Research Question. Do small collaborative writing groups increase students’ knowledge of revision strategies and improve students’ writing skills?

Subquestions. (1) Do peer response groups encourage students to engage in constructive talk about writing? (2) Will students recognize constructive feedback when they receive it and use it to make revisions suggested by their peers? (3) Will students increase their essay scores after engaging in peer response groups?

Research Activities. This two-week study involving sixty-six students was conducted in two Advanced English 10 classes in a large, urban high school. After instruction in types of feedback and writing constructive criticism, students were placed in heterogeneous groups of three in which they reviewed each other’s drafts of a literary analysis essay and offered verbal and written feedback. Students participated in the same groups for three meetings, revising their essays before each meeting. The final draft of the essay for all students was evaluated for content and organization. One group of three focus students was chosen from each class to audiotape during each group meeting. All focus students’ drafts were analyzed for implementation of feedback. Observation data were collected at five-minute intervals to assess student engagement and record selective verbatim. Pre- and post-intervention attitude data were collected through student surveys. Observation data revealed students engaged in the activity and offered high-level feedback. Comparison of first and final draft scores showed that forty-three students demonstrated an increase in essay scores. No students experienced a decrease in scores. Five students maintained perfect scores. Five of six focus students turned in their essays. Four of the five made significant changes to their essays, which resulted in an increase in scores. One focus student did not make peer-suggested revisions and saw no increase in scores. Analyses of focus students’ drafts revealed the highest number of constructive written comments by the stronger writers, but the struggling writers also demonstrated some skill in high-level feedback. Analyses of the recordings of one group found that the strongest writer offered most of the high-level verbal feedback, with the weaker writers offering some effective feedback, but substantially less. Attitude surveys revealed most students found the activity to be beneficial, with a significant number of students finding the peer response groups effective only with the “right” students in the group. Heterogeneous peer response groups seemed to offer an opportunity for struggling writers to gain writing and revision skills from the stronger writers in the group; the most skilled writers, then, had an opportunity to articulate their knowledge of writing.