Combining the journal writing process with the concepts of collaboration can produce more focused writing and learning. Through the channel of collaborative situations, such as group journal writing, teachers can capitalize on the benefits achieved from the collaborative process and cultivate thinking and writing skills. A group journal writing…

A demonstration of a classroom writing group in action, this 35-minute interactive video and instructional booklet focus on writing as a shared act of communication. The videotape models structure and process rather than any particular kind of writing, and the group process can be adapted to a variety of writing tasks and requirements. The…

To explain the nature of the response process in journal writing, a simplified version of the theory of speech genres proposed by Mikhail Bakhtin is applied to excerpts from a journal by a college junior. Bakhtin's model of communication is continually interactive and dialogic, as though all voices from the speaker/writer's past are poised at the…

From reading texts to annotating web pages, grade 6-8 students rely on group cooperation and individual reading and writing skills in this research project that spans six 50-minute lessons. Student objectives for this project are that they will: read, discuss, and keep a journal on a book in literature circles; understand the elements of and…

This annotated bibliography is intended to help teachers of composition improve writing quality of entering college students. The main body of the report is preceded by a brief summary of sources for faculty interested in examining the causes attributed to the decline in college students' writing skills, including: "National Assessment and the…

Intended to help teachers understand the complexities of the writing process, this pamphlet offers a model for writing conceptualized in three phases: stimulus, process, and product. The process phase is then examined from the perspectives of: consciousness, speed and elaboration, and mental/physical interaction. The following implications for…

Noting that while collaborative writing is commonplace in the "real" world it is seldom practiced in classrooms, the articles in this focused journal explore the place of collaboration in the writing process and the ways in which collaboration can be fostered in an instructional setting. Following an introduction by the editor, which…

This booklet provides information and teaching strategies to support the teaching of sentence level work in Year 7 (England). Focus in the booklet is on using the sentence level objectives in the context of shared writing, and the emphasis is on putting knowledge and language to use, rather than treating it in isolation. Care has been taken to…

This article describes a variety of collaborative writing strategies that teachers can use within the four subprocesses of writing (prewriting, drafting, revising, and publishing). The strategies include, among others, brainstorming, semantic maps, directed reading and writing, discussion tests, editing groups, and group efforts in layout and…

Teachers who are looking for new ways to approach the research paper, and to use cooperative learning in the classroom, can employ the "we-search" paper--a combination of cooperative/collaborative learning and Ken Macrorie's (1988) "I-search" paper. To get started, teachers should: (1) introduce the project and explain its…

A project in which students can develop their understanding of mathematical concepts through the collaborative writing of word problems is discussed. Worksheets for project requirements and daily requirements are provided. A Thanksgiving project is proposed. The use of a fashion modeling problem in the statistics classroom is described. (CW)

A project at Loyola University of Chicago and Northwestern University has three teams of two students each write papers and present them at a joint meeting. One team from a university writes in support of a particular side, while its counterpart at the other university takes the opposite view. (MLW)

Although student writers will accept evaluation more readily from their peers than from their instructors, beginning writers in particular hesitate to offer suggestions to another writer because they do not want to hurt their fellow students' feelings, and because they do not feel they know enough to evaluate someone else's work. The collaborative…

At Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York City about a dozen teachers teach English composition in a special room (N779): 25 computers along the 4 walls frame the large arena in the center which holds several work tables, each one surrounded by 6 chairs. The room is an eco-system designed for learning about text production. The most…

When children hear, write, and recite poetry, they understand more deeply the qualities of verse--the importance of sound, compactness, internal integrity, imagination, and line. Students' working collaboratively on poetry helps provide a safe structure for their creativity. This lesson plan for a unit on collaborations in poetry writing intended…