Narrative Writing Workshop: Peer Review and Revision

Before I have the students move into workshop groups, I will spend a little time reviewing the rubric.

I am using a rubric from turnitin.com for a couple of reasons. First, it is nice to use the tools provided by the website we are paying to use. Second, and WAY more importantly, it is a great rubric because it uses the specific language of the standards. I will be grading them on all the subcategories of CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.3 and each category of the rubric correlates to one of these categories:

• Exposition:CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.3a
• Narrative Technique and Development:CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.3b
• Organization and Cohesion:CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.3c
• Style and Conventions:CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.3d
• Conclusion: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.3e

I've added a few other categories because this specific assignment also asked students to include elements of Dickensian style. Additionally, I want to give them credit for going through the revision process (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.5).

I will highlight the major categories and ask if there are any questions about how they will be assessed on their final drafts. I am anticipating that they will be fine with all of this as we have been building towards each of these skills through our daily writing/work time.

Once we've reviewed the rubric, I will allow student to choose two or three peers to work with. I will ask them to provide written feedback for their peers directly on the rough drafts. I will encourage them to use the rubrics as a guiding document for their revision work. I will visit groups and check in on progress while they work. I figure the best way to make sure students are meeting the standards I want them to meet is to revise based on those standards. Hopefully using the rubric to guide their revision process will help them meet those standards. 

Additionally, I will ask students who do not have a draft to work on writing one in class. I will require them to stay in their assigned seat and to work independently. I will mark off that they were unprepared and encourage them to finish soon so that they can get a friend/parent/person to read and review their drafts before they start working on their finals.