The next step in the writing process is the peer edit. I have students submit their second draft in a typed copy, doubled spaced and then reditribute those essays to other small groups in the class. This serves a double pupose: the students have the benefit of knowing their mistakes before they have to submit it for marking and by encorporating those corrections their mark will improve; and secondly, they gain the additional benefit of improving their own critical editing skills that they can apply to their own written work in the future. It is a great review of the writing process.
Small group work also helps to develop a sense of community and helpfulness to other students that brings about a greater sense of ownship of the learning process and resposibility for group outcomes. It gives students an opportunity to read what others in their class are writing and provides a comparison with their own work that can motivate them to try harder themselves. It also saves me a lot of headaches in that my marking load is also reduced. What is good for others is not wrong because it is also good for oneself. A peer edit is truly a win/win for all of us.
Incredibly the first unit of this term is almost at an end. Tomorrow I am myself assessed, and on Thursday there will be the first unit test on this material. Media Presentations will be prepared Friday and over the weekend (while I am off in Bali on the company ticket) and be presented to the class on Monday and Tuesday. It is a breathless, mad dash to December: an intoxicating, adrenaline rush of content delivery, assessment and deadlines, to which I am unfortunately, irrevocably addicted.
Home Thoughts From Abroad 
August 7, 2010 at 5:22 pm
I am an English Teacher/Program Coordinator at a bilingual school in Honduras, so I always enjoy reading about what you’re doing with your students on the other side of the world. Just a question about the small group peer-edits. Do you have all the members of the group editing 1 other person’s work? Talk about their comments, etc? Or everyone is just editing someone else’s? I often have them do their peer-edits in pairs, and have the writer participate with the editor but I am always looking for new ideas. Would love to know how your small group peer-edits work!
August 9, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Yes I do pair-share as well, collecting one group’s work and trading it for work in another group. I do a couple of little filips that work for me on an additional level. If the student does not bring his/her work in, they obviously don’t get the benefit of an edit, but they don’t get to edit, either. A number of students at that point ask to leave to dash off a copy so they can take part as I do not tell them until that day that this is what they are doing. They are under the expectation that I will be collecting the work that day. It teaches them something about the rewards of responsibility.
Then I tell them to incorporate the edits at home and that tomorrow we will take some time to do this again. When I collect the work the second day I look to see if they have done that. If yesterday’s edits are still there and they haven’t folded them in, they don’t get the advantage of a second peer edit, they must do a self-edit instead. It’s tough love, but it works and it rewards the diligent, which is always a good thing.
Thank you so much for your inquiry. Do you have a blog yourself that I could follow?
August 11, 2010 at 8:21 pm
Great, thanks for the ideas!! I love the ones that emphasize student responsibility!! Will definitely try those out this year! We do have a blog (daveandesther.blogspot.com) but it has sadly fallen by the wayside over the past very busy year! We now just send out quarterly email updates, but I would be happy to send them to you if you’re interested. Just send me an email at daveandesther@hotmail.com and I’ll send you our next one!
Nice to “meet” you!