Finally!

It only took me twenty minutes to finish compiling the last of the workshop comments! Yet, it took me two months of procrastination to actually sit down and do it! So silly! But, I'm glad I can now check that off my to-do list. I still need to print the data, and then I think triangulate it? Hhhmmm...now what other data was I going to look at? I think -- surveys, postings on Moodle, and the workshop comments. [must review previous blog posts!] More about that later...

On to the Outline of my Deadline Draft...
Initial Question: How Can I help students provide constructive feedback to their writing group?

How I Became Interested in Writing Groups
I can't remember when writing groups weren't on my radar. Now in my twelfth year of teaching, I have always been fussing, fidgeting, finagling, fighting, focused on writing groups. From middle school to post-secondary, writing groups can provide valuable insights to writers -- readers providing immediate commentary, sharing the written word, multiple perspectives. Yet, they can also be frustrating -- lack of comments, time commitment, groupings, front loading of expectations and purpose.

I'm curious when writing groups first came onto the teaching scene. As I've stated before, it has been a long journey for me to finally find the group of people who are my writing group. In high school and junior high, I never experienced writing groups. Many of my papers have teacher writing on them -- often times these comments are nothing more than editing. Revising meant having my mom look at my papers. I never thought to ask a peer.

In college, I had one or two people who read my papers, but again it was never for ideas or content or to truly revise a paper. It was strictly editing. I don't recall visiting the writing lab to get help with my papers, but I did tutor a few students on their writing. Grad school is when I began trusting a few more people to read my writing. Discussing my writing became more comfortable as I began learning more about writing theory. Participating in CSU Writing Project was where I crossed the threshold and decided that I needed and wanted to participate in a functioning writing group with thoughts of publishing on my mind.

Additionally, I focused my research on writing groups when I was in grad school. I conducted mini-lessons on how to set up writing groups with grad students as facilitators. [Honors students proved to be a challenging group when setting up writing groups. Consider their First draft, last draft, mentality. argh! :)]

Up next week...what I did in the classroom surveys, compiling data, moodle, and a student interview.