Rationale:
Writers’ workshop is an effective tool for promoting a sense of ownership with the students who are involved in it.  The workshop hinges upon mini-lessons that have been taught previously within the classroom environment.  This technique helps to improve students’ writing through teacher modeling and peer editing.  It is this peer editing that our presentation will focus upon.
 The peer editing portion of the writer’s workshop will ultimately help students improve their writing pieces not only in class but will also internalize this process to use in future writings.  The students will be able to utilize writing techniques that have been covered in class and implement them during the writer’s workshop block.  The teacher will walk around and listen to peer discussions, the teacher will also be available for assistance when needed.  The teacher should also look to make sure that each child is on task.
 Peer editing also gives students the opportunity to help their peers in a positive and critically constructive manner, as well as receiving feedback on their own writing. Students learn ways to give suggestions and possible revisions to look for from teacher modeling and student checklists.  This strategy would be used during weekly writing assignments and topics.

Procedure
*Teacher conducts whole group mini-lesson on a specific skill that the students need further emphasis on.  This will help provide background knowledge crucial to the revision task.
*Teacher presents the writing topic for the week or invites the students to brainstorm their own ideas.  The ideas can be charted or written on the board for student’s future reference.  Time should be allotted in class for students to use this information to begin their draft copies.
 *Students may use class time to complete their draft copy or they may be encouraged to finish it at home.  Work completed at home does not always represent a student’s true abilities, so this should be taken into account.

*Teacher will put his/her draft on chart paper for the class to make revisions and improvements.  Students will be encouraged to share suggestions to improve the writing piece.  It is at this point that the teacher will draw on the students background knowledge of prior lessons to aid in the facilitation of this discussion.  (The teacher will encourage the students to make as many improvements as possible and add the revisions to the charted story.  The students will be invited to view the revisions as positive feedback and that we are working as a team to create an improved piece of writing.)  It is very important that the students realize that the improvements made are just that, improvements, and that edit marks on one’s paper is natural and a necessary sign of good writing.
*After the students have worked cooperatively to improve the teacher’s writing piece they will now exchange their draft copy with another student to make revisions and improvements.  The students will be encouraged to take into consideration the revisions and improvements that were made by the class, while they are making peer revisions.
*While the students are peer revising, the teacher is circulating around the room to encourage students that are struggling, provide praise, and to point out specific examples of a job well done.
*After the students have completed their peer revisions they will be invited to share their writing samples with the class.  At this stage, students will no longer be critiquing each other.  This stage is for their enjoyment and to reinforce their sense of accomplishment through peer cooperation.
*After the students have had the opportunity to share their writing samples, the teacher will have the choice of collecting the writing pieces to look them over and then hand them back to be finalized and published, or the students may keep their draft copy to reference as they write their final copy.
*The last stage of Writer’s Workshop/ Peer Revision will be student publication.  This stage gives the students the opportunity to use their peer’s revisions and suggestions to improve their final copy. (You may want to have the student’s type them on the computer, display them in the classroom, or collect the writings to put into a book, etc.)

Explanation of Benefit to Student:
  Writer’s workshop can be a very useful tool in promoting student writing.  It gives all learners, no matter what level of writing ability, an opportunity to improve their writing in a supportive context of other practicing writers.
 Writer’s workshop provides the learner with strategies to help improve and internalize their writing skills.  The teacher’s mini lesson is utilized to focus on the skills the writers need to improve on, or learn about.  These skills are modeled and then corrected by the class, using the teacher’s writing or a sample of a peer’s writing piece.
 Students learn to think critically about their own or a peer’s writing.  They learn to ask questions about grammar and spelling, give feedback to their peers, expand their thoughts, and to reorganize and delete information.  Through this interaction with peers and the teacher, the student will extend their knowledge of the writing process.  They will develop a confidence within themselves, and realize that editing and questioning is a natural way to improve one’s own writing ability.
 Writer’s workshop not only improves the student’s writing ability, but also encourages children to express their thoughts and feelings, to remember the past, to share stories about themselves and to record information.

Issues of Soundness
  As a means of informal assessment on their students, teachers need to keep in mind that this technique is highly effective only if clear targets have been established well ahead of time, and focused upon during the prior mini-lessons.  This method is useful for internalizing desired skills due to its contextual nature, rather than traditional methods (i.e. worksheets, dittos).
 Not only are expectations clearly stated through the use of mini-lessons, but they are also modeled before the students.  This creates a strong sense of validity because all students receive the same criteria for success; evidence of improved writing abilities.
 This is an authentic representation of student’s performance due to the fact that evidence of learning appears in the form of revisions on a peer’s draft copy.  The reliability of this technique is strengthened by the fact that revision and writing skills are internalized during the process itself.
 The initial investment of time on the teacher’s part is huge, creating the illusion of an ineffective teaching strategy.  In truth, however, after the first several trial periods, both the students and their teacher will begin to enjoy a sense of confidence and accomplishment, which not only aids in this process, but also makes it highly efficient.
 As stated earlier, the benefits are easy to see.  The students portray an understanding of the writing process and are very excited to share their work with others.  They show satisfaction of their work and are a more confident writer.  All of these qualities help a student to become a more conscientious and hard worker in school.