On Response Groups

As a writer I need peer review, so as a teacher I want to provide the opportunity for students to share writing in groups. But as Paton points out, it’s not magic that just happens. I think about my seventh graders from years back – for them I created “job” cards to guide their discussion as we learned how to talk about writing (somewhat like Paton’s response sheets). One student provided a summary of the paper, one gave praise, another asked questions, and another thought of suggestions, etc. The jobs changed and rotated, and eventually were set aside as students developed a sense of their group and of how to discuss writing.

One common element in my own response groups and my students’ was a consistent make-up of group members. I still remember sitting in a circle with my Nebraska Writing Project group, sharing our writing, mostly just having someone hear us read our work out loud. Then we asked questions, gathered ideas, so by that night I was ready to revise or pursue a different piece that emerged from our discussion. So, how do we create this in a college class, especially when groups don’t meet on a daily basis or regularly enough to build relationships as easily?

One thing I’ve tried only once and want to do again, is having students send their papers electronically from time to time, and then be able to come together and discuss after they’ve had a chance to read and think through the papers. I once participated in an online response group, which actually worked. We emailed our papers to one another, then emailed comments, and periodically met to discuss in a virtual chat room. I don’t know that the chat room took us deeper into our papers, but it did foster the sense of community and led to discussions about the course, the readings, our teaching, etc.

Paton mentions the role of the teacher and that she observed her groups, trying to be unobtrusive. I also like to roam to different groups, taking notes, seeing what they discuss, what issues to address in future lessons, etc. I don’t like being out of this part of the class, even though I also question if my presence negatively affects the group. I oscillate on this issue, but the bottom line is that I feel more connected to what is happening if I sit in on groups than if I don’t.

From the articles in Roen, varying the approaches is good as is making the group’s goals clear. We can’t assume that groups will automatically fall into great writing discussions; regardless the age of the writer, there needs to be guidelines and these can change depending on the make-up of the group, the type of writing, and goals of the writing. Finally, modeling is important for students to observe or practice and debrief how a writing group works and why a writing group helps.