Assignment Author
Jillian SayreContext of Assignment
Peer Review for each unit in RHE 306 (controversy curriculum)
Pedagogical Goals of the Assignment
Get students to think of writing as a collaborative process instead of a solitary event.
Assignment Description
I wanted to make peer review an important process in the writing classroom, so I did a few things to prepare the students:
1. Practice - We had a diagnostic essay from the first day that served as a practice review session. I had them review the prompt (it was on Blackboard) and talk about what I wanted from the assignment. Once they established a set of criteria, I handed back clean copies of their essays and had them review the one page documents in small groups. They covered everything from page limit to organization to content in general.
2. Assignment Specific preparation - Before peer review (usually the class before) I would post questions to Blackboard that mimicked the questions that their peers would ask of their papers. This, along with my encouraging them to review the assignment prompt, go them thinking critically about their own writing.
3. The details - Peer review doesn't work if they don't bring what they need to bring when they need to bring it. I reminded them to bring the appropriate amount of copies and to show up ON TIME (I warned them that students arriving more than five minutes late would be counted absent and would need to do peer review outside of class on their own). *About the time thing: I taught 306 in 50 minute class periods, so peer review was tightly scheduled.*
4. The peer review sheet - I posted this to Blackboard the class before so they could review those questions as well.
5. Day of peer review - I had groups planned out. Of course this is frustrating when students are late or absent, but I find it much easier to handle rearranging groups if I already knew the basic structure. This also helped me keep 2 "bad" reviewers (the "this is fine. don't change a thing" reviewers) apart. It's important to watch and listen during the practice session or your first peer review in order to figure out who these students are. I also posted directions on the overhead (they are also printed on the sheet, but I find that the overhead has a sense of authority that notebook paper does not).
6. Peer review sheet - I am posting these to the assignment but I would like to note a few things: a. Each review is tailored to the assignment. Some questions are the same or structured the same to give a sense of continuity, but I think it is important to get the students to realize that each paper is trying to do something different, so the questions reflect this. b. I ask the students to discuss their answers after they write or as they write them down. This is a necessary step. It not only makes the review into a conversation, but also assures that the author will at least hear the review even if he or she doesn't read the sheet.
7. Oral Presentations - Having a peer review component really helped me out in the oral presentations. These are real time grading and it helped to have two other sets of ears and eyes out there in the classroom. This also served as a check on attendance during the last week of school. Each student had to do a peer review on days when not presenting, so they all showed up (giving their colleagues the necessary audience).