The Use of Google Docs Technology to Support Peer Revision

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate sixth-grade students with learning disabilities and their use of Google Docs to facilitate peer revision for informational writing.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative case study is used to examine how students used Google Docs to support peer revision. Constant comparative analysis with a separate deductive revision and overall writing quality analysis was used.

Findings

The findings indicate that students used key features in Google Docs to foster collaboration during revision, they made improvements in overall writing quality, their revisions focused on adding informational elements to support organization of their writing and revisions were mostly made at the sentence level, and students were engaged while using the technology.

Practical implications

We postulate that the use of peer revision coupled with Google Docs technology can be a powerful tool for improving student writing quality and for changing the role of the writing teacher during revision. The use of peer revision should be accompanied with strong explicit instruction using the gradual release of responsibility model so that peer tutors are well-trained. Writing teachers can use Google Docs to monitor and assess writing and peer collaboration and then use this knowledge to guide whole and small-group instruction or individual conferences.

Citation

Semeraro, J. and Moore, N.S. (2016), "The Use of Google Docs Technology to Support Peer Revision", Writing Instruction to Support Literacy Success (Literacy Research, Practice and Evaluation, Vol. 7), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 203-220. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2048-045820160000007013