Peer Editing Barry Gilmore February 11, 2009

Peer-editing resulted in both higher scores on content and grammar usage (Ford 1973). Structured peer editing resulted in much higher writing proficiency in low-achieving 10 th graders (Karegianes 1980). Peer-editing resulted in second drafts with more words and longer sentences; teacher-edited papers contained more deletions (Lagmay 2004). Peer revision training improved students’ ability to critique others’ writing (McGroarty and Zhu 2002). Teacher editing while the writer served as a peer editor resulted in greater self-editing acquisition (Jodlowski 2000).

“I never liked peer editing. I always felt like the person editing my paper couldn’t really help me because they didn’t know anything I didn’t already know.” -12 th grade student “The best students like peer editing the least. They feel like they’re getting ripped off. I tell them that’s too bad; it’s good for everyone else.” -English Teacher

Peer Editing: The Limitations (most cited by teachers—Graner 1987) Unskilled commenting Non-critical commenting Loss of classroom control Lack of student preparation Loss of instructional time Who benefits?Is it worth it?

(Instructional time) Yes English Social Studies Arts No Math Science Most AP courses

Peer Learning EditingCollaborationGroup work CoachingReviewDiscussion

Peer LearningPeer Learning (Content Areas) Chemistry Class: 1. Some students came early and learned the lab so they could help the others the next day (space issue) 2. Students worked with partners to hypothesize and brainstorm procedures 3. First pair finished with 1 st procedure taught the second procedure to all others 4. Partners checked written results against one another

AP Statistics Class: 1. Students work with partners to develop topics for an essay 2. Students complete first draft and receive teacher feedback 3. Students complete second draft and present to peers 4. Peers ask questions and make suggestions 5. Students complete final draft Peer Learning (Content Areas)

Peer Learning EditingCollaborationGroup work CoachingReviewDiscussion

Is it worth it? (Instructional time) StyleInformation Long termShort term Good practice is the point Correct answers are the point Focus Repetition H.O.C.

Peer Editing: The Limitations (most cited by teachers—Graner 1987) Unskilled commenting Non-critical commenting Who benefits?

Author?Editors?Teachers? Long termShort term? Self-editingCorrection Time (?) New IdeasExpansion Drafts Paper Load Student SkillSocial Skill

Peer Editing Classic Model Students write Peers edit Students rewrite Alternate Model Brainstorming Topic development Thesis review Group editing Peer editing Guided editing (checklists, models) Teacher follow-up Reward / Punishment Positive / Negative Ratios Low / high stakes Jigsaw editing

1.Groups – choose a topic Safe and unsafe places Reactions of townspeople Characters who change their minds Important words Imitation 2. List of quotations 3. The Electronic Conversation

Allison: but, the time was not come yet; and every time that wind blew over france shook the rags of the scarecrows in vein, for the birds fine of song and feather, took no worning. book 1, ch 5 Jenny: ok…what does that mean? Caitlin: the scarecrows are the aristocracy Lucy: once again the birds are dirty Caitlin: i think Jenny: wait a seec Lucy: no,no,the wind is the scary mean people and the scarccrow are the porr people fighting the revolution Allison: yeah lucy that’s what I was sayin Lucy: and rthe poor are scarred away until the revolution comes Jenny: I think that there were so many times the thwe revolution could have occurred that (wind in vien) that when it actually cam the rich had no idea it was coming

1.Groups – choose a topic 2. List of quotations/scenes 3. The Electronic Conversation 4. My response 5. Group Summary

Although the barbaric human is often mentioned, we feel that the most important thematic issue within animal imagery is how the poor people are referred to as dogs and pigs. But social class differences are also illustrated symbolically by other images, such as the description of the ragged scarecrows (symbolizing the poor), while birds symbolize the upper class.

1.Groups – choose a topic 2. List of quotations 3. The Electronic Conversation 4. My response 5. Group Summary 6. Formal Writing (Individual)

In addition to the obvious use of imagery as a way of categorizing social groups, Dickens uses such symbolic language to foreshadow the coming revolution. In portraying the broken wine cask early in the book, he offers a general statement of “warning” for the reader that is wholly missed by the aristocracy, who, like “birds fine of song and feather,” go about their usual business heedless of the coming turmoil.

Do students coach and lead? Is process rewarded? Is ownership encouraged? Are intrinsic rewards emphasized? Classroom Culture Are students involved in decision making? Is authentic collaboration encouraged? Is there an audience for student work?

Effective peer groups: assigning roles Leader Recorder Researcher Responder Presenter Artist Grammar Syntax Punctuation Verbs Citations Thesis Rwandan govt. U.S. French U.N. Admin. U.N. Forces RPF Calculations Process Clarity Graphs Format

Practical Considerations Pairing Students Conferencing Publication / Audience Color-Coding/ Track Changes Technology: Using a wiki

Practical Considerations Pairing Students Conferencing Publication / Audience Color-Coding/ Track Changes Technology: Using a wiki Teacher modeling

Names are a very important part of one’s personality. The name Sarah, for instance, comes from the Bible. This shows that names have a long tradition for many people. Tradition helps to determine the adult one becomes. Peer Editing: Sample Assignment

Dear Joel, Did you know that my name comes from the Bible? Actually, I’m not sure who Sarah was, but my mom told me she learned about my name in Sunday School when she was a kid. Sarah

Dear Sarah, That’s cool. Joel is a religious name, too. It means God. So I’m like God, only I don’t really think that so don’t think I’m full of myself please. You should find out more about your name. Let me know if you do. Your friend (but not God), Joel

Hey Joel, I don’t think your God either. Sarah P.S. Hey I’m just kidding and I think Joel is a cool name.

Sarah. HA HA HA. I just asked Ms. R about you’re name and she says Sarah was Abraham’s wife and she had a baby when she was 90!!! I don’t know who Abraham was, though, but he’s in the bible too. You should write about that. Joel

That’s a good idea but I don’t want to have a baby when I’m 90 because I couldn’t pick it up or something. Babys are gross anyway. Do you want babies someday? Sarah

Dear Sarah, No way. Joel

The correct way to pronounce my name is “a’- kee-eh”. Each sylable pronounced distinctly and sharply without blending into the next sylable. Unfortunately, when people try to pronounce it “in the right way,” they actually mispronounce it by creating a whole different word, sound, and meaning: a’-ki-ya. Which means an “empty house” in the Japanese language. In my opinion, being “a key” is better than being an “empty house,” because akie is from the word aki. Which in Japanese language means autumn the best season of the year! Even though the pronunciation of autumn aki is different from the English word “a key” I am willing to be “a key”. I could lock door of an empty house. -Akie Maekawa

In regards to the object I would bring to college with me, I have chosen the cork bulletin board that hangs on the wall above my bed. This object may seem to be just a bunch of simple words and pieces of paper to the casual observer, but due to a large number of years during which the bulletin board has been collecting scraps and mementos of my life, it has become a meaningful repository of memories that I treasure. There are a pictures, concert tickets, and even immature love letters, all of which are like a puzzle that together forms the pieces of my life. Knowing its with me, college will be easier to take and I won’t feel homesick, but instead I will look forward to the new tacks, nametags and bumper-stickers I can fill it with depending on my future.

Re-examining vision: topic, approach, voice, point of view, direction Revisiting organization: structure, order, argument Editing for style: reconsidering syntax, imagery, clarity Proofreading: grammar The Revision Cone

It was the playbill that won the first tack in the cork board; “The Phantom of the Opera” inspired me not only to seek out the ones refused compassion from the world, but also to learn the ways of the theatre, to desire to create the next Don Juan who would bring the ghosts of people’s hearts up from the basements to the center stage. Then, rolling across the board, a time-stream of pictures: friends, family, boys, better times. The one my eyes always find amidst the multitude is of a young girl and a handsome boy, his arms wrapped around her with a smile and glowing face, the same tack pinning down a ticket to a concert, a first date, a first kiss.

The simple words, the simple pieces of paper, the simple incidents that make a person; how can someone put into words the colorfulness of the mind and soul without showing the cork board, filled with not only thousands of tacks, but empty holes, from papers taken out and never replaced? Try reading between the lines of immature love letters, asking what happened at the birthday parties, concerts and movies after reading the invitations and tickets, studying the expressions of faces in the dozens of pictures, attending the various conventions commemorated by nametags, laughing at all the cheap bumper-stickers with mind-provoking sayings, or crying on the drawings from appreciative camp children. Here before me, staring me in the face at every break and eve, is all the inspiration I need to fit together the puzzle of my life: just a smaller piece of the puzzle I will find myself connected to when my new cork-board is being filled on the first day of college.

Barry Gilmore