Peer Response Groups in the Writing Classroom: Theoretic Foundations and New Directions

The peer response group in which students respond to one another’s writing is commonly used in the writing classroom, from kindergarten through college. Although enthusiastically advocated by practitioners and supported by current theories of the teaching and learning of writing, response groups are difficult to organize effectively. This review examines the pedagogical literature on response groups, places that literature in the context of current theories of the teaching and learning of writing, and then examines the small number of studies of peer response groups. Key issues include (a) the degree of teacher control over the groups and the effects of control structures, and (b) the kinds of social interactions within groups, with attention to how those interactions relate to the larger instructional context and to teaching and learning in the groups. Suggestions are made for reconceptualizing peer response to writing, with an emphasis on moving away from the teacher-initiated and controlled response group toward encouraging spontaneous peer talk during the writing process.