Writing groups have the potential to be positive academic communities, but often become problematic spaces where students go to get their writing "fixed." In this article, the authors draw on literature from peer response groups as well as social justice pedagogies to explore how teachers might develop these groups as spaces for student…

This study investigates how Google Docs is used and affects group work in classrooms. Inspired by networked learning theory and the concept of learning spaces in education theory, Google Docs group work is conceptualized as a hybrid learning space. Based on close video ethnographic examinations of group work sessions, the analysis focuses upon…

Collaborative learning and critical pedagogy are widely recognized as "empowering" pedagogies for higher education. Yet, the practical implementation of both has a mixed record. The question, then, is: How could collaborative and critical pedagogies be empowered themselves? This paper makes a primarily theoretical case for discourse…

The rise in academic integrity violations and the connection between dishonest behavior in college and civic behavior after graduation signal a call to educators that more should be done to prepare students to be ethical, responsible citizens. Through collaboration, particularly on written projects for their peers, students can feel more a part of…

Describes "collectivist composing" where the social relations enacted by the class, while writing together, are shaped by the students who are both writing together and studying the relations they make. Suggests teachers open their classrooms so that they become places for communal meaning making and collectivist writing. (RS)

James Berlin has idenitified three common ideological approaches in rhetoric in composition courses crucial to an understanding of how collaborative learning works in writing courses: the expressivist, cognitivist, and social-epistemic. One of the primary distinctions among these rhetorics is how the subject is perceived. In an expressionist or…

Offers suggestions for how to build a true community of writers in which responsibility is turned over to the students. Discusses modeling whole class books, small group publishing, steps in the writing process, tracking the process, building a community, learning leadership, and the role of the teacher. (RS)

This study investigated the effects of having student writers use a set of networked computers to assist them in their writing lessons. Subjects were 15 students who were designated by their school district as remedial writers because they did not pass a writing competency test in their freshman year. For 10 weeks students participated in the…

Describes the methods of two teachers who placed students in collaborative writing groups and asked students to assess their writing groups in personnel assessment memos to the instructors. Examines selected examples of these memos with regard to collaborative processes and the skills used most frequently by students. (HB)

This report describes the development of a learning community in a fifth-grade writers' workshop across one school year and two girls' participation in the learning community. The report examines ways in which teacher-researchers' and students' notions and actions regarding collaboration changed; it also describes the curriculum in the writers'…

This Digest recounts the varied experiences, for both elementary school students and teachers, of producing a classroom newspaper. In the particular instance discussed in the Digest, for the students, it was a chance to collaborate with their peers, to pursue their own special interests, and to see their work published. For the teacher-adviser, it…

Educators at all levels are increasingly being told that classrooms should be places where students are guided through processes of critical inquiry, work collaboratively, and use both written and oral languages as tools for learning. The value of a collaborative, language-centered approach to teaching and learning can be demonstrated by drawing…

Plain talk is the cornerstone for creating a classroom atmosphere in which students want to learn to improve their writing. As much as possible, the jargon and technical terminology of the profession of English should be eliminated. Teachers will know what level of language to use if they determine the nature of their audience. Teachers have to…

Focusing on the culture of students with disabilities allows teachers to add another real-world dimension to the multi-cultural atmosphere of their classrooms. While Public Law 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act) legislates what opportunities must exist for the differently able, volunteer program such as "Kids on the…

Describes the methods and means by which composition teachers can successfully create, train, and maintain writing groups (peer response groups, writing circles, or writing workshops) within the English classroom. (HB)