Kari Franklin

In her article Kari Franklin describes how she created a successful learning environment in which students developed proper social skills through peer conferencing. Some kids go to school for purely social reasons, Franklin realized that by introducing in- class discussions, she eliminated the need for excessive chatter during instructional time. After realizing that the group sharing was not working out, she looked at the peer conferencing from a social competence point of view. In peer conferences, students team up and share what they have written with one another. Not only does this activity improve conversations about writing, it also builds on core conversational skills through peer collaboration. Through trial and error Franklin went from peer editing, to peer response and finally settled on peer conferencing. An effective peer conference consists of multiple social skills
To show students what an ineffective listener looks like, Franklin role played by painting her nails and combing her hair as they spoke. After this modeling, the class created a poster compiling what they wrote down. As he went through the suggestions, she encourage students to think deeper on their entries. For example, when she came across an entry that said “pay attention” she asked the students what it looks like to “pay attention”. Throughout the year, she added to the chart. By having students read the article “Map of Writing in Terms of Audience and Response” by Peter Elbows, she had the students chart their past social sharing experiences. In the top row of the chart students outlined the encounters they might have had and in the left hand column, they outlined the types of audiences they have had. When students read their works aloud she expected the audience to be supportive and create a support system for all speakers which is an important social skill to