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Spring Hill Young Writers Group

Melinda Egan and Anne Weaver

AGQTP Project

What is SHYWG?

» A collaborative creative writing experience for Year 8 students

» A cluster of 4 inner city schools» 32 students in total» 1 guest author» Introductory and closing evenings» 2 full writing days» Editing and publishing afternoons» Books published in ibook author

Goals of SHYWG

» To enhance the writing process through collaboration with peers.

» To improve understanding of narrative elements such as character point of view and plot structures.

» To improve editing skills and the ability to provide peer feedback.

» To provide students with an opportunity to become publishers of material in an authentic online context for a variety of audiences.

» To increase effective group participation skills.

Writing Stories

» 4 students per group » Stimulus and story crafting provided by guest

author and TLs» Group work and ICT skills enhanced by teachers» Feedback given by students and some guidance

by teachers

What does it look like?http

://animoto.com/play/cLSxcrrn60TnqIrm0SGx1A

Collaborate

» Students collaborate on elements of story» 4 characters explore the same scenario from

their point of view» Each student writes their own story based on

the common scenario» Shared wiki – information, group discussionwriting, feedback, editing

Wiki - PBworks

Shared space for discussion, development and clarification of story ideas for each groupIndividual

stories with peer feedback

Peer Feedback

Wiki Evaluation

» Provided a clear structure on how and where to provide peer feedback

» Provided a platform for support materials and workshop notes

» Able to be continually modified by teachers and students

» Able to post engaging multimedia» Students able to be active online participants» Teachers notified of editing progress» Wiki most beneficial support to get the most out of the

group work – 60% respondents

Analysis of Data

» Survey results - pre and post workshop comparison

» Pre workshop survey (32 responses)» Post workshop survey (23 responses)» Overall - positive feedback from students

˃ Group work˃ Challenges˃ Peer editing and feedback˃ Benefits for learning˃ Digital Citizenship

Benefits of group work

» Improvement made in attitude towards benefits of group workPre workshop survey Post workshop survey

57%

30%

13%

47%

44%

9%

Group Challenges

» Decrease in challenges

17

11

18

21

6

1

Linking stories and differing ideas 9None 5Uneven contributions 2Personality Clash 1Listening 1Confidence 1Inflexibility 1

What challenges (if any) did you have with working in a group?

Peer Editing

» Positive reflection on peer editing

16%

37%

9%

34%

3%

17%

52%

26%

4%

Peer Feedback

» Increase in peer status as credible editor

31%

47%

3%

9%

6%

3%

13%

52%

4%

0%

17%

Quality of Work

» Students see the benefits for learning

35%

48%

17%

13%

35%

35%

13%

4%

Digital Citizenship

» More input needed on publishing online

9%

25%

12%

19%

6%

29%

0%

22%

31%

26%

22%

Group Work Overall

» A positive experiencePost Workshop Survey

35%

61%

Ibooks author

» Professional end product » Decide to publish as ibook online or not» Some difficulties with different operating

systems» Some students unfamiliar with Mac» Save ibooks in one designated location» Allocate group leader to combine books» Instruct about copyright permissions» Not edited by teachers

Is collaborative wiki writing a better method than traditional ways of teaching writing ?

My writing workshop Term 3

Percy Jackson – missing chapterMrs Weaver’s Nine Writing Steps – apply to practice story, then write a

new short story from different character’s

point of view on G Drive

Step 1: Plan for SuccessStep 2: Characters

Step 3: Sizzling StartsStep 4: Tightening TensionStep 5: Dynamic Dialogue

Step 6: Show, Don't TellStep 7: Ban the Boring Bits

Step 8: Exciting EndingsStep 9: Review, rewriting, reflection

Online collaborative writing workshop Term 1

Group collaborates on common plotEach group member writes short story

from their own character’s point of view on wiki

Brian Falkner’s Writing Workshop

Step 1: What is story?Step 2: Plot development

Step 3: Character - Make them real, Make us care, Make us laugh, Save the

catStep 4: Covenant of the arc: characters

are not the same at the end of the story as at the start.

Step 5: The writing triangle: Doing stuff, description, Dialogue

Step 6: “The power of “what would be better than this?”

Step 7: Writing with emotionStep 8: Peer editing

Step 9: ibook making

What John Hattie says:

“… greater attention to an outcome will improve performance on any measure”http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107018/chapters/What-Is-the-Teacher's-Job-When-Teaching%C2%A2.aspx

Almost everything works. Ninety percent of all effect sizes in education are positive… setting the bar at zero is absurd. http://pragmaticreform.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/hattie/

“Our debates are too concentrated on how we teach, whereas all the visible learning work tells me it needs to be about the impact of how we teach. Observe the impact. Wow, is that powerful.” http://www.ifl.ac.uk/publications/intuition/intuition-issue-11/interview?SQ_DESIGN_NAME=print_friendly&

Kids Speak Out on Student EngagementAPRIL 26, 2012

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-engagement-stories-heather-wolpert-gawron?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=blog-kids-speak-out-question

"What engages students?" 220 eighth graders. Responses seemed to fall under 10 categories.

1. Working with their peers

2. Working with technology

3. Connecting the real world to the work we do/project-based learning

4. Clearly love what you do

5. Get me out of my seat!

6. Bring in visuals

7. Student choice

8. Understand your clients -- the kids

"Encourage students to voice their opinions as you may never know what you can learn from your

"Teachers should know that within every class they teach, the students are all different.“

9. Mix it up!

"I don't like doing only one constant activity...a variety will keep me engaged in the topic.

"Also, you can't go wrong with some comedy. Everyone loves a laugh...another thing that engages me would be class or group games. In Language Arts I've played a game of "dodge ball. We throw words at each other, one at a time."

10. Be human

Maddie Which story is written collaboratively in a mixed sex group?Reasons?

1. Eliza breaks into a haunted house at night to retrieve a ball, and finds this very frightening.

2. Clarisse creates an illusory sea monster that attacks Percy, so Percy takes revenge by making Clarisse’s cabin wet and smelly.

3. In a future world, Technologians run out of coal and attack the Naturalisers who grow their own food and use solar power. Iggy, the son of the Technologian leader is saved by his enemy, the Naturalizers. He stops his father and makes Technologians realise they have to live with nature.

Maddie Which writing is more complex? Why?

Term 1 I sat in front of our Holograph Projector, watching some Technologian freak with shiny waxed legs and unnaturally white hair talk about different shades of eyeliner. I had my eyes trained on her surgically puffed lips with disgust. I unconsciously traced my fingernails around the little buttons around the remote, pretending I was reading Braille. Today I felt so lazy. It was the hottest day this summer and some of our solar panels broke, so we have no air-conditioning. I stared longingly at the picture of Antarctica that my sister, Zeeta, drew. How could such a place ever have existed? Apparently, it used to be so cold, that there was ice there! Now of course, it has melted.

Salty Revenge Madeleine End Term 3The huge monster had me pinned to the ground. Horrifying seaweed essence slowly

dripped onto the ground beside me. The gigantic mass of seaweed and coral raised its head and roared, shattering my eardrums.

Ribbons of seaweed hung from its humanoid figure like tassels. Its spectral yellow eyes were hidden from view, deep underneath the vulgar seaweed tangle. A ring of dead coral decorated its face, like a crown.

In my peripheral vision I could see campers rushing out of their cabins, unsure of what to do. I saw someone throw a spear at the monster’s back, but it bounced off harmlessly, as if it were a twig. I tried to stretch my hand out towards my sword that lay on the ground beside me. My fingertips were just touching the cool, unforgiving blade.

Q6 Which method of learning about writing did you find more enjoyable. Please give reasons.

I enjoyed collaborative writing more because we had the opportunity to read each others' stories and provide feedback as well as receive feedback..

Wiki writing was very enjoyable, and I would recommend it to anyone. It was a new, enjoyable experience that I have valued. However, for me, I prefer writing by myself as I am in control of the story, and not dependant on others as much.

Q7 Which method of learning about writing did you find improved your story writing more. Please give reasons.

I feel as if the group work improved my story the most because I learnt about other people's writing styles and used their idea to improve my own story.

I believe the wiki writing was a unique experience where other students gave me improvements for my story. I liked this, as it was from students my age.

Q8 What improvements would you suggest for the collaborative wiki writing activity?

I would suggest smaller groups…it was very hard to settle on a basic story plot.

More time to talk with the group.

Q9 What improvements would you suggest for the classroom teacher directed writing workshop?

I have no suggestions - the lessons given my the teachers were very informative and helpful.

In the last two years I have attended writing workshops, and have found teachers focusing on writing activities too much. I prefer looking over the writing activities as I write, rather than go through them.

WHAT NEXT?GENDER …mixed gender groups produce less stereotypical writing. For example, it was found that boys are more likely to present females as victims and

use a lot of violence, when writing on their own. Girls were found to create more independent characters with stronger voices, and less feminised stories when writing in mixed groups. Handbook of Writing Research by Charles A. MacArthur, Steve Graham, Jill Fitzgerald Guilford Press, 2006

CREATIVITY "compositions written by pairs were more advanced than individually written ones, and the benefits of collaboration carried over into

subsequent individual creative writing (Hartup, 1996)." Vass et al found that the benefits of collaborative creative writing are dependent on the quality of collaboration, as well as other contextual factors, which is why teachers need to explicitly teach collaborative skills and set up a task suited to collaboration. Vass, Eva; Littleton, Karen; Miell, Dorothy and Jones, Ann (2008). The discourse of collaborative creative writing: Peer collaboration as a context for mutual inspiration. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 3(3), pp. 192–202. http://oro.open.ac.uk/12788/2/

EMOTION and GROUPS“necessity to consider the emotional aspects of cognition. Coates 1996, used the term collaborative floor to describe the period of mutual focus

and intense sharing, where the overlaps and interruptions are neither chaotic nor off-putting. This fuzzy, organic, non-linear type of collective thinking is called ‘ripple thinking’ (Vass 2007b). "When engaged in ripple thinking, ideas build on each other and get more and more rich and complex, expanding in all directions like ripples of water." Vass states productive talk in creative contexts may not conform to tidy or linear discourse patterns. Classroom practices need to accommodate such unpredictability and unboundedness. Vass, Eva; Littleton, Karen; Miell, Dorothy and Jones, Ann (2008). The discourse of collaborative creative writing: Peer collaboration as a context for mutual inspiration. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 3(3), pp. 192–202. http://oro.open.ac.uk/12788/2/

OTHER APPLICATIONS _ YEAR 10 EXTENTION CLASS USING SHARED ONENOTE

NON EXTENSION CLASS

Awards

Best opening line . Nobody bumps into Ashley Prescott and gets away with it, especially me.

Best conclusionThe worn-out walls of the van hide more than cobwebs: they hide hundreds of stories that no one will ever know.

My story will be one of them soon. The engine rumbles to life, its rusty skeleton coughs and splutters carrying me to the police station, leaving my one and only friend, alone. Something shifted in me again, not hatred or fear or anything like that, but something deeper and more powerful...

Scariest lineMore bangs rang through the air in the distance, followed by very faint echoing screams that sliced the silence into

pieces

Funniest line If you or your slob of a friend get on my nerves one more time I will end your social lives forever... As soon as I get a

signal!

Ickiest lineEvan trailed out after me, holding the lifeless head of the dead professor under his armpit as if it was a football.

Other awards- best individual story, best group story

CHANGES IMPLEMENTED IN 2013

» ibooks» Student surveys - survey monkey » Group work and collaboration skills taught

explicitly; Listening and conflict resolution training and structures added

» No story cards» Peer feedback - given headings and allocated

person to edit» Explicit discussion of aspects of collaborative

writing eg. plagiarism

Further Improvement

» Do more conflict resolution and active listening skills before workshop.» Discuss importance of character roles - to overcome student conflict over being the hero

or the villain. The importance of hero, villain and supporting characters could be explored.

» The winning group used a jigsaw approach rather than parallel stories, so alternative plot structures could be further developed.

» More reliance on peer feedback, and reduce teacher feedback further. There could be 2 sessions of peer editing, one by a group member, then another at each school.

» Gain more understanding of gender differences and writing.» Arrange logins beforehand - problem with emails at some schools - check before event.» Consider wikispaces - can be used with Apple and Windows devices - now has comment

tool.» Improve technology barriers; either find and use alternative tools for collaborative

publishing or address login and format issues with ibooks.» Need more time for publishing ibooks.» Develop student input to online publishing – leadership role in groups; explicit teaching

of digital citizenship.» Author input – Student activities more conservative and texts mentioned more age

appropriate, author speak for less time on night.» Welcome evening – provide clear aims and breakdown of sessions.» Areas for further consideration: compare stories 2011 to 2013 to see if there has been

any improvement in stories due to the enhancements to the process.