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Ginger Mason: My name is Ginger Mason.

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I teach first grade here at Fall Creek School
in Yadkin County, North Carolina.

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Jon Holleman: My name is Jon Holleman.

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I teach sixth-grade language arts and social
studies at Fall Creek Elementary School in

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Yadkin County, North Carolina.

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Mason: In first grade, Writing Buddies is
the time for students to use each other as

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sounding boards.

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They will meet at the beginning of the writing
process during their brainstorming

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and prewriting phase.

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And what I like for them to do is just tell
their story out loud before they ever start

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writing it, just to use as a sounding board
because I feel like if they can think it and

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say it, it makes it a little bit easier for
them to write it.

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Student 1: My mom's sister, she had a dog
named Merlin, and it was a boy.

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It was my dog's father. 
And he was probably 19.

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Mason: And also they will use it to revise.

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They use Writing Buddies during their revision 
and editing phase of the writing process.

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Then they'll meet again and read 
their story out loud to each other,

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and at this time they are listening.

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And there are certain questions that I have
hung up in the room, good conversation questions,

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and they're listening for places that they
can help each other make their story better.

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Student 2: You need to change that because
I don't know what it even means.

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Student 3: I need to cut it out?

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Student 4: You could say, "Pepperoni and
cheese is my favorite."

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Student 5: But my only favorite is cheese.

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Student 4: Then write that.

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Student 5: But I did write it: "My favorite
type of pizza is cheese pizza."

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Student 4: Oh, that's good. It's pretty
good!

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Student 5: Thanks. Now I'm going to write
the final chapter...

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Holleman: Writing Buddies in the lower grades, 
but Writing Partners in the sixth grade, is

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a time that we allow them to talk to each
other to get an initial feel of their ideas

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and of the writing; they have a sounding board.

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Writing Partners will generally sit together.

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Sometimes it's face to face, sometimes it's
side by side.

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The person who wrote the piece will read the
piece.

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After they read the piece, then they will
hand the text over to the Writing Partner

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so that they can have the text in front of
them so that they can not only listen to the

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text but then they can also read the text.

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Student 6: Just make one sentence...

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Then over here, what do you see whenever 
the ground, like, splits open?

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Do you see, like, a little red fire...

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I don't know, whatever you see. And then...

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Student 7: And then a new sentence.

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What the degrees would be when it was so hot.

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Student 8: "Boom! Thunder!”it echoes loud
like a 42-gun salute.

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Then lightning slams down, strikes on a tree,
and explodes."

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Student 9: I love this line right here, "Rain
slashes down," that is very good.

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That's a good description.

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Student 8: "Lightning strikes here, very
loud...baseball mitt."

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Student 9: Comma, comma, baseball mitt.

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Mason: In first grade, you have to do a lot
of modeling at the beginning of the year.

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This whole writing process is new to them.

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So at the beginning of the year, I introduce
Writing Buddies.

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I'm their writing buddy, and they are my
writing buddy.

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And I will purposely make mistakes in my story so that we can go through and ask these kinds

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of questions that I want to see in their conversations as writing buddies.

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How can they help me make my story better?

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How can they edit my story and help me do
things?

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And I kind of get them having those conversations with me, and then gradually I take it away

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so I'm not the one guiding it; they are
guiding.

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They are coming up with the questions to ask
each other.

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Holleman: At every step of the writing process, Writing Partners will look a little different.

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So in the collecting/generating stage, their
writing buddy, the writing partner, will say,

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"You know, I really think you should write
about this particular story.

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I think that would make an excellent story."

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During another stage, called rehearsal, where they try out different ways of telling the

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story, then the writing partners will come
to each other and they will say, "I have

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tried this way.

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Is there another way that I can try?"

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Or, "I have tried this.

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What do you think if I would try this?"

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And then the writing partner is responsible
for telling their partner if they think it's

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a good attempt or if they think they're
on the right track.

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Student 10: I think you should get more--something else that you've seen in the forest.

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Because all you describe is, like...you don't
describe the background.

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You don't describe the trees.
What kind are they?

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Is it sunny or cloudy?

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You don't describe if the air's fresh
or it's kind of hot and sticky.

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Holleman: I really enjoy the Writer's 
Workshop model, which includes Writing Partners.

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It allows the children more opportunity to
talk to each other; it allows them more opportunity

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to get their ideas out into the air.

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It is freeing, for us as teachers, where they
take that responsibility as teachers, as little

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teachers throughout the room.

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They talk to each other and they say, "Oh,
you could try this, or you could try that."

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They all want to be heard, and under the former way of doing things, it was very difficult

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for all of them to get their ideas heard,
their opinions heard.

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This is a way that they can be heard with
each other.