Drafting for Students and Peers

We have all seen students who print out two copies of their paper, mark one up, and turn in their “draft and final copy” for a grade. To understand more about drafting at work in schools, I asked teachers and students from Hyde Park Middle School some basic questions about drafting and revision. 65% of the students admitted that when they weren't required to turn in a draft with their final essay, they didn't do one. Many of the teachers who responded said that's why they assign them. As I'll discuss later, there are many different ways that writers draft, and it's likely that those students do draft to a certain extent, but getting them to consciously develop and use good drafting and revision strategies is a battle all its own. 

Peer review days for me as a student were always a toss-up, because I’d either get put with someone who would tear my paper to shreds (very rare) or barely read through it and say, “that's good” and then be silent for the rest of the time. One particular time, I remember reading my partner's paper and pointing out the usual convention mistakes and inconsistencies. I remember thinking the content was weak, but not knowing how to fix it or tell my partner that there were issues. I'm pretty sure she read mine, but that's about it. As I commented on the mistakes I'd found, that she brushed it me off and said something like, “That’s okay, my mom is a teacher and she types all my papers for me, so she’ll fix everything.” Not only did that shut down any attempts I might have made at further revision, it also made me realize that she really didn't care or understand peer review.

When it comes to peer review, it’s important for the students to take part in the process and know how they're expected to contribute. This requires a lot of prep work for us teachers, but since students benefit not only from having their work reviewed, but also reviewing others' work, it's definitely worth the hassle. Like in my peer review experience, it's not always pretty, and it makes students worry about being embarrassed or dealing with rude comments. Instead, students should be recognizing that everyone could use help improving their papers and that mistakes are fixable. 

Responses from Hyde Park MS Students

 To prepare for peer review sessions of class, it's important to model the revision process for your students early and consistently. Using specific revision strategies that your students can add to their toolbox will help them be productive during peer review. One way to do this is to share some of your own work for revision in class to model strategies and dispel some of the awkwardness around sharing what you've written. This teacher-as-writer mentality opens up your classroom to students who don't initially consider themselves writers. "When we write with our students, we are not only reminded of this process that all writers must go through, but we are also reminded of the vulnerability of writing and sharing our writing with others." (Pytash et. all)
 Sharing your writing as part of mini-lessons that teach review strategies will help your students understand that there’s more to revision than “adding periods.” It often takes a lot of time, planning, and practice before students are ready to review on their own, but giving them multiple tools to use will help both them and you in the long run. Some revision strategies include things like: creating “revision guides” to help your students know what to look for, making time for reflection, coding the text, creating an action plan for revision, and asking probing questions (Saddler, Vopat, Harper).
Often for these kinds of changes to take place, we need to create a time and space for revision in our classrooms. Whether it's doing in-class peer review or walking students through their writing bit by bit, revision takes time that students might not normally give themselves.

Oakland University

In order for peer review to be truly successful for your students, you must foster a classroom community that allows for conversation as part of the peer review process. When students can communicate effectively, it makes the critique easier to bear and less awkward. As frustrating as it may be, students often apply feedback better when it comes from a peer instead of you, the teacher. Students may be more motivated to write and revise when they are presented with a real audience, their classmates (and you, of course). Eventually your students can make it into the realm of peer conferencing as Keri Franklin describes in her article, "Thank you for sharing: Developing students' social skills to improve peer writing conferences" in which she makes a distinction between review, editing, and conferencing. These tools will help you and your students get there. 
In addition to using peer review to help students' papers to progress and teach them good revision strategies, teachers also need to make sure that students understand the usefulness of editing tools like Grammarly, SpellCheck, and more personal tools. Many students will already be familiar with editing platforms and use them frequently, but it's important to acknowledge that these tools only make surface level changes in a student's writing. In order to progress through the drafting process, students need to do other kinds of revision as well. 

Revision Guides, Checklists, and Tools:"Interior Design: Revision as Focus" by Shelley Smede in English Journal;  "The Writer's Toolbox: Five Tools For Active Revision Instruction" by Laura Harper in Language Arts Vol. 74; "'But teacher, I added a period!' Middle Schoolers Learn to Revise" by Bruce Saddler in Voices from the Middle Vol. 11; "Thank You for Sharing:" by Keri Franklin in English Journal; "Which Helps Writers More, Receiving Peer Feedback or Giving It?" by Chanski and Ellis in English Journal;
"Guide on the Side: Collaboratively Writing and Revising with Students" by Pytash, Testa, Geise, and Kovalchick in Voices from the Middle.