Peer-review activities: Transitioning from private to public writing

COLOMBO, LAURA

Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos AIres

Jornada; II Jornadas Internacionales de Lenguas Modernas y II Jornadas Internacionales de Lengua Inglesa "Conectándonos al futuro"; 2020

Universidad del Salvador

Most of the written works produced by language teacher trainees while pursuing their degree are only read by professors and are meant to evaluate students´ knowledge (Carlino, Iglesia, & Laxalt, 2013). Writing, then, seems to be conceptualized as a mere channel to communicating something that students already know. This does not only neglect the epistemic function of writing (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987) but also oversimplifies the writing process (Russell, 2013). With the aim of reframing the place of writing in teacher education, this presentation shows how feedback practices can become an arena where students reflect on their own writing processes as well as enact and learn a scholarly practice such as peer review. Specifically, it shares some concrete ways of scaffolding learning (Vygotsky, 1986) by transitioning from whole-class to peer-centered revision activities. On the whole, this pedagogical stance embraces rethinking student writing as an activity in which they work not only with texts but also with their own identities (Kamler & Thomson, 2007) as academic writers.