This document discusses writing circles, which are small collaborative writing groups. It provides background on writing circles, including their purpose and rationale. Research has found that writing circles help students become better writers by providing an ongoing supportive audience and encouraging experimentation and collaboration. They allow students to generate ideas, provide feedback to each other, and improve their writing and final products through the writing process. Teacher candidates who participated in a writing circles project reported improved self-perceptions as authors and valued the ideas, feedback, and relationships gained from collaborating with peers.

1. Writing Circles: Enhancing writing
experiences by providing a cultural
bridge for literacy communities
Sherron Killingsworth Roberts, Professor of Language Arts and LIteracy
Nandita Gurjar, Doctoral Student
Norine Blanch, Doctoral Student
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA

2. WHAT ARE WRITING CIRCLES?

3. Workshop Goals
• Describe the
process, products,
and perceptions of
teacher candidates
who participated in
writing circles
(Vopat, 2009).

4. Purpose This research
quantitatively and
qualitatively
measures self-reported
perceptions
and attitudes of
teacher candidates
about authorship and
writing
collaboratively.

5. Rationale for Writing Circles
• Creating positive and
effective writers is best
facilitated by engaging
in authentic writing
experiences (Graves,
1983, 1994; Murray,
2003)

6. Rationale for Collaboration
 Shown to be effective in
learning to write AND writing
to learn
 Provides a cultural bridge
for communication
 Researched to be an
effective technique for
spawning proficiently
crafted text (Graham &
Perin, 2007)
Are you ready for what the research says?

7. Deep Research
You’ll learn to
love ‘em kid!

8. Researched Support for Writing Circles
Why? – shed fear of blank page, build fluency, develop confidence, learn content, explore
text structures (Vopat, p.2)
Immediate response from an audience (no waiting for teacher
comments); affirm the social aspect of writing (human
interaction and solitary inscription together). Gere, 1987
Learners expect & enjoy being listened to – builds confidence,
fluency, joy, and delight - takes writing to the next level – is
low risk, friendly and supportive (Vopat, p.6)
Low risk writing is not necessarily low guilty. It means the
pressure is off; each kid can be successful and take writing risks
without fear of penalty or failure (p.69)
Connect with one
Writing Circles help learners become better writers through a recurrent workshop
structure that defines an ongoing supportive audience, honors and develops writing
voice, encourages experimentation and collaboration, and rehabilitates the writing
wounded through low risk writing experiences (p.6)

9. Vopat, J. (2009). Writing circles: Kids revolutionize workshop cont.
 Provide a structure for a neglected part of what kids need to become better writers:
independent small group collaboration to motivate and support student-directed
writing (p.8).
 Frees up the teacher to participate, minilesson and conference-- students can write
everyday, but need specific supportive responses. Teachers can’t conference one-on-one
everyday, but kids can with each other.
 Keys to successful writing circle collaboration: kids feel comfortable writing, sharing
and discussing; clear guidelines in place; predictable structure; kids understand
responsibilities; mechanisms and strategies to help kids reach consensus (p.10)
 Writing circles are seed beds where writing ideas germinate and quality writing grows
(p.18).
 Writing circles welcome all kids at their level of writing ability, celebrate that writing
and help them take their skill to the next level.
 Writing circles build confidence and is really a reparative activity where students will
succeed for the first time ever (p.19).
 Writing circles become publishing circles when their purpose shifts from generating
drafts to preparing a more fully developed final piece: agent, illustrator, reviewer,
editor, and author.

10. Theoretical Grounding in Social
Learning
Vygotsky
Zone of Proximal Development
Bandura
 Learn new info and
behavior by watching
others.
 People are intrinsically
motivated to imitate when filled with
personal pride, satisfaction, and a sense of
accomplishment.
 An individual’s self-perception of writing
ability is a decisive factor in their
subsequent writing growth (Vopat, 2009,
p.19).
 When people interact with others,
they more naturally absorb and
strengthen their knowledge than they
otherwise might if they were learning
on their own (Bailey, 2014, p. 18).
 Social interaction plays a role in the
development of cognition and
learning.

11. Situated Motivation
 Choice of topic permitted.
 More persistent and sustained effort.
 The ideas and comments
of peers that encourage
the learner to explore
ideas further.
 More willing to emulate peers
 Obligation to meet the groups’ timelines
and collaborative goals.
 Feedback that comes from within the group is typically more powerfully received than
the teacher/manager’s suggestions for improving manuscripts.

12. Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing of
adolescents in middle and high schools
 Young people who do not have the ability to transform thoughts experiences, and ideas into
written words are in danger of losing touch with the joy of inquiry, the sense of intellectual
curiosity, and the inestimable satisfaction of acquiring wisdom that are the touchstones of
humanity (p.1).
 National Commission on Writing: If students are to learn, they must write (p.2).
 Writing well is not just an option for young people; it is a necessity (p.3).
 “Silent majority” of students lack writing proficiency, but don’t receive additional help (p.3).
 Collaborative writing is among the 11 elements of current writing instruction found to be
effective, through a meta analysis of research, for helping adolescent students learn to
write well and to use writing as a tool for learning.
 Defined as: the use of instructional arrangements in which adolescents work together to plan
draft, revise, and edit their compositions.
 NAEP writing (2002): only 22-26% of students (4,8,12) scored at the proficient level; 72% of
4th graders, 69% of 8th graders, and 77% of 12th graders did not meet NAEP writing
proficiency goals.
 Teaching adolescents strategies for planning, revising, and editing their compositions has
shown a dramatic effect on the quality of students’ writing. We must explicitly teach steps to
prewrite, revise, and edit (Graham, 2006)
 When students help each other with one or more aspects of writing, it has a strong positive
impact on quality (p.16).

13. Collaborative writing practices and writing support technologies
Rachel Rimmershaw
 Collaboration is a widely seen practice in the workplace –
“collaborative activities in pursuit of common goals” (p.1).
 Collaborative writing can be seen as a social process (p.1).
 The term collaborative writing does not define a commonly-accepted practice. It
could be two or more people working on one paper, many authors’ names on one
piece of writing, many individual pieces of writing with collaboration of ideas
through the writing process.

14. Empirical Study on Collaborative Writing: What Do Co-authors Do, Use, and Like?
SYLVIE NOËL & JEAN-MARC ROBERT
• Writing is a long and complex task and many authors try to shorten the
production time, lighten their workload, or improve the final result by
pooling resources (p.63).
• found that respondents thought a group’s effort resulted in a better
document than when they worked individually (p.64).
• Ede & Lundsford (1990), Group writing includes any writing done in collaboration
with one or more persons with approx. 87% of the documents produced had at
least two authors (p.64).
• ADVANTAGES: Getting several viewpoints, using different expertise, reducing
errors, and obtaining a better, more accurate text (p.65).
• DISADVANTAGES: Integrating everyone’s writing into a single style, longer
time to accomplish, dividing the tasks equitably, and a diffusion of responsibility
(p.65).
• Sharples et al. (1991), longitudinal partitioning, the work is divided into
sequential stages, and each stage is allocated to a different person or sub-group.
In parallel partitioning, the document is divided into sections, and
each person or sub-group works on a different section in parallel to
the others. – and thus begins the story of writing circles

15. Essential Elements of Writing Circles
Students:
Name the group
Choose a writing topic
Share/respond
Reflect in WC notebook
Collaborate to revise/edit/publish
Teacher:
 Conducts minilessons +mentor texts
(craft/management)

16. Historical Grounding:
Research on Writing Process
Donald Murray (1982):
70% of the time should be
devoted to prewriting,
including:
Choosing a topic (Graves,
1976; Chandler-Olcott and
Mahar), jotting ideas in a
notebook (Fletcher,1996);
considering purpose
(Halliday, 1975), audience
and genre (Langer,1985;
Hilyard, 1983).
Graves (2003) calls these
activities of generating,
gathering ideas to be
“rehearsal activities”

17. ? Generating ideas & forming groups
(Roberts) or
? Forming groups & generating ideas
(Vopat, 2009)
• As a whole, the class generated a list of 10-
12 possible ideas, & volunteers who were
passionate about one of the topics formed
groups.
• Then, we proceeded to see if we had enough
people to form a viable group of about 5-7
seven members.

18. Invigorating experimentation
• My students faces grinned
widely when they noticed
literature circles on the
syllabus,
• because they had been
exposed to this format in
earlier coursework.
• However, when I explained
the concept of collaborative
writing through writing
circles, some faces looked a
bit nervous. One group
even named themselves the
Worry Warts.
• This presentation attempts
to tell the story of my
students evolving as writers
through a new strategy
called writing circles.

19. The Story of Writing Circles - Sherron
• Generating a stmt of the problem—Find the focus.
• Writing-go-round!
• Transitions & guiding sentences
• Effectively using subtitles
• Erradicting Empty Words
• Adding details that breath life into the topic
• Setting up googledocs
• Using accurate language aligned throughout
• Titles* echo, echo, echo…
• Writing a compelling intro
• Creating a strong finish
• Writing a cover letter
• APA references

20. Getting started in Writing Circles
• Vopat did, however, think of practical components
that I would have overlooked:
• 1. We need a NAME!
• 2. We need a folder with pockets for each group!
• 3. Discuss why you chose this group…

21. Some helps along the way…
• Affinity exercise with
post-its
• Move to web,
mindmap, bubblemap,
outline
• Avoid intro & concl at
first
• Launch in the body,
assigning parts.

22. Schedule for writing circles:
• 5-10 min of minilesson
• 10-20 min of
application & planning
• Teacher walking &
facilitating process
• It’s about the
process!!
• It’s not about
product yet!

23. !

24. Research Questions for Pilot Study
1. What shifts in attitudes about authorship
do teacher candidates self-report?
2. How do teacher candidates self-report
their perceptions of themselves as
authors/writers?

25. Survey Reflection for Writing Circle
After a semester of participating in a new pedagogical strategy entitled writing circles (Vopat, 2009), would you mind if I pick your
brain about your collaborative writing experience? If you choose to volunteer to respond, be assured that your individual answers
will not be identified, and only aggregate data will be reported. Many thanks!
1. How would you rank yourself as an author BEFORE this semester began? Circle one.
5-strong 3-avg 1-weak
2. How would you rank yourself as an author at the END of the semester? Circle one.
5-strong 3-avg 1-weak
3. Please comment on participating in writing circles at the BEGINNING of the semester: What were your perceptions then?
Does anything stand out to you?
4. Now, looking back, what was the best thing about joining a writing circle?
5. What was the least favorite thing about being a member of a writing circle?
6. How did the experience of writing collaboratively affect your attitude? Your skill?
ATTITUDE? _____ Positively SKILL? _____ Positively
_____ Neutral _____ Neutral
_____ Negatively _____ Negatively
PLEASE COMMENT:
7. What have you learned from the process of writing circles?
8. What will you take from this experience into your future classroom? Or not?
DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION What is your major? ___ ELEM _____ EXED
Check one: ______ < 25
______ 26-35
______ 36-45
______ 46- 55
______ 56+
Any prior experience as a writer/author? ____ In what ways?________

26. What shifts in attitudes about authorship do
teacher candidates self-report?
Quantitative
Descriptive Statistics N Mean S.D. Min. Max.
Self-perception before writing circles 28 3.11 1.031 1 5
Self-perception after writing circles 28 4.21 .957 3 5
Chi Square
Goodness of Fit
Self-perception
before writing circles
Self-perception after
writing circles
Chi Square
Df
Asymp. Sig
32.857
3
.000
10.571
2
.005

27. Results: Improvement in Self-Rank
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Self-reported rank as an author after the collaboration
weak average good strong

28. EXPLORING
Self-reported Growth as Authors
How do teacher candidates
self-report their
perceptions of themselves
as authors/writers?

29. RELATIONSHIPS
Qualitative Themes
IDEAS
FEEDBACK
IMPROVEMENT

30. Value of Collaboration: Themes 1 & 4
• Ideas/Feedback
“The best thing about joining a writing circle was having other
students to turn to for suggestions and ideas. Having 4 heads to
work is better than one. I was introduced to suggestions I would
have never come up with on my own.”
"The best thing was being able to bounce ideas off of other
people and receive immediate feedback on my writing from my
peers.”
“You get feedback on your own writing as well as have others
build on your ideas to make one big one.“
“The best thing was definitely being able to share ideas.”
“We bounced ideas off each other and blended our ideas
together to make it work- such as the title.”
“…… opened my eyes to new ideas and different points of view.”
"I was able to come up with ideas to share with my group and
receive positive feedback and working with these ideas to make
them the best possible.”
“Getting to collaborate with others, listening to ideas and
sharing.”
"Getting other people's insights”
“Having the opportunity to write with my peers and build upon
our piece by sharing ideas.”
“One thing I really enjoyed was how our poem started to come
together. Every class meeting, we had some new ideas to add or
delete.”
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Perception of the value of
collaboration
Ideas improving
writing/final
product
Relationships Feedback

31. Theme 2: Improving Writing/Final
Product
• "The best thing was definitely being able to share ideas and
work together as a group to improve our writing.“
• "I think the best thing about joining a writing circle was
seeing the final product put together after the efforts of all
members.“
• "I think it has helped me a great deal to work with others.
Our project turned out great.“
• "Collaboration of ideas. Together, we produced a great
product.“
• "I loved working with my group and felt like my writing
improved."

32. The Value of Collaboration: Theme 3
• Relationships
"I made a lot of new friends".
“Working with wonderful, intelligent
women.”
“I met new people………...”
“We got to really know our classmates and
begin working with each other.“
“Having the opportunity to write with my
peers and build upon our piece by sharing
ideas.”
“Working together as a group and learning
new strategies.”
“Getting to collaborate with others,
listening to ideas and sharing.”
"I loved working with my group".
"The best thing about joining a writing
circle was a positive outlook on group work
and now I have a great appreciation for all
my group members and all their hard
work.“
"Being able to share your work and get
feedback from a group“
“ I liked interacting with people in the
class.”
25
20
15
10
5
0
Collaboration experience
positive neutral negative

33. Lessons Learned: Writing Circles
• Did teacher candidates
report that they are likely
to use writing circles in
their future classrooms?
• "I have learned more about
the steps of the actual writing
process through authentic
hands on experience in the
writing circles".
• "I learned how beneficial it can
be for my future students to
have time set aside for them
to write collaboratively in
writing circles. Through
working with other students,
they are given the opportunity
to share their ideas and
examine new ones“
• I will implement writing circles
in my class to build writing
ability and confidence in my
students.

34. ANY
QUESTIONS?
Writing Circles:
Enhancing writing
experiences by
providing a bridge
for literacy
communities

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