UIWP 2012 Demonstration
Kaia Simon Power
Spandel’s Vision
of Collaboration
“In the classroom,
students writers
confer with the
teacher or
another writing
coach and share
their writing with
partners or in a
small group” (99).
An Alternate
Vision:
“Writing is more than
artifact; it is also an act
and activity distributed
over time and space and
constructed by
“simultaneous, layered
deployment of multiple
semiotics (talk, gesture,
artifact use and
production, interaction
with environmental
structure)” (Prior &
Hengst 19).”
(Olinger)
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Your group has an envelope full of words.

Use those words to write something—
together.
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Creativity Within Structure: Time and Topics
Common Core and
Collaborative
Writing
8th Grade
Writing
Standard 5
Collaborative writing requires
metacognitive conversations about
writing by asking students to give their
own voice to and to listen to others’ ways
of approaching the writing process.
Incorporating collaborative writing in the
classroom teaches students the process,
the activity, the skills, of writing.
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Co-authoring externalizes thinking about
writing and makes it explicit.
Co-authoring allows students to incorporate
into their own repertoires concepts,
strategies, and language patterns of their
peers.
Co-authoring prompts students to write more
recursively.
Co-authoring emphasizes planning. (Dale 14)
…the ‘Writing Buddies’ strategy was successful in its
aim to provide students with an experience of
writing that was ‘social, flexible and holistic’. It
helped to construct a classroom context in which
interaction, discussion and immediate feedback
were involved in producing text ... There were also
indications of the potential in collaboration for
developing students’ metacognitive knowledge of
the processes they orchestrate when writing, by
externalising their thinking through discussion with
their ‘buddy’ (Humphris 212).

“…we had more of a strategy beforehand to
execute our paper.” -Maddie

“I learned how to be patient during this [process]
as well as different tools (such as thesaurus) to
help me.” -Emily

“While I edit maybe twice, we edited many more
times…Now I see the importance of writing and
rewriting many times over…” -Collin
Collaborative writing teaches students
invaluable social skills such as productive
conflict resolution, problem solving, and the
confidence to argue for their ideas.
“One argument for the use of collaborative
writing in our classroom is that ‘collaboration is
an important skill to learn in preparation for
working with others in schools and in the
workplace’ (Beach et al)” (Rish 28).
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Co-authoring promotes positive attitudes
toward self, others, and school.
Co-authoring encourages positive cognitive
conflict.
(Dale 14)

“The next time I work with a group, I hope to
be more open about my disagreements…”
-Justin

“I would improve on the expression of my
own ideas.” -Collin

“I learned how to take criticism without being
offended…We negotiated which phrase
would work best.” -Nick

Raisin Bread: one writer incorporates parts of
the work of several others.

Chunk: writers divide the sections to be
written.

Blended: co-authors share the writing task
throughout.
(Dale 27)

Dale’s solution: primary writer, 50/50 format

“As an English teacher…I have less experience
with evaluating collaborative writing” (Rish
25).

“For one thing, we need to write more and
assess less” (Spandel 69).

New spaces for student and teacher authority in
the classroom.

Students write more recursively.

Writing becomes a social process and social
activity, and students learn to be social,
collaborative, and cooperative.

Everyone has metacognitive conversations
about writing.
Dale, Helen. Co-Authoring in the Classroom: Creating and Environment for Effective Collaboration.
Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1997.
Humphris, Rebecca. “Developing Students as Writers Through Collaboration.” Changing English 17.2
(2010): 201-214.
Kittle, Peter and Troy Hicks. “Transforming the Group Paper with Collaborative Online Writing.”
Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture.
9.3 (2009): 525-538.
Olinger, Andrea R. “Constructing Identities through ‘Discourse’: Stance and Interaction in
Collaborative College Writing.” Linguistics and Education 22.3 (2011): 273-286.
Rish, Ryan and Josh Caton. “Building Fantasy Worlds Together with Collaborative Writing: Creative,
Social, and Pedagogic Challenges.” English Journal 100.5 (2011): 21-28.
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What collaborative writing have you done?
What questions do you have?
Can you see yourself modifying an existing
assignment for collaborative writing?
Is this a stance you can see yourself taking?
Is it important that students learn to
coauthor?
In your career, what have you had to
coauthor?