My writing group is an important part of my life as a writer. It’s more than just accountability, but feedback and camaraderie and, well, if I’m super honest, fun. When I was a classroom teacher, I didn’t do a very good job of establishing writing groups, or crit partners, for my students. I see now they were missing out on a crucial part of being a writer.
If I have to pick one word to describe the impact of a writing group for writers it is this:
Empower.
Writing groups empower individuals to be the best they can be. An effective writing group adjusts to the individual needs. Every member doesn’t get the same treatment, but everyone gets what they need. I think it would be difficult to understand this if I weren’t a member of a writing group.
So I’ve been thinking about how these would work in classrooms. How might we tap into the power of writing groups with young writers? I’m not sure, because it’s one of those things I’ve never done…but would like to try. If I were to try, here’s a little list of the steps I would take to get them going.
- Assign crit partners. These would be long-term relationships between two writers. At this point in the year, I might have a good sense of how to partner writers in order to gain effective working relationships, however, I might get input for kids too. It just depends.
- Give crit partners time to talk. I would make this part of the share session. What I mean, actually, is the share would be devoted to crit partners talking one on one. I’m not sure how I would organize it. Eventually, it would be a natural part of our workshop, but initially, I would be super intentional about giving partners time to talk about their work. Maybe every day for a week, they would be sharing with their crit partners during the end of workshop share. At first I imagine I would just let them talk — get to know each other, and find out about their writing projects, strengths, and complaints. I wouldn’t try to micromanage this too much…I would trust (and give myself lots of little mental lectures that the writers in the room can be trusted to talk about their writing lives) the process.
- Give crit partners time to read and respond to each other’s writing. Eventually I would begin nudging their conversations. What do you like about what the writer is doing? What do you notice the writer does more than once that is effective? What is your favorite line in the draft? What are you learning about a topic (informational) or a character (narrative), or the sound of words (poetry). These kinds of questions push for specific feedback…and help to build trust.
- Help crit partners shape responses to nudge revision. I’d help students learn to ask powerful questions in order to help the writer think about the writing in a new way. I’d also help them learn how to spot confusing parts and ways to let the writer know of the issue in constructive ways. A big part of this is the conversation that happens after the writer makes revisions and the response of the crit partner.
If anyone is brave to step off this cliff, I’d love to hear how it goes. Even better, I’d love to hear from people who have established writing groups within their classrooms.
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 
I already pair up my students all year long for writing workshop. I think that is one of my favorite parts! It is wonderful to see the students help and encourage one another in their writing. I love the idea of forming writing groups later in the year. It would be interesting to see how they work all together.
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I like this! I find most of my creative writing students do this quite naturally on their own, once we really get into the swing of things. We talk about the kinds of comments and suggestions to make. We talk about asking questions about other people’s work ( I do have a peer form they fill out for the author and that gets attached to published pieces). And they see me do it every time I read their drafts. Google Docs has made this a bit easier too–they just share with whomever they wish! I do find that partners are better for most students to work with rather than larger groups. Less intimidating I think. Maybe I’ll have to post on this myself….
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I wonder if it would be interesting for the kids to see your crit group in action, maybe a fishbowl demo. I think it would be fun for the kids to hear how the crit group members benefit from this group. I wonder too if kids don’t need lots of practice whole group or small group practicing looking at writing and talking about what sticks with them about the writing, not just “I like you story.” Modeling the language of how to focus on craft might help kids that haven’t had a lot of opportunity to read like writers.
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This is a great idea and makes so much sense. I think it’s imperative to start this with partners rather than a full-blown groups especially in the younger grades. I will think about starting this after the holidays. I too would love to hear from others who attempt this.
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When I had my classroom I had two kinds of groups, writing groups and unit research groups. Each week the groups met, although depending on the workshop lessons, the writing groups might have time to meet more than once. My groups (middle school) worked together all year, supporting and responding. I felt that keeping them together left them room to really get to know each other’s writing, to be able to give more support. I’ve lately seen the crit partners in action in a classroom I work with. They have been working on different kinds of revision, so the teacher had the partners specifically look and respond to the revision approach of the week (or day). They would help each other in the other’s writing. It’s true that response from others both encourages and empowers the writer to work. It’s not easy to go it alone all the time. Thanks for the thoughts of partnering or grouping. It does take time for the teacher to know students well in order to make good groups, too!
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