Student Involvement: Peer Feedback/Editing/Review

With the use of structured peer feedback sessions, students give and receive feedback about ongoing work. The most important component of peer feedback is the modeling that occurs beforehand. It is imperative that teachers model and role play how to give feedback in a constructive way before having students meet on their own. Set out on their own to give feedback, many students will use the time to chat, criticize the other students’ work or get nothing done.

Students need to be held accountable for the comments, suggestions, and feedback they are giving one another and need to know ahead of time how to do this effectively. Providing students with a peer feedback form, which will be checked by the teacher, can provide structure to peer conferences. Once students have had time to practice, know what the requirements are, and are aware of expectations, peer conferences can be an integral part of the feedback process.

Self and peer-feedback adds another dimension to involving students in the assessment process. It requires students to examine closely their own and peers' behavior, work and progress. It provides information with which to establish goals, and creates commitment to improving individual learning.

Self- and Peer-Feedback Tips

  • You will need to providemodeling and scaffolding time to support students ifthis is the first time they have used self- and peer-feedback.
  • A prepared format will help guide students’ thinking.
  • Ask students to verbalize or write about their own/group specific skills as Did Iread for a meaning?, How well did I listen?
  • Ask students to list all they know about a subject.
  • After completing a task, tell students you are going to give them a second chance.
  • Ask them what they would do if they could complete the task again. Use thisinformation for goal setting.
  • Ask students to reflect in journals about their progress. Students enjoy this if youshare your own journal with them.
  • Continuums can also be structured or open ended, for example: Indicate how wellyou asked thoughtful questions?
  • With experience students can choose the criteria for self-assessing.
  • Use self-assessment skills and statements to write report cards. Use the information yourself or ask students to write.
  • Use student, parent and teacher interviews. Practice with the student before handand allow the student to run the interview.
  • Think aloud and monitor your own progress (perhaps write about it and share yourown reflections with your students).
  • Give students time to talk in pairs and groups about their thinking and learning.
  • Give specific, regular and positive feedback about student reflections.
  • Make class charts together, display them, use them as assessment criteria, andregularly refer to and add to them. For example:what helps and hinders learning

Teaching Students How to Respond

Even with a feedback form in hand, students will not necessarily know how to respond to peer drafts. Most students need to be taught how to give constructive, useful feedback. One approach:

  1. Hand out copies of a sample completed assignment (perhaps written by a student in the previous semester).
  2. Discuss the criteria on the feedback form so that the language becomes meaningful to everyone.
  3. Show how you would apply the criteria by “thinking out loud” as you read the first paragraph of the paper.
  4. Ask students to read the paper and complete the feedback form (alternatively, they can complete the form out of class).
  5. Discuss the responses as a class.

Practice sessions are important for the success of peer review. They give you a chance to clarify the criteria and even aspects of the assignment if that proves necessary.

Sample Peer Feedback Form

Your name:

Peer reviewer’s name:

Title of project:

1. Two compliments about the work are:

2. Two suggestions about the work are:

Note: Have the peer reviewer us “I” statements for this step:

  • I would like to know more about…
  • I am not sure what this means…
  • I would like to know more details about…

3. Any other ideas or comments:

Sample Peer Feedback Form

  1. Does the paper have an introductory paragraph that is focused and that sets the paper up clearly? Does it clearly convey what the paper is about? Or is it cluttered and unfocused?
  1. Does the paper have an identifiable thesis statement? Are you able to underline it?
  1. Is the thesis supported by examples and quotations? Are these adequate? Are they relevant to the ideas or do they seem unrelated to the ideas in the paper?
  1. Does each paragraph have a structure and a central idea? Does the first sentence of each paragraph convey what the paragraph is about? Is some organizational adjustment necessary?
  1. What are the strengths of the paper? How can these be highlighted?

Sample 1: CRITERIA GRID

Weak / Satisf / Strong / CRITERIA / READER'S COMMENTS
___ / ___ / _X_ / Assertion: clarity, importance / Your position is clear. I also like the way you explore points that conflict with your main point.
_X_ / ___ / ___ / Evidence: relevance, strength, credibility / I don't see how your second and third pieces of evidence support your assertion.
___ / _X_ / ___ / Organization: arrangement of ideas, guiding the reader / Pretty good. But the middle paragraph on the second page seemed in the wrong place.
_X_ / ___ / ___ / Mechanics: spelling, grammar, punctuation / Many careless mistakes. Better proofreading needed.
___ / _X_ / ___ / Overall effectiveness / I'm not completely convinced. Your assertion needs to be supported with better evidence.

Sample 2: OPEN-ENDED FORM (leave space for review comments)

Author______Reviewer______
The goals of peer review are 1) to help improve your classmate's paper by pointing out strengths and weaknesses that may not be apparent to the author, and 2) to help improve editing skills.
INSTRUCTIONS
Read the paper(s) assigned to you twice, once to get an overview of the paper, and a second time to provide constructive criticism for the author to use when revising his/her paper. Answer the questions below.
ORGANIZATION (10%)
  1. Were the basic sections (Introduction, Conclusion, Literature Cited, etc.) adequate? If not, what is missing?
  2. Did the writer use subheadings well to clarify the sections of the text? Explain.
  3. Was the material ordered in a way that was logical, clear, easy to follow? Explain.
CITATIONS (20%)
  1. Did the writer cite sources adequately and appropriately? Note any incorrect formatting.
  2. Were all the citations in the text listed in the Literature Cited section? Note any discrepancies.
GRAMMAR AND STYLE (20%)
  1. Were there any grammatical or spelling problems?
  2. Was the writer’s writing style clear? Were the paragraphs and sentences cohesive?
CONTENT (50%)
  1. Did the writer adequately summarize and discuss the topic? Explain.
  2. Did the writer comprehensively cover appropriate materials available from the standard sources (e.g., UH, NMFS, FWS libraries)? If no, what's missing?
  3. Did the writer make some contribution of thought to the paper, or merely summarize data or publications? Explain.

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