Cooperative Writing-An Engaging Paired Writing Strategy
Cooperative Writing
During Cooperative Writing, one specific strategy involves the teacher assigning writing tasks to two students, and they take turns completing a writing task. The teacher may often provide some specific instructions like
“Discuss in pairs _____ and then take turns responding to the prompt___.”
Students then take turns to record their writing, building on each other’s sentences or paragraphs. They can also use this time to check each other’s work.
Pairing students during cooperative writing can serve many purposes:
- Struggling students paired with higher performing students can provide an avenue for the struggling student to learn proper grammar and vocabulary usage. In contrast, the higher performing student can practice reviewing writing rules with his or her peer.
- Two higher performing students can challenge each other to include additional details, more complex vocabulary, or a more refined sentence structure.
- Two lower performing students, with the help of the teacher,