TR 4. Historical Overview: Groups in the Writing
Classroom, by Anne DiPardo and Sarah Warshauer Freedman.
DiPardo and Freedman review research on the use of peer
groups in the classroom, focusing on peer response groups
in the writing class. They discuss the role of groups in
the collaborative process of language learning and suggest
directions for future research on collaborative learning,
particularly groups in writing classrooms. September,
1987; 17 pages; $3.50.
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TR 12. Peer Response Groups in Two Ninth-Grade
Classrooms, by Sarah Warshauer Freedman. Freedman looks
at peer response groups in two ninth-grade college
preparatory classrooms. Her analysis of the students'
face-to-face interactions reveals how students approach
the substance and form of their writing, self- and other-
evaluation, problem-solving, and audience awareness.
October, 1987; 29 pages; $4.00.
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TR 52. Planning Text Together: The Role of Critical
Reflection in Student Collaboration, by Lorraine
Higgins, Linda Flower, and Joseph Petraglia. The authors
argue that student collaboration does not necessarily
foster critical reflection in writing tasks; use of
reflection depends on students' assumptions about peer
interaction and the task itself. Three forms of reflection
were identified in college students' collaborative
planning on a course paper: evaluating, considering
alternatives, and justifying. While not all students
engaged in reflective thinking, those who did were more
likely to produce high-quality plans. September, 1991; 26
pages; $4.00.
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TR 56. Collaboration and the Construction of Meaning,
by Linda Flower and Lorraine Higgins. This study explores
the constructive and collaborative process of a group of
college freshmen in a writing course. Flower and Higgins
discuss the theoretical roots of collaborative planning,
look at students' planning as acts of construction and
negotiation, and raise questions about the role students'
strategic knowledge plays in this social/cognitive
process. December, 1991; 74 pages; $5.50.
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TR 60. Collaboration Between Children Learning to
Write: Can Novices be Masters? by Colette Daiute and
Bridget Dalton. Daiute and Dalton explore the role of peer
collaboration in literacy development as a case study in
the broader inquiry on the social nature of learning and
cognitive development. They analyze individual and
collaborative stories produced by low-achieving urban
third-graders on a computer, as well as transcripts of the
talk between collaborative pairs, to illustrate that
children can learn and use complex story elements by
working with their peers. April, 1992; 54 pages; $4.50.
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