Writing Partner Practice

Goodrich fifth graders have been working long and hard on their informational writing pieces.  Through this unit, the students chose an expert topic to research, drafted and edited an informational article, and added numerous text features to enhance their writing.  This process would have been a huge undertaking for the students alone, but luckily they were able to rely on the help of their writing partners.

Each fifth grader has worked with a writing partner during the construction of their informational article.  These partners shared similar goals for writing: elaboration, conclusions, grammar, etc.  As we continued to work on our pieces students were able to meet with one another each day to check in on their writing.  Some days students would focus on single paragraphs, while others they would help one another with formatting the piece overall.  Having a consistent peer reviewer helped students see how a writing piece can change and grow as feedback is applied.

Most recently, writing partners helped one another make final edits to their pieces.  In order to accomplish this, writing partners sat facing one another so they couldn't look at one another's screens.  They then read aloud their partner's article.  This allowed writers to hear their writing without their own brains filling in any simple errors or blanks.  The fifth graders were able to catch a lot of mistakes this way, both in their peer's writing and in their own.

Offering criticism and advice can be a difficult task.  So often students are afraid of hurting one another's feelings, but these fifth graders have really taken to the peer editing process.  While it was awkward at first, now listening in on their conversations you can hear so much thoughtful feedback!  It has been exciting to see their articles improve, and we look forward to working with our writing partners on future pieces as well.