McLean- Week 13 Writing Video

Video: Conversations Among Writing Peers

This video discussed how teachers allow their students to confer more independently by using a response strategy.  This strategy is called Receiving the Piece, where students are grouped in pairs, listen to each others’ writing, summarize what they’ve learned and comment on the writing.  It is important that the students get their work valued by their peers, not only the teacher’s perspective.

In the video, it was stated that it is important for teachers to create an environment for their students, as writers.  They need to make sure that students are listening to each other intently because every person's voice and writing matters.  In fact, one of the rules of Receiving the Piece is to listen with your whole heart and soul.  This also allows students to recall the information by telling it back to the writer.  The video stated that this step is important and most children actually light up after they hear their story read back to them.  They have learned that their words matter.  This is one method of creating a writing conversation among students/peers.