Welcome to our first Writing Celebration

Sponge: Writing Celebration Entitle a Source book entry “Writing Celebration.” When you accomplish something important in your life, how do you celebrate? Why is it important to celebrate?.

Activator Turn to a Peer, and share out your response to the Sponge. Today I celebrate your successful completion of your Narrative Piece. WE’VE COME A LONG WAY FROM WHERE WE BEGAN! LET’S CELEBRATE!

Peer Feedback is Delightful! Working with your classmates to help celebrate their work can be scads of joy. First, you have to learn what it means to give “feedback” and how to do it!

What is Peer Feedback? A peer is someone your own age. Feedback means making suggestions, comments, compliments to help improve a piece of writing or other work.  Peer feedback means communicating with someone your own age – usually someone in your class – to help improve, revise, and perfect his or her writing.

3 Steps to Peer Feedback There are three important steps to remember when you are evaluating and celebrating another student’s work. Step 1 – Compliments Step 2 – Suggestions Step 3 - Corrections

STEP 1 Compliments The first rule of peer feedback is to STAY POSITIVE! Remember, THIS IS A CELEBRATION! Think about how you would want someone to speak to you about your writing.

STEP 1 Compliments Tell the writer what you think he or she did well: I really loved your story because I think you used a lot of supporting details I liked when you used the word ______ My favorite part was ________ because… This was really engaging because… I liked the way you_________…

Teacher Model Sample Narrative: It was a frigid, misty day, as my mom, brother, and I approached the airport. We were about to get on the longest plane ride of our lives by ourselves. “Okay were here?” mom said. “Let’s check your kids in!” Mom shouted sounding too excited to be rid of us for two straight weeks. Compliment: (Peer’s Name)_______, your use of a vivid description and dialogue to open your narrative was a great way to engage your reader.

STEP 2 Suggestions Making suggestions means giving the author some specific ideas about how to make his or her writing better. Remember – stay positive and be specific! Instead of, “It didn’t make sense,” say, “If you add more details after this sentence, it would be more clear.” Instead of, “Your word choice was boring,” say, “Instead of using the word good, maybe you can use the word exceptional.”

STEP 2 Suggestions Here are some areas that you may want to make suggestions about: Perhaps using the word ________ would have helped the reader ________. Sensory words like ________ would have made this sentence stronger. I didn’t understand the sentence ________. You could have said __________. Your closing was too obvious. Maybe if you used a circular ending… ___________ statement is an extraneous detail.

Teacher Model Sample Narrative: It was a frigid, misty day, as my mom, brother, and I approached the airport. We were about to get on the longest plane ride of our lives by ourselves. “Okay were here?” mom said. “Let’s check your kids in!” Mom shouted sounding too excited to be rid of us for two straight weeks. Suggestion: (Peer’s Name)_______, Perhaps if you move the second sentence to the end of the paragraph after the dialogue, the reader would understand more clearly who is boarding the plane.

STEP 3 Corrections The third step in the peer feedback process is making corrections. Corrections means editing your peer’s paper for: Spelling mistakes Grammar mistakes Missing punctuation Incomplete or run-on sentences

Teacher Model Sample Narrative: It was a frigid, misty day, as my mom, brother, and I approached the airport. We were about to get on the longest plane ride of our lives by ourselves. “Okay were here?” mom said. “Let’s check your kids in!” Mom shouted sounding too excited to be rid of us for two straight weeks. Correction: (Peer’s Name)_______, Instead of placing a question mark at the end of the statement “Okay were here,” you should use a comma.

Student Practice Work Period You will now read a peer’s paper to yourself. In your Source book record your Peer Feedback for each student’s paper you read. Remember you can write a compliment, suggestion or correction. When I say Time, we will share our feedback aloud. When I say Pass, pass the paper you were reading to your right (It’s ok if you don’t finish reading the entire story.) YOU MUST HAVE WRITTEN FEEDBACK FOR AT LEAST 3 PEERS!

Things to Remember… Stay positive – Try to make suggestions and corrections in a positive way. Be specific – Give the author specific ideas on how to improve his or her writing. Use the sentence starters if you need help giving feedback. Copyright 2004 IRA/NCTE. All rights reserved. ReadWriteThink materials may be reproduced for educational purposes. Images copyright Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Closing: Thing I learned during the Writing Celebration is… 2- Words (skills) that will help me when I’m working on my next piece are… 3- Things that I’m proud of about my Narrative piece are….