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| Overview |
 "I liked your story about you and Paul. I think you should add a little more detail and you should change the end two sentences so it will sound better."
Sound familiar? This student response to a peer's draft is all too typical of the way untrained students give feedback on each other's drafts during response groups. The PQP technique—Praise–Question–Polish—requires group members (usually two to five per group) to take a turn reading their drafts aloud as the other students follow along with copies. This oral reading helps the writer to hear the piece in another voice and to identify possible changes independently. The responders then react to the piece by writing comments on the PQP form.
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| From Theory to Practice |
In a national survey of 560 otherwise successful teachers of writing and 715 of their students, Sarah W. Freedman (1985, The Role of Response in Acquisition of Written Language, Berkeley: California UP) found that many teachers grieved over the use of peer review groups because they had difficulty getting students to respond effectively to one another's writing. Vague comments such as the one at the beginning of this lesson proliferate. The students, too, complained about the writing responses, saying that their peers rarely offered substantial help with their writing. The result is that such vague comments rarely translate into effective revisions, and this is unfortunate because when students receive concrete suggestions for revisions, they do revise with the suggestions in mind (Nina D. Ziv, 1983, "Peer Groups in the Composition Classroom: A Case Study," Conference on College Composition and Communication, Detroit, March 17-19).
The organizational technique PQP—Praise–Question–Polish (Gloria A. Neubert and Sally J. McNelis, 1986, "Improving Writing in the Disciplines," Educational Leadership 43.7:54-58) helps students focus on the task at hand as well as maintain a positive attitude toward the peer-review process.
Adapted from Neubert, Gloria A., and Sally J. McNelis. 1990. "Peer Response: Teaching Specific Revision Suggestions." English Journal 79.5 (September): 52-56.
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| Student Objectives |
Students will
- focus on maintaining a positive attitude toward the critiquing process.
- as peer reviewers, explore more concrete and specific ways to provide feedback on peer texts.
- as writers, concentrate on self-editing and listening skills that help them identify places they'd like to rethink in their own texts.
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| Instructional Plan |
Resources
- Copies of the Narrative PQP Peer-Review Form—each group of four will need twelve handouts since each group member fills out a form for every other group member. Alternately, students could write the questions and their responses on notebook paper.
- Overhead or student copies of the Sample Peer-Review Comments
- Overhead or student copies of the Range of Response Comments
- Student-selected draft of their own narrative
Preparation
- Before this lesson, students will have written a text of some sort that includes dialogue. You might use the lesson plan A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words: From Images to Detailed Narrative as your writing activity.
- Makes copies and overheads and/or write information on chart paper or the board.
Instruction and Activities
- Remind students of the characteristics of narrative writing. You might write the information on a piece of chart paper or on the board so that writers can refer to the list while working.
- Focuses a clear, well-defined incident or series of related events.
- Develops plot, character, and setting with specific detail.
- Orders events clearly.
- Uses description and dialogue as appropriate to develop setting and character.
- Shows events rather than just telling about them.
- Establishes and maintains a tone and point of view.
- Uses a logical and effective pattern of organization, such as chronological order, flashback, or flash-forward.
- Uses transitional words and phrases to maintain coherence and establish sequence within and between paragraphs.
- Discuss the difference between vague and specific feedback, using Sample Peer-Review Comments overhead or handouts.
- Answer any student questions before having students break into groups of three to four each.
- In their groups, members take turns reading their drafts aloud as the other students follow along with copies. You may choose to have them read their own or have them exchange and read another group member's paper.
- Members react to the piece by writing comments on the PQP form.
- Next, group members share their reactions with the writer in order to initiate discussion.
- At the end of this discussion, the PQP forms are given to the writer for use during revision.
- Group members repeat this process until all members' drafts have been shared.
Web Resources
- Narrative Essays, from LEO: Literacy Education Online
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/narrative.html
- If students need a reminder before the peer review begins, use this one-page overview to remind students of the basic essentials to look for in a narrative.
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| Student Assessment/Reflections |
Kidwatching provides the perfect assessment for this activity. As you circulate throughout the room, note which students understand the concepts and which need more practice. Provide on-the-spot help for any students who need more examples or instruction.
Ask students to submit their PQP forms with their finished papers so that you can review the comments and how the writers have used the advice they have been given. When you grade student papers, you might use the same PQP form to assess student writing. |
4 - Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
5 - Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
6 - Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
12 - Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
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