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Collaborative Learning and Writing: Essays on Using Small Groups in Teaching English and Composition PDF

237 Pages·2012·1.22 MB·English
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Collaborative Learning and Writing This page intentionally left blank Collaborative Learning and Writing Essays on Using Small Groups in Teaching English and Composition Edited by Kathleen M. Hunzer McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: I am very grateful to my family and friends who have always supported me in my endeavors, my mentors who have helped me become the professional I am today, and all of the contributors to this collection who worked tirelessly in order to create this practical assemblage. Thanks for all of your hard work. LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA Collaborative learning and writing : essays on using small groups in teaching English and composition / edited by Kathleen M. Hunzer. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7864-6029-8 softcover : acid free paper ¡. English language—Rhetoric—Study and teaching (Higher) 2. Academic writing—Study and teaching (Higher) 3. Peer review. I. Hunzer, Kathleen M., 1969– PE1404.C6135 2012 808'.042071—dc23 2012010906 BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE © 2012 Kathleen M. Hunzer. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, i ncluding photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without p ermission in writing from the p ublisher. Front cover image © 20¡¡ Shutterstock Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com Table of Contents Acknowledgments iv Preface KATHLEEN M. HUNZER 1 Part I: Why are collaborative learning and peer review important? Writing Courses Live and Die by the Quality of Peer Review JASON WIRTZ 5 Bringing New Perspectives to a Common Practice: A Plan for Peer Review ANTHONY EDGINGTON 17 Reinventing Peer Review Using Writing Center Techniques: Teaching Students to Use Peer-Tutorial Methodology CATHERINE SIMPSON KALISH, JENNIFER L. J. HEINERT, and VALERIE MURRENUS PILMAIER 30 “It’s just too nicey-nicey around here”: Teaching Dissensus in Research and Collaborative Groups JACOB STRATMAN 43 Part II: How do I best select groups in my classes? Increasing Student Participation and Accountability in Group Production of Text through Speed Interviews MIALISA A. MOLINE 55 Connecting Writing Process with Personality: Creating Long-Lasting Trust Circles in Writing Classes KATHLEEN M. HUNZER 66 Forming Peer Critique Groups Through Personality Preferences MIALISA A. MOLINE 75 Part III: How do I integrate collaborative learning techniques into electronic environments? Collaborative Learning and Writing in Digital Environments CINDY TEKOBBE, YAZMIN LAZCANO-PRY, and DUANE ROEN 87 Keeping Up with the Future: Using Technology to Facilitate Small-Group Collaboration in the Writing Classroom KELLY A. SHEA 99 v vi Table of Contents Cooperative and Collaborative Writing with Google Docs DONNA J. EVANS and BEN S. BUNTING, JR. 109 Working with Groups Online: Collaborating with Web Conferencing CHERYL HAWKINSON MELKUN 130 Part IV: Can collaborative learning and writing work in all writing classes? Blending Collaboration and Competition: A Model for Small Group Learning in Business Writing Classes RANDI BROWNING 143 Revisiting Collaborative Writing and Electronic Dialogues in Business Communication FLORENCE ELIZABETH BACABAC 166 Collaborative Composing: Practices and Strategies for Implementing Team Projects into Writing Classrooms KARA POE ALEXANDER 181 Part V: Can special populations benefit from collaborative activities? Working Together Towards Greatness: The Cumulative Writing Model and English Language Learners ROBB MARK MCCOLLUM 201 Anxiety Disorders and the Collaborative Classroom KATHLEEN M. HUNZER 217 About the Contributors 225 Index 229 Preface I have a confession to make that may surprise you since I am here writing an introduction to a book about collaborative learning. When I was a student, I lived in fear of being assigned a collaborative project or being required to work in small groups. As soon as a teacher or pro- fessor mentioned the words “group project” or “collaboration,” my heart sank. Historically, I was put in a group of students who procrastinated on the project or who did not seem to care about their GPAs as much as I did; therefore, for me, collaborative and group assignments meant that I did the work while everyone got the credit. Having had many of these experiences from K-16, consequently, I was a bit skeptical when I entered my English M.A. program in 1992 and came face to face with my old neme- sis—collaborative learning—again. We did not meet at first. First I learned many other features of the “process” classroom. I learned to view writing as a recursive process that involves prewriting, drafting, and revising; to embrace the social-epistemic nature of the composition classroom; to decenter myself as a teacher so that I was more of a guide and a coach rather than the sole authority in the classroom; to recognize the value of one-on-one conferencing; to view the composition classroom a discourse community where students grow as learners and thinkers; and far too many other traits and articles to name here. All of these I embraced with open arms because they were the exact opposite of many classes I had taken and had not enjoyed. But then I met Kenneth Bruffee and others whose research demonstrated that collaborative learning in writing classes was one of the best ways to create this “process” environment, and as I read these works about the benefits of collaborative learning, all I could write in the margins was “won’t work” or “yeah, right!” because of my past experiences. While the research spoke of the powerful benefits of group work and the potential for growth in collaborative environments, because of my personal experience with small group projects, I was convinced that collaborative learning and small group projects were wonderful in theory but that, in practice, they would never work. Time and time again, the research told me that collaborative learning, when done well, is highly beneficial for everyone, both students and instructor. I read and reread that collab- orative learning helps students become accustomed to their academic environment and helps them improve their communication skills, thus enabling students to more successfully negotiate discourse communities both in and out of class. I also learned that collaborative learning can help students better understand the rhetorical situation and consider the ethical effects of writing on an audience. In short, collaborative learning was necessary in the “process” writing class since the power is dispersed between the members of the group, thus demonstrating to students the benefits of helping each other in times of confusion, success, and uncertainty— of seeing writing as a process of discovery and learning. These benefits and others were why 1 2 Preface I was supposed to promote a collaborative environment in my classes, especially in writing classes, but I was still hesitant. My skepticism remained until I became a TA for the late Alan W. France at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, a man who convinced me that knowledge can be and should be socially constructed and that, when done well, collaborative learning could and would succeed. He coached me through my early classroom experiences with peer reviews as well as other small group tasks throughout the semester. He spent time with me discussing not only the benefits of collaborative learning but also the “how to do it” questions I had. How do I choose groups? What tasks do I assign? How do I grade collaborative learning? Should I? What if people think I’m trying to get out of work by assigning group tasks? And manyothers. All of these questions were answered with great patience and respect. Near the end of the semester, after he had observed my class twice, Alan France paid me an amazing compliment: he told me that my use of collaborative learning and peer review was impressive because I had gotten all of my students involved, had held them all accountable, and had conquered my fear of the practice by appearing to be an “expert” in the technique. Me, an “expert” in the practice I had doubted and resisted for so long? Perhaps, I thought, collaborative learning was not so bad after all. With this newfound confidence in my abilities to use collaborative learning successfully, I embarked on my career as a writing instructor. I spent two years teaching six writing classes per semester at four different schools before moving on for my Ph.D., and no matter where I taught, I relied heavily on groups for peer review, group analyses of non-fiction texts, col- laborative evaluations of speeches, and many other tasks. My frequent use of collaborative learning continued as I completed my Ph.D. in composition and rhetoric and taught at a community college. After nine years of practice, I felt more prepared to speak intelligently and from experience about the benefits of collaborative learning. My nemesis and I had clasped hands and become friends. In 2003 when I accepted my current job, which was my first tenure-track job, I faced a daunting task my first semester: a three-hour night class titled “Human Issues in Literature.” Now, as a writing specialist, I had taught some literature, but this was not my forte, and three hours? What was I to do? And that’s when my former nemesis spoke loudly—use collaboration and small groups to explore the works—and so I did, every night in every class period. The results were amazing. Every night students were involved in analyses of some deep and chal- lenging pieces, and at the end of the class, these reluctant students from a variety of disciplines who were “forced” to take the course as a General Education requirement told me that they had never learned so much about or had so much fun with literature. As word spread of my successful use of collaborative learning in this class and many others, I seemed to become the “go to” person when people had questions about using groups in their own classes. Many instructors knew of the benefits of collaborative learning and were seeing me integrating the practice quite successfully into my own classes, but they also had many questions—many of the same questions I had worked through over the years: how do I choose groups? How do I manage my time with group work? How do I handle personality conflicts? What kinds of tasks should I assign? What if one or two students in a group does all the work? How do I handle a student who tells me that group work is problematic because the student has an anxiety disorder? Can I rely on collaborative learning too much? And other such practical questions that involve the actual implementation of collaborative learning. As I answered these questions for my departmental colleagues who struggle with group work (especially new(er) instructors), for our students training to be secondary school teachers, and for instructors outside of my home department who have heard of my success with Preface 3 collaborative learning, I realized that our field needed a practical sourcebook that answers these questions, and that is what you will find in this volume. The essays in this book are here to help you actually docollaborative learning in your own classes. We all know that we should do it; this book helps you learn how to do it. Because I have been asked so many questions about small groups and collaborative learn- ing in the past, I have arranged this book around some common questions that I have always tried to address with both theory and pedagogy. In Part I, a variety of voices answer the ques- tion “Why are collaborative learning and peer review important?” Jason Wirtz in his essay “Writing Courses Live and Die by the Quality of Peer Review” provides a thorough analysis of the benefits of peer review as a type of collaborative activity. “Bringing New Perspectives to a Common Practice: A Plan for Peer Review” by Anthony Edgington supplements this analysis by providing you with strong foundational information on how to promote successful peer review sessions. The third essay in Part I, “Reinventing Peer Review Using Writing Center Techniques: Teaching Students to Use Peer-Tutorial Methodology,” expounds on the benefits of re-visioning the performance of peer review in writing classes. Inspired by the format of the one-on-one peer tutorial structure of a writing center session,Catherine Simpson Kalish, Jennifer L. J. Heinert, and Valerie Murrenus Pilmaier provide helpful pedagogical suggestions for how to help your students embrace this new format for peer review. Finally, wrapping up Part One is Jacob Stratman’s essay “’It’s just too nicey-nicey around here’: Teaching Dissensus in Research and Collaborative Groups,” an essay demonstrating how we can combine consensus and dissensus productively in collaborative environments. In Part II, three essays provide new answers to the age-old question “How do I best select groups in my classes?” Drawing on her background in professional writing classes, Mialisa A. Moline invites us to try “speed interviews” when forming groups, in her essay “Increasing Student Participation and Accountability in Group Production of Text Through Speed Inter- views.” In my essay, the second in this section, I relate my successes using a very simple question as a first-day writing prompt to form groups. My essay “Connecting Writing Process with Personality: Creating Long-Lasting Trust Circles in Writing Classes” not only provides you with some techniques I use to select groups but also provides a few in-class practices that can foster trust between group members. In order to demonstrate how successful this group selection technique is, I include at the end of the essay actual student comments that I garnered from a short survey. Supplementing my essay is another piece by Moline, “Forming Peer Cri- tique Groups Through Personality Preferences,” that demonstrates how the widely-acclaimed Myers-Briggs personality indicator can be used to promote successful collaboration. The next section, Part III, addresses the pressing question, “How do I integrate collaborative learning techniques into electronic environments?” Cindy Tekobbe, Yazmin Laz- cano-Pry, and Duane Roen’s essay “Collaborative Learning and Writing in Digital Environ- ments” introduces many ways that collaboration can be integrated into digital classes. Supplementing this overview are other pieces that address specific practices in electronic envi- ronments. “Keeping Up with the Future: Using Technology to Facilitate Small-Group Col- laboration in the Writing Classroom” by Kelly A. Shea specifically addresses small group collaboration in electronic environments. How to address collaborative writing needs when using a platform such as Google Docs is the topic of Donna J. Evans and Ben S. Bunting, Jr.’s piece titled “Cooperative and Collaborative Writing with Google Docs.” Finally, Cheryl Hawkinson Melkun in her essay “Working with Groups Online: Collaborating with Web Conferencing” demonstrates not only how to use web conferencing with collaborative learning but also how to select a proper web conferencing platform. Many people question if collaborative learning can work beyond the first-year composition

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Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.