3 Steps to a Successful Peer Revision Cycle
I am a firm believer that the way to become a better writer is to a) write and b) talk about writing. In my classroom, I provide opportunities for students to discuss their writing with their peers in every major writing unit. However, talking about writing isn’t always super intuitive for students. To help students participate in helpful peer revision conversations, there are three steps that I follow.
My General Philosophy of Teaching Writing - Writing is Thinking
At some point during my undergrad, a professor shared an idea that completely changed the way I thought about writing: Writing is Thinking.
This statement has stayed with me and is something that I now share with my students as a way to explain why writing can be so difficult. Each year I tell my students that their goal with writing needs to be sharing their thoughts in a way that is easily accessible to their audience. This is why writing skills (grammar, organization, language) matters. If what we write doesn’t make sense to others, then everyone’s time has been wasted.
As educators, we know that throughout the writing process, ideas are still being discovered and students are trying to figure out what they want to focus on. So, it makes sense that the first draft or two is going to be messy and major changes will likely happen.
For many students (high achievers, especially), the peer revision cycle can be frustrating and/or unhelpful. Students struggle to know what to comment on, how to say it, and where to go next. The following process is how I help my students work through a productive peer revision cycle.
Step 1) Two Important Conversations
Before students are paired up and sent off to peer revise, I make sure that we talk about two important concepts: revision vs editing and helpful vs unhelpful comments.
Revision vs Editing
One of the first things I do is explain to students the difference between revision and editing. When they are completing peer revision, their focus is on the ideas within the essay - Do they make sense? How is it organized? Does anything need to be added? Does anything need to be deleted?
The official edit of their essay should be one of the last things that they do. However, they should pay attention to grammar suggestions as they are writing and that will help them edit as they work on their drafts. I encourage them to use online tools when they edit!
I always try to keep this conversation fairly short, as it is easy for students to understand. This bulletin board setup has been helpful to explain the difference between revision and editing.
Helpful vs Unhelpful Comments
The second conversation we have is on what a helpful comment actually is. I typically start by asking students to raise their hand if they’ve ever had an unhelpful peer revision cycle. Then, we’ll discuss what made it unhelpful.
The conversation will eventually lead to the idea of helpful vs unhelpful comments. I explain that whenever they make a comment, there should be some type of action tied to it. Simply saying that something is “good” or “great” isn’t actually helpful at all. What does “good” actually mean? The essay has no errors? It's “good” compared to what the revisor expected?
It’s important to highlight both strengths and weaknesses within a piece of writing, but both types of comments should be specific. I tell students that if they want to highlight a strength, they need to explain why it stands out. By leaving a specific comment, the author can replicate that technique throughout the writing. Specific comments on weaknesses can help the author identify what needs to be changed.
This conversation can be a bit more lengthy, but it helps students become aware of what they can do to be helpful partners. The information that I try to hit can be found on my free Peer Revision Guidelines resource!
Step 2) Peer Revision Assignment Sheet
Students always go into peer revision with some sort of assignment sheet that helps guide their discussion. Sometimes it’s a rubric, other times it’s a document specific to a skill that I want them to work on within that essay. Regardless, I always ensure that students have something to refer to as they read over their peer’s work. For students who are less confident in their peer revision skills, having this document is incredibly helpful.
Some students are prone to edit their partner’s writing instead of focusing on big ideas. Having some sort of assignment sheet helps these students move beyond grammar changes and helps them focus on the content of the writing.
Step 3) Reflection - Informed Revision
For years I struggled with how to ensure that students actually did something with their peer revision conversations. It was easy to see that on the peer revision day students were getting a lot out of the experience. However, after that day, it just.. stopped.
A couple of years back I implemented a final part of the revision cycle: a reflection document. This has been incredibly successful in my classroom and it adds a call to action to the experience. After students complete their conversations, they have to reflect upon the following ideas:
How the revision cycle went
Whether or not the cycle was helpful
How they are going to take the information and apply it to their writing.
Not only does this reflection document help students apply feedback to their writing, but it also helps me assess how beneficial the peer revision cycle was to each student. Their reflection directs any changes that I make on my end.
When it comes to peer revision, my goal is to provide my students with the space to have authentic conversations about writing. Providing more structure into this process has transformed how my students implement the feedback that they receive. I’m confident that I will continue tweaking how peer revision works in my classroom, but it is so exciting to see how the current process allows my students opportunities to grow as writers!
