They pore over it and mark, in pen, the elements they like, as well as recommendations for improvement.
As they discuss the piece, they realize each of them only had an incomplete portion of the piece of writing. Thus, they are forced to engage with one another.
"Wait, do you have page one? What was the thesis?"
"Who has the last page? Did they come back to that initial anecdote?"
"What was the author getting at here in this block quote? Do they analyze it on the next page?"
Overall, they enjoy the essay, but it is different from the literature they generally engage with in eighth grade, because the essay they are reading was written by an eighth grader.
We rarely share writing with one another as adults, but what better way to learn to write than by reading assignments of others who have done the same, and who shared our goals? What does a great thank you letter look like? What about an email? A cover letter? An apology? Words matter so much, but we seldom see things outside of formal writing in books and periodicals.
The one wrinkle here is that this isn't peer editing because the essay they're reading was written by one of my former students...someone who sat in their seats years ago.
See, that is one of the beauties of teaching. While I get wiser each year (hopefully), my students are always eighth graders. I love that and I love hearing them refer to my former anonymous student as "the author."
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I received an email from the parent of a former student this week. The student is now in college and had written a piece for their school's literature magazine about rape culture and the responsibility of colleges. The piece was beautifully written and--as a result of the troubling topic and the student's strength as a writer--very difficult to read. It was hard to read something so raw and painful from someone I had only known as a 14 year old.
But, I supposed that's what happens. Children become adults.
It made me think about where my students end up as writers. Perhaps they become authors or publish articles in their college newspapers.
Perhaps they don't.
Maybe they grow to write a poignant and meaningful thank you note, or a cover letter that takes a future employer's breath away. Maybe they just leave a note on the kitchen counter for a future spouse that keeps their relationship intact or heals a moment of miscommunication with a friend.
What I felt as I read my former student's writing, and as I watched my current students read the work of someone who is off in the world writing something different and new, was the gravity of our words.
Our words matter and when we date our work and save it, we leave a trail of insights and development around the ways we interact with the world.
What we write today becomes tomorrow's history, but it's also capable of influencing the present audience that experiences it, and it serves as a stepping stone for our futures as writers and employers of words.
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