Peer Response and Students' Revisions of their Narrative Writing

Framed by dialogic theory, this study examined the ways in which four grade eight students' revisions to their writing were influenced by peer feedback from informal interactions while writing a narrative and from a peer response group. Transcripts of students' talk were analyzed to determine the functions and topics of the peer feedback. Peer feedback in both settings influenced students' revisions at the word, sentence and organizational levels, although students made many more revisions to their writing than could be directly traced to the feedback. The peer talk that influenced the students' revisions served four functions: playing with ideas, clarifying ideas, questioning plausibility, and showing emotional response.