1TALK ABOUT TEXT: CHANGES IN CONTENT AND AUTHORITY STRUCTURES IN PEER RESPONSE GROUPS 1

The literature on peer groups in writing suggests a variety of purposes for peer grup depending on teachers ' and students ' goals: (a) responding to writing, (b) thinking collaboratively, (c) writing collaboratively, and (d) editing writing (DiPardo and Freedman, 1988). Further, groups provide a forum for discussing the writing process, generating ideas, understanding the functions of an audience, and providing support for engaging in writing (Gebhardt, 1980). Much of the research has focused on the goals of responding to writing and editing writing. This research supports the idea that students learn about writing through talking about texts with other students. For instance, Nystrand (1986) found that students produced better revisions and rec ceptualized their writing through participation in groups, while Ger and Stevens (1985) found that students attended to the actual text more than the teacher did. Groups can facilitate writing in a variety of ways especially given more structured tasks (Hillocks, 1984), while students arranged collaboratively can solve problems in writing (Freedman, 1987). Students as young as fourth graders can expect and receive substantive help through peer conferencing when conferences focus on improving the author's draft (Dahl, 1988). Another line of research suggests that conversations among teachers and students about texts are not only valuable for increasing writing performance but are also valuable in increasing other form