Last month I had the privilege to visit the Writing Center at Revere High School for the second time. During my first visit, I witnessed the tutors working with a History class full of students writing papers they had been assigned. In that session I observed the Writing Tutors taking a variety of approaches. A few tutors sat with groups of students with Chromebooks open, ready to provide feedback in real time, watch students' writing, processes, comment on students' feedback to each other, and also to ensure students understood the feedback given to them by peers. It was a student-driven, student-managed, highly productive environment. Watching the writing tutors in action sparked in me a desire to see the foundation of this work--to see the work they'd engaged in to become such effective tutors. So, over the summer I reached to the Writing Center Coordinator and she kindly invited me to visit the Center in September during her work with the tutors.
The group of six tutors, three male, three female, sat around a table joined by their teacher, Allison Casper, all holding copies of the same piece of narrative writing. To practice this process of providing peers feedback on their writing, the tutors begin by offering their own writing to the group for analysis and feedback. I joined the group as they were in the middle of sharing their feedback and questions about one of their fellow tutor's college essay. They spoke about her piece with such respect as if they had read every line very carefully because, I sensed, they had.
"You have a lot of powerful phrases and words," one of her peers complimented.
Casper probed, "Can you give her an example?" Each of the tutors returned to the text and pulled out a few particularly powerful phrases to share with the writer.
The group talked about the different vignettes in her writing and a couple tutors shared how her piece reminded them of The House on Mango Street and wondered if she was in fact inspired by that text. As the tutors continued their discussion of the vignettes and ways to possibly reorder the stories for different effects, Ms. Casper jumped in to remind the writer about the importance of "following threads" that she has opened up for the reader. The audience, the reader, was a constant part of the conversations as the tutors shared how certain aspects of the piece impacted them or drew them in.
When Casper moved the group to share what questions the piece raised for them, they asked, "What is the central theme?" "What were you trying to do in this paragraph?" This paragraph here, I wondered if you could elaborate on this type of love?" "Which sickness do you think impacted you the most? Maybe you could write about that one?" There was no expectation on the writer to have answers to these questions or even to share her thinking at the moment. It was all very conversational as the group talked energetically about her writing and she absorbed their comments, sometimes jotting down notes in the margins of her copy of the piece. To wrap up the feedback cycle, Ms. Casper reinforced for the writer just how much she had to think about as she moved into the revision stage of her writing. On a practical note, she also reminded the writer to copy and paste into a new document before revising so she would never lose her original pieces. Each of the tutors returned their copy of her writing back to her with all their notes for her to read later.
The group then moved onto another student whose narrative piece was also a college essay. Casper began by asking the writer, "What were you trying to convey to the admissions board?" He responded easily, telling the group he was hoping to show that working during high school has made him a more patient person with better time management skills. Again, each member of the group had their own copy of the piece and followed along as the author read his piece aloud. The group then engaged in a second, silent reading of the piece.
Ms. Casper moved the group from the individual reading into the feedback phase by, reminding them that they provide feedback in a particular order: "What works well in the piece? What questions do you have?" The group praised his use of comedy and description of situations to which all shoppers could relate. He shared, somewhat nervously, that the chronology of his story probably wasn't accurate but that he had combined a bunch of memories. One of his peers assured him, "I wouldn't worry about being totally truthful in your writing. I had to fabricate a little because I couldn't remember all the details exactly."
Their exchange reminded me vividly of something Lucy Calkins had said when I heard her speak at the 2016 Don Graves Write Now! Conference. Calkins talked about the role of memory in narrative writing and she said just what this writing tutor said, you can't get stuck on being 100% truthful in narrative writing. You may have a strong memory from childhood and you also remember outfits you wore as a child. In narrative writing, you combine all the little details you remember with the larger memories that you can't forget. It was beautiful to witness a writer who understood this about narrative assuage her peer's fear that his writing wasn't quite real simply because he'd played with a few details.
At some point, the conversation among the tutors and teacher began to sound a little like listening in on a book club. They spoke about the details they appreciated and connected with as readers. They wondered if the writer inserted a little more dialogue into a certain passage if it would help them understand another character more. They shared their confusion at certain parts and wondered at the writer's intentions. Again, the writer remained fairly quiet during their conversation, soaking in their feedback and reflecting on the changes he will make when revising.
For homework, the students were assigned an article titled, "Minimalist Tutoring: Making Students Do All the Work" by Jeff Brooks. Intrigued by everything I had observed in their feedback session, I sought out and read the article myself. Brooks says, "We ought to encourage students to treat their own writings as texts that deserve the same kind of close attention we usually reserve for literary text." Brooks has many more concrete strategies and specifics on how to be a minimalist tutor, but this one quote sums up for me what I saw in the Writing Center. There was such respect for each writer and their piece. Everyone in the circle was giving equal attention, reverence, and reflective consideration to their own and each other's writing. Again, their discussions brought me back to something Calkins said about the discussion around writing or finding a topic. When a writer shares their ideas for a piece of writing with you, it is the listener's job to ask questions that increase the writer's energy to talk about and eventually write about their topic.
At the end of the session, Ms. Casper asked for my thoughts and energy was the only word I could think of to appropriately describe my experience there. It was so clear to me that the constructive feedback and discussions around their pieces left each writer buzzing with energy to revisit their pieces and revise with a purpose. Just as the ideas for writing center has trickled down from college writing centers, I continue to think about what we can do for middle school students to recreate these thoughtful and powerful discussions about writing amongst peers.
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