As part of our writing exploration this year, we began using writing partners. In order for students to receive feedback from someone other than the teachers, students chose a colleague in their class to work with over the next few weeks. The directions were to chose a person they believed would help them become a better writer.
Partners shared their first news article with their peer and talked about the positives and also gave suggestions to make the writing better. On Friday, the partners traveled together to observe and take notes on the happenings at Grizzell Middle School. After observing, the partners shared their findings and discussed what was worthy to explore as a news article. Over the weekend, each student will write their article and share in class with their writing partner on Monday.
One mini-lesson next week will be about giving feedback to peers. We want to be sure that writing partners are not editors! The purpose of the partnership is to give feedback about writer's craft, content, voice, and organization - not grammar or mechanics.
In the two days that the writing partners have worked together, we have heard some amazing conversations! We will keep you posted about the process over the next few weeks.
Partners shared their first news article with their peer and talked about the positives and also gave suggestions to make the writing better. On Friday, the partners traveled together to observe and take notes on the happenings at Grizzell Middle School. After observing, the partners shared their findings and discussed what was worthy to explore as a news article. Over the weekend, each student will write their article and share in class with their writing partner on Monday.
One mini-lesson next week will be about giving feedback to peers. We want to be sure that writing partners are not editors! The purpose of the partnership is to give feedback about writer's craft, content, voice, and organization - not grammar or mechanics.
In the two days that the writing partners have worked together, we have heard some amazing conversations! We will keep you posted about the process over the next few weeks.