This morning I watched students edit one another’s essays. Their expressions said it all. The occasional smile and/or nod told me the pedagogy was working.

I have students read and comment on each other’s writing because . . .

Positive reinforcement works. Praising a student’s strengths makes those strengths even stronger.

Modeling works. Observing successful strategies in a peer’s writing helps one adopt those strategies in his or her own stuff.

Groups work. It’s something I learned in summer camp and church jobs before I became a college teacher.

When God said it wasn’t good for man to be alone, he was referring to more than the need of Adam for an Eve.

Call it the power of we. People succeed best when they succeed together. In church, we called it fellowship; in college, we call it collaborative learning.