers pored over the lesson, paying particular attention to the supports in the lesson for peer partnerships.
 
Here are the questions that the teachers used to guide their thinking. I thought they were really helpful to guide our planning.
 

Finally, Lindee Witt, a writing coach and teacher at Grey Elementary School, shared a chart her class developed when they struggled with peer partnerships. They came up with some really interesting ways to help themselves when they struggle.

 

We concluded the session by reflecting back over the speaking and listening standards to see how our thinking has changed, shifted, or been enhanced because of our work together.

I was impressed by the depth of thinking of the group. I look forward to sharing what we are learning as teachers of writing.

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