How to Teach Middle School Students to Peer Coach
The student peer coaching process teaches students to review and edit their work by setting goals, identifying issues, listening intentionally and giving feedback using specific communication protocols. Communicating what they struggle with in their writing, setting their own goals and using language that is appropriate and effective all lead to better performance in school and on assessments. Once students are trained in the two roles (writer and responder) and learn how to use the process, they can work in groups, as buddies or independently while the teacher circulates the classroom to offer individual assistance.
Instructions
-
-
1
Instruct students to set a goal for their writing piece. Goals can include giving it a strong beginning, ending with a cliffhanger or including descriptive detail. Have them write their goal down on the writing draft or on a separate piece of paper.
-
2
Instruct students to decide what issues they expect to have on their draft, or what they’re struggling with, and write it down. This will usually line up with their goal; for example, if the goal is to end with a cliffhanger, the issue might be receiving help writing conclusions; if the goal is to include detail, the issue might be coming up with lots of adjectives and adverbs. Issues will usually be what students struggle with, such as endings, thinking of titles or adding enough detail.
-
-
3
Pair each student up with a peer. Once your students are paired up, tell them to make a decision on the kind of feedback they want from a peer, and write it down on the prepared draft or a piece of paper. Students have five feedback choices: feedback on goals, feedback on issues, feedback on goals and issues, “I heard” feedback or no feedback (only available once per draft).
-
4
Instruct students that they will be peer coaching. Clarify what a peer coach role is: one peer coach role is as the writer, the person who sets a goal and an issue and makes a feedback choice. The other peer coach role is as the responder, the person who listens, takes notes and gives feedback to the writer.
-
5
Have each student writer tell his responder what the goal and issues are (or what the goals and issues are if more than one), and what the feedback choice is.
-
6
Instruct the responder to listen as the writer reads the piece, and take notes on what was asked for in feedback, as well as what to give in feedback.
-
7
Tell each writer to begin reading a writing piece aloud to a peer responder, and begin the peer coaching session.
-
8
Remind responders to give writers the feedback requested, and always say what they liked first, followed with what they heard as it was being read, using an "I heard" statement. For example, "I heard that there was a lot of commotion in the beginning, but that calmed down by the end."
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Remind students to refer back to their notes when they need to remember what the goal or issue was.
