1. Revision Workshops: Keys to Success

2. Teach Students How to Respond Early in the year/term, have ‘practice’ sessions in which students respond to simulated papers (As a class, in groups, and individually) Teach students how to respond tactfully, respectfully, and critically Model response techniques yourself

3. Develop a Response System Students should know what things they should respond to and what things they shouldn’t respond to (yet…) Teach your Students the concepts of Higher Order Concerns and Lower Order Concerns (HOCs and LOCs) Use a ‘Response Guide’ (either student or teacher-created)

4. Set an Agenda (and stick to it!) Especially early in the year, your response workshops should be tightly scripted. (First, we will do this (5 minutes). Then, you will do this, etc…) Show your students that their time is limited and that they must use it wisely

5. Hold Students Accountable Productive response workshops typically find the teacher interacting with student groups throughout the class Teachers should find ways to give credit for responding to each other’s work (as part of a process grade. Quality of response=higher grade

6. Higher Order Concerns (HOCs) and Lower Order Concerns (LOCs) “You don’t change the tires on a car if it is missing the engine” AND “You don’t point out grammar errors on a paper that is lacking a purpose, audience, or focus.”

7. HOCs and LOCs Typical HOCs include Focus Organization Ideas Support Logic Purpose LOCs include Style Length Grammar Punctuation Spelling A Note: Develop your response system to privilege HOCs and work towards discussing issues of LOCs in later responses or peer workshops. And a warning … HOCs and LOCs should change for each situation; there is no ‘master list’ of HOCs/LOCs.

8. The Response Guide A response guide can be a cover sheet that you use to respond to student papers (many teachers use the same response guides for themselves and their student peer groups.) Response guides: -keep you focused on key issues (and minimize your time commitment -should forefront the same key issues you plan on evaluating final drafts -should focus on HOCs and minimize (but not ignore) the LOCs

9. A Sample Peer Review Workshop 12:00 Teacher begins, explains his/her HOCs/LOCs for this project. Explains procedures: small groups will focus on a single writer at time -- each for about 10-12 minutes. Writer will (1) give an overview of his/her work. (2) Group then individually reads and responds, using response guide. Finally, (3) the group gives writer verbal feedback. (4) Writer collects response guides and makes plans. (5) Group repeats until all writers receive feedback. 12:10 Teacher collects one copy of draft from each writer. 12:15 Class splits up into small groups (3-4 students) 12:20-1:30 Feedback and response occurs 1:30 Whole class discussion -- traits we all need to work on. 1:40 Wrap up. Teacher feedback returned at next class. NOTE: Students should bring enough copies for their group AND the instructor.