The contribution presents an innovative social design research (Gutiérrez and Jurow, 2016) carried out in
a vulnerable school context, to contrast students’ school exclusion and underachievement. The project
unfolded in a 10-hour group activity, consisting in the working out a collaborative written text
(Thompson, 2014) about the social consequences of hostile communication among peers and the value of
friendship, a sensitive topic of students’ lives. This was considered a step to connect the students’
repertoires of writing practices, developed in their everyday lives, to the academic register (Gee, 2004).
The aim of the contribution is to present the learning opportunities that emerged in the collaborative
writing processes in promoting relational and cognitive competences in students, in particular cohesive
conversation, and reflective skills.
