How Writing Partners Can Be Helpful & Impactful
Before we get into writing partners, let’s think about the importance of conferring with others! When I am thinking through an idea, it really helps me to talk it through with someone. Just the other day I was explaining to my husband my plan to reorganize the linen closet and categorize all the sheets and towels in drawers. Now, he did not care at all about how the sheets and towels will be organized, but saying it out loud helped me to finalize my ideas. However, when I told my mom about my plan she had really helpful feedback to make it even better!
When my 2nd graders meet with their writing partners they are going through a similar process of thinking through their ideas, getting suggestions, and deciding how to move forward with their plans. This is part of my teaching writing with Lucy Calkins curriculum but it can be used in any writing worksop set up!
What do writing partners do?
During my writing workshop, students are allowed to meet with their partners whenever they want/ need to! Students write independently at their seats. If they want help from writing partners, they walk up to them and whisper “Can we meet?” The other partner can say yes or say they are in the middle of a thought they can meet in a few minutes.
Students work with their writing partner at the small black ikea tables that I have in my room with crate seats. There are only two tables, so only two partners can meet at time! Students know to wait until the writing partners at the table are finished before they can ask their partner for help. Students meet for 5-10 minutes. They self manage their time except if they are there too long I will check in to see if I can help them with what they are discussing.
What Do Writing Partners Do at the conference table?
We do A LOT of modeling, practicing, and discussing what these peer conferences should look like! Several times, I act as a student and meet with another student and the rest of the class watches to see what they notice about how I offer support or ask for help.
In the beginning of the year, I give writing partners these talking tents with sentence starters to help them get in the routine of how to support their partner’s writing and ideas. You can grab them for FREE by clicking the button or picture below! Just print them on some pretty astrobright cardstock, cut, staple into a tent, and you are ready to go!
When students sit down at the table they should:
- Decide who wants to share their writing/ ideas first
- The student who will go first should share a focus for what they need help with
- The student then reads their book to their partner
- The partner provides feedback relevant to what the student asked for help with and any other suggestions they might have
- Repeat 2-4 with the students switching roles
- Back to seats to execute plans
Students use the talking tents to help them as they are conferencing with each other. The student who is sharing first should have the “I am the writer” side facing them and then the “I am the helper” is facing the other partner. The writing partners can use the talking tent to help guide their conversations.
What can writing partners help with?
- book ideas
- proofreading
- checking if a part of the text makes sense (or the whole thing)
- discuss ideas and how to best communicate it through story
- adding dialogue
- thinking of a hook or conclusion
- coming up with an appropriate title
- adding detail
- choosing an audience
- writing to target a specific audience
ANYTHING!!! Any writing skill you are teaching your students or anything you would help them with, they can help each other with! Lucy Calkins provides very specific writing craft skills to focus on each day so I encourage my students to help each other with implementing those ideas from our mini lessons into their writing.
How to Pair Up Writing Partners
When I pair up my students I look at:
- Writing Strengths
- My writing partners are similar writing levels, but I try to match up students with different strengths. For example, both students can be meeting grade level expectations but one is really strong at introductions/ conclusions and the other excels at adding details.
- Personality
- I also consider their personality in the ways of how well they will be able to take feedback and how assertive they will be in offering suggestions.
- Relationships Among Peers
- I think about friendships and what types of relationships would be most mutually beneficial to improve each other’s writing.
Sometimes I keep writing partners the same across the different writing units and sometimes I change them up, it depends on how the students are doing!
Read more about my writing workshop:
- Writing Workshop Overview
- Managing Writing Workshop
- Publishing Celebrations
- Student Managed Writing Display
