With students voluntarily working from the first second of period until the last for an assignment that won’t even be counted as a grade, Jake Maddox has found an encouraging way to teach his classes how to effectively write essays.
Maddox has been an English I teacher at Timber Creek since 2015. Upon doing research on Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, a concept that explains the difference between what a learner can learn on their own versus what they can learn with the help of others, he was able to design the process of writing essays collaboratively.
“I have been able to modify and add to the collaborative essay process over the last two years,” said Maddox. “These are by far my favorite writing activities, so I will do them every year looking for ways to improve it.”
First, the students must write an essay on their own. They are then put into groups of three or four that include a strong writer and a weak writer. After giving each individual their paper back, the group shares their work with one another, combining the ideas from their own essays and turning it into one, improved essay.
“This really helps students in all tiers of the ZPD because strong writers get a chance to become the ‘teachers’ and weak writers get a chance to learn from their peers, transforming the classroom from 30 students and one teacher to 30 students and eight teachers,” Maddox said.
The next step in the process is creating a Collaborative Essay Presentation Poster, which contains all of the individual papers along with the one that the group worked on together. By having the students go on a gallery walk to view the other groups’ posters, they are enabled to catch how evidently stronger the final product is.
“You realize what you can do better and how you can just improve your writing,” said ninth grader Kylie Roberts.
Additionally, collaborative essay-writing opens the students up to how different their perspectives are from each other.
“I saw a different way that Kylie wrote hers and how I wrote mine, and it helped,” said Ania Rodriguez, who was a part of Roberts’ group.
Maddox will continue using this process, finding ways to refine it along the way as he devises more hands-on, peer-to-peer writing activities that will further enhance his students’ abilities. However, aside from teaching them how to write successfully, his mission expands far beyond just that.
“Encouraging kids to do things without worrying about the grade is hands down the ultimate goal of teachers,” he said. “The grade is an extrinsic motivator, and if you cannot eliminate extrinsic motivation, the students will eventually only perform giving maximum effort for the extrinsic reward, such as grades.”
According to Maddox, several students were asking if their assignment will be posted on Facebook rather than asking if it will be in the grade book.
“I am no expert on intrinsic motivation [motivation that doesn’t come from external incentives], but when students continue to work hard and work together on Friday, the last day of the Six Weeks, past the bell, on a paragraph that will not receive a grade, it’s beautiful.”
To learn more about Collaborative Essays and Maddox’ English 1 Classroom, visit his Facebook page here.