Collaborative Writing

UIWP 2012 DemonstrationKaia Simon Power

Spandel’s Vision of Collaboration

“In the classroom, students writers confer with the teacher or another writing coach and share their writing with partners or in a small group” (99).

An Alternate Vision:

“Writing is more than artifact; it is also an act and activity distributed over time and space and constructed by “simultaneous, layered deployment of multiple semiotics (talk, gesture, artifact use and production, interaction with environmental structure)” (Prior & Hengst 19).”

(Olinger)

Writing Collaboratively: You Can Do It!

Your group has an envelope full of words.

Use those words to write something—together.

Creativity Within Structure: Time and Topics

An Orienting Slide:

Writing Instruction Methods Class, Fall 2000, UWEC

8th Grade, 2002-2008, Northstar Middle School

English 10, English 12, 2008-2010, Memorial High School

Rhetoric 105, UIUC, Fall 2011

Common Core and Collaborative Writing

8th GradeWriting Standard 5

11th/12th Grade Writing Standard 5

Contention One:

Collaborative writing requires metacognitive conversations about writing by asking students to give their own voice to and to listen to others’ ways of approaching the writing process.

Incorporating collaborative writing in the classroom teaches students the process, the activity, the skills, of writing.

From Co-Authoring in the Classroom

Co-authoring externalizes thinking about writing and makes it explicit.

Co-authoring allows students to incorporate into their own repertoires concepts, strategies, and language patterns of their peers.

Co-authoring prompts students to write more recursively.

Co-authoring emphasizes planning. (Dale 14)

“Developing Students As Writers Through Collaboration”

…the ‘Writing Buddies’ strategy was successful in its aim to provide students with an experience of writing that was ‘social, flexible and holistic’. It helped to construct a classroom context in which interaction, discussion and immediate feedback were involved in producing text ... There were also indications of the potential in collaboration for developing students’ metacognitive knowledge of the processes they orchestrate when writing, by externalising their thinking through discussion with their ‘buddy’ (Humphris 212).

My Students Think So, Too: “…we had more of a strategy beforehand to

execute our paper.” -Maddie

“I learned how to be patient during this [process] as well as different tools (such as thesaurus) to help me.” -Emily

“While I edit maybe twice, we edited many more times…Now I see the importance of writing and rewriting many times over…” -Collin

Contention Two:

Collaborative writing teaches students invaluable social skills such as productive conflict resolution, problem solving, and the confidence to argue for their ideas.

“Building Fantasy Worlds Together With Collaborative Writing”

“One argument for the use of collaborative writing in our classroom is that ‘collaboration is an important skill to learn in preparation for working with others in schools and in the workplace’ (Beach et al)” (Rish 28).

From Co-Authoring in the Classroom

Co-authoring promotes positive attitudes toward self, others, and school.

Co-authoring encourages positive cognitive conflict.

(Dale 14)

Again, My Students:

“The next time I work with a group, I hope to be more open about my disagreements…” -Justin

“I would improve on the expression of my own ideas.” -Collin

“I learned how to take criticism without being offended…We negotiated which phrase would work best.” -Nick

Collaborative Writing Models:

Raisin Bread: one writer incorporates parts of the work of several others.

Chunk: writers divide the sections to be written.

Blended: co-authors share the writing task throughout.

(Dale 27)

“Transforming the Group Paper…” (Kittle and Hicks)

The Big Concern: Assessment

Dale’s solution: primary writer, 50/50 format

“As an English teacher…I have less experience with evaluating collaborative writing” (Rish 25).

“For one thing, we need to write more and assess less” (Spandel 69).

Lasting Benefits:

New spaces for student and teacher authority in the classroom.

Students write more recursively.

Writing becomes a social process and social activity, and students learn to be social, collaborative, and cooperative.

Everyone has metacognitive conversations about writing.

Works Cited

Dale, Helen. Co-Authoring in the Classroom: Creating and Environment for Effective Collaboration.

Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1997.

Humphris, Rebecca. “Developing Students as Writers Through Collaboration.” Changing English 17.2

(2010): 201-214.

Kittle, Peter and Troy Hicks. “Transforming the Group Paper with Collaborative Online Writing.”

Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture. 9.3 (2009): 525-538.

Olinger, Andrea R. “Constructing Identities through ‘Discourse’: Stance and Interaction in

Collaborative College Writing.” Linguistics and Education 22.3 (2011): 273-286.

Rish, Ryan and Josh Caton. “Building Fantasy Worlds Together with Collaborative Writing: Creative,

Social, and Pedagogic Challenges.” English Journal 100.5 (2011): 21-28.

Okay. Let’s Talk.

What collaborative writing have you done?

What questions do you have? Can you see yourself modifying an

existing assignment for collaborative writing?

Is this a stance you can see yourself taking?

Is it important that students learn to coauthor?

In your career, what have you had to coauthor?