Peer review activities and writing fluency in secondary students

Education

Cooperative Learning - for Secondary Education

When teaching in a secondary classroom I see students who are all at various reading and writing levels. There appears to be a wide range of varying abilities with my students in regards to their writing skills. Writing skills help a student attain self-determination, clarity, fluency and creativity in writing. If students master these skills, they will be able to write so that not only they can read what they have written, but other people can read and understand it too. Some students have outstanding writing skills while others struggle to get anything down on paper. As a result of the things that I have seen I am interested in seeing the effects of peer review activities on the writing skills of those students who are struggling particularly in the area of fluency. Fluency skills for writing include:

be familiar with the linear sequence of sounds mastering writing movements and letter shapes distinguishing the chunking of words identify the need for space between words

Method

I will be working with a group of six students who are having difficulties with their writing fluency. Each day I will work with the group of students using activities that is designed to improve writing fluency. By working in groups to evaluate one another's writing, students will learn to recognize mistakes on their own. By me giving them feedback, I can help them see difficult errors such as language usage and grammar errors that other students might not see. During these sessions data will be collected by way of note taking and observations. Student artifacts will also be collected. Although the focus here will be on the small group activities, the students will also be participating in class writing assignments as well.

Data Collection

Observation/field notes: I will take notes daily while completing fluency improvement activities.

Students' artifacts: I will collect samples of the students writing.

Daily reflection on lessons and responses from students.

Discussions with peers about daily activities and outcomes.

Calendar

July

Pre-assessment of students' writing fluency.

Data collection begins by way of daily peer review activities.

Writers Workshop.

Look for patterns in data.

August

Data collection continues.

Assessment

Begin data analysis.

September

Complete data analysis.

Prepare a paper for presentation

Continue with activities

Data Analysis

Qualitative analysis will be used to look at the data collected.

Get to know the data- Read and re-read the notes.

Focus the analysis -- explore the patterns and connections that can be made from the notes and observations.

Categorize the information -- Identify themes or patterns and organize them into coherent categories.

Identify patterns and connections within and between categories.

Interpret data -- use themes and connections to explain the findings.