Collaborative Writing Strategies

Collaborative writing involves developing instructional arrangements whereby adolescent writers work together to plan, draft, revise, and edit their compositions. Collaborative writing refers to projects where written work is created by multiple people together rather than individually. Sometimes, an editor or the teacher oversees the work, or it can grow organically. Collaborative writing is an excellent way to teach teen writers. Sometimes it is called shared writing or interactive writing.

Lesson Plan Ideas for Collaborative Writing:

• Give a group of students a topic. Each student writes a question about the topic. The students then share their questions with the members of the group. This activity strengthens the students' abilities to use inquiry during prewriting.
• Give a group of pupils a topic. The students write the theme in the middle of a piece of butcher paper. The students then work together creating a mind map of the subject. I move my students to the cafeteria for this activity where they can spread out and use different colored markers for the mind maps.
• Give each student a sticky note. Post a topic on the board. Students write down everything that they know about that topic on the sticky note. Students then place the sticky notes on the subject on the board.
• Divide students into groups of three. Give each group an inspirational quotation about working together. The group of writers brainstorms ideas related to the quotes.

Establish ground rules for the collaborative brainstorming. These expectations will help to establish comfort and make the time more useful. Will it be a free for all where anyone can add any idea at any time? Should students raise their hands? Who will be the secretary? Is interrupting okay? Should people try to interrupt or analyze someone's idea? Should everyone have to participate? How long should the collaborative brainstorming take place?

Here are some collaborative brainstorming tricks:

• What is the opposite of the idea?
• Create random theme generators.
• Rotate seats randomly.
• Remove all roadblocks.
• Introduce roadblocks.

These are just a few ways of using collaborative groups for brainstorming. Naturally, students are not going to collaborate on their individual articles or essays. It is fun to have occasions when students work in cooperative groups on drafting ideas.

Here are some more lesson plan ideas for collaborative writing:

• Give a group of three students a set of words (ten to twenty) and tell them that they have to create a collaborative story using those words.
• Three-step interviews are a wonderful way for students to get to know classmates and practice collaborative writing. Put students in groups of three. The students create interview questions and take turns interviewing each other. The group then writes collaborative bios about each group member. The students share the bios with the class.
• In a roundtable discussion, students sit in groups and write a collaborative response to a question or a quotation. Students then share these answers with the class. This activity is fantastic for having students analyze a piece of text. I always have students read the text independently.

Here is a checklist for collaborative writing? 

• Where does the group experience match the standards?
• What is the overall purpose or learning goal of the group activity?
• Are the learning goals specific, clear, worthy, realistic, and achievable?
• Are the activities meaningful and is their time in the schedule for the action?
• How will I plan the mix of the group members?
• What are the interests of the writers? What are their strengths and their weakness?
• What resources are needed for this activity?
• What kind of leadership will I provide?
• What are the learners roles and responsibilities?
• How will the group make decisions?
• How will I evaluate the group?

It is of utmost importance that the collaborative writing activity be directly related to your learning standards. You must also make sure that each writer is held equally accountable for the work. You must require that all members discuss and interact. Task cards are excellent for collaborative writing groups.

Teachers of writing must remember that collaboration is a useful tool for writers, it must be used in moderation and only with a specific outcome in mind. Many times it is better to present the task to the whole group of students before having them divide up into small groups. Students may need time to ponder the required work.

Here are some ways to give your student writing groups a mental jolt:

• Roleplay before you break into groups.
• When one person in the group has an idea, the other group members pepper that person with questions.
• Take time out for silent reflection.
• Give everyone in the group a piece of paper; give the group a prompt. Each student writes down his idea on a sheet of paper, then exchanges it. This forces everyone in the group to submit an idea.

Lesson Plan

Collaborative Stories: Prewriting and Drafting

Gather the students together for the mini lesson. Review the narrative elements. Students discuss characters, settings, conflicts. Students get together in groups of three to generate story ideas. One person in the group needs to be the secretary; one needs to share the idea with the class. When all groups are finished generating ideas (I sometimes call them gist statements), students share their group ideas with the whole class. The students work together to create story maps.

The teacher guides the students by asking the following questions:

• What do you like best about this story idea?
• Do you have any concerns or questions about this idea?
• What are some suggestions for this idea?

Groups make revisions to their story maps after the large group discussion.

Student groups will be using their story maps as a reference point for writing some possible story beginnings, which is an excellent way to teach hooks. Later the maps and notes can be used to write collaborative stories.

Here is another collaborative approach:

Collaborative writing requires that students write as a team. In one method, a higher achieving student is assigned to be partners with a low-achieving student. The low student brings his draft to the high student. The high student edits the weak student's text.

Like any group activity, collaborative writing must be structured. Students must have a purpose for writing the text. There must be firm rules, guidelines, and expectations for each group and group members. The rubric for scoring the piece of writing must be clear and concise.

Picture books and mentor texts enhance any mini-lesson. One day a week, set aside some class time to share a mentor text with the students.

Here are a just a few text selections to use as mentor text:

The Fortune Tellers by Lloyd Alexander

Luci Babbidge's House by Sylvia Cassidy

In the year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord

Arthur for the Very First Time by Patricia McLachlan

The Cay by Theodore Taylor