E U R O P E A N
L E A G U E
F O R
M I D D L E
feedback, which is what all writers want and
need to improve. Then the class watches six
minutes of video that has become akin to the
Gospel in my classroom: "Critique and
Feedback, The Story of Austin's Butterfly."
Something about watching adorable second
graders give quality feedback and
commentary on student work gets middle and
high schoolers to buy into the value of this
critique method. It doesn't hurt that Austin's
final draft turns out so remarkable!
Ultimately, students see the value of quality
feedback and are ready to critique knowing
that the end goal is to create excellent,
publishable writing. Student participation in
the workshop increases not only because of
authentic interest in the project, but also
because they are familiar with the oral
language and presentation strands of the
Common Core standards and know that
everything we do in class addresses these.
Whole-class peer critique goes from being a
dreaded and uncomfortable idea to a
purposeful and valued part of the process.
L E V E L
E D U C A T I O N
second round should be familiar to all English
and humanities teachers: peer editing and
revision. Students are given partners and they
must closely check their peer's writing with a
checklist and give detailed feedback. The last
round of group editing is the gallery walk.
Students print out their writing and post it on
the wall. The class is instructed to pick a story
to scan for final edits and quick fixes, then
they rotate when cued. During the entire
filtering process, I make sure to check in with
each student individually or through
commenting or suggesting changes on their
shared Google doc. By the end of it all,
students are usually impressed with how
much their writing has improved through
revision and editing—and most of it they've
done through effective peer collaboration.
Early Finishers = Publishing Team
All teachers appreciate their self-starting,
over-achieving students, but what do you do
with them when they've finished light years
ahead of everyone else? In this kind of writing
project, they are assigned a leadership role in
the publishing process. As part of the
publishing team, they can become the chief
editor, an editing team member, formatter, or
cover designer. Perhaps they can even take
on the role of event manager or lead marketer
for a school library unveiling, book sharing
event, or student exhibition. Once roles are
allocated, I make sure that a few essentials
are understood. First, a master Google Doc
must be created for all the students to paste
their final written work and for the editing team
to scan as copy editors. Google Docs is an
excellent tool for this task. Second, students
in charge of design and formatting must
The Peer Editing Funnel
Early in my teaching career, my mentor
English teacher once told me that he never
read a student's first draft. Flat out refused. I
laughed, but he wasn't joking. He explained
the funnel: workshop editing, peer editing, and
gallery editing. The whole-class workshop
editing helps get the big picture kinks out by
sparking reflective questions that apply to all
writers: Is the piece clear? Does it make
sense? What is the theme? The intention? Is
it effective? What's it missing? What needs to
be cut? It might take two full class periods to
get through every student, but keeping it
down to five pieces of feedback per story and
having students share only their first page
makes it manageable and time efficient. The
acquaint themselves with the chosen online
publishing platform like CreateSpace, Lulu, or
Blurb, and watch related tutorials. Third, if
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