A student-centred approach to dialogue and feedback is key to helping young writers improve their craft. The idea is to create "a safe space where teens do what teens do: explore, question, and work things out for themselves" (Kunzel & Hardesty, 2006, p. 5). Within this neutral zone or ‘affinity space’ knowledge is shared and transferred via informal mentorship (Jenkins, 2009). The social connections and natural dialogue that springs from collaborative writing spaces allows feedback to flow synchronously and asynchronously, and the students feel a strong sense that their contributions matter (Jenkins, 2019). Benefits don’t just flow from mentor to mentee, either. In a well-established student-led high school writing conference centre, it was observed that the peer tutors “learn to be more self-reflective in their own writing through dialogue around key issues in others’ writing” (Ferrebee & Carriazo-Osorio, 2020).
Case study: The biggest writer's workshop there is: welcome to fanfic
Image credit: Vinícius Vieira ft from Pexels
Fan fiction is one example of how authentic dialogue and feedback emerges from participatory cultures. "Fanfiction is a genre of amateur fiction writing that takes as its basis a “canon” of “original” material." (Pande, 2015). The original canon could be novel, television show or movie, but it can expand to almost any kind of stimulus. Fans of the original work create fanworks that expand the universe and characters of the original narrative. Fanfiction is overwhelmingly non-commercial and freely shared, allowing fans to “play in an imaginative sandbox, interpreting and reinterpreting events, relationships and characters to flesh out different scenarios” (Pande, 2015).
A fan-fiction site is a uniquely energetic learning environment. Unlike in the classroom, where a writing prompt is as likely to be met with groans as with enthusiasm, writers on fan-fiction websites are thrilled to be there, excited to write, and passionate about the material—because it’s based on a book, TV show, movie, video game, or something else they already love (Beck, 2019). Fan fiction is inherently dialogic, as the process of “remixing and retelling” involves the bouncing of ideas and sharing of story arcs (Jenkins, 2019). The types of dialogue and feedback that emerge from fanfiction communities has been referred to as "distributed mentorship" (Beck, 2019). Predominantly via the comments section, writers can receive thousands of small bits of feedback just on one story, the cumulative impact of which can be immense. The volume and diversity of feedback greatly accelerates the learning process (Jenkins, 2019). For every 650 reviews, people's vocabulary improves equivalent of one year of age, particularly for lexical density of the writing. This is for younger people (Beck, 2019). Perhaps unsurprisingly, negative reviews generally sit at around the 1% mark on fanfiction sites (Beck, 2019).
People can also switch roles seamlessly, from mentee to mentor, depending on the context, and on where their knowledge lies. One writer might be receiving feedback about their recent story on a Harry Potter spin-off, but might also be providing feedback to others on a Nevermoor story as they are a major expert in this world.
Fanfiction is one example of how writing communities make effective use of dialogue and feedback to move writing forward. At a more local level, teacher-librarians can facilitate the development of authentic dialogue through the use of digital tools, such as Google Docs or Microsoft OneNote collaborative space, depending on whether the school is a Google or Microsoft schools.
Case study: Postcards from the edge
An example of a local student writing club that collaborates with students around the globe is the Postcards from the Edge project of the Mt Saint Michael’s writers club. In 2020, this club worked collaboratively with students from 11 other countries to generate a global writing project. The video below contains some examples of the types of collaboration that students writers were able to engage with.
References:
Beck, J. (2019). What fan fiction teaches that the classroom doesn’t. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/10/how-fanfiction-improves-writing/599197/
Ferrebee, T. & Carriazo-Osorio, E. (2020). Creating a student-led writing center. https://www.edutopia.org/article/creating-student-led-writing-center
Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. The MIT Press. https://www.macfound.org/media/article_pdfs/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF
Jenkins, H. (2019). ‘Art happens not in isolation, but in community’ the collective literacies of media fandom. https://culturalscience.org/articles/10.5334/csci.125/
Kunzel, B. & Hardesty, C. (2006). The teen-centred book club: readers into leaders- Libraries Unlimited Professional Guides for Young Adult Librarians Series. Libraries Unlimited.
Pande, R. (2015) Explainer: What is fanfiction? The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-fanfiction-48150