In the online ENG 081 Basic Writing Skills, students participate in peer review. However, in my first attempt, I found that students purposely skipped the assignment, even stating that they were skipping because they were "too nervous," or "didn't trust what their classmates would say and just wanted my feedback instead." In Spring 2014, my goal was to increase participation and to help students to have a positive experience. I added two discussion board posts. For essay #1, each student identified 3 strengths for a piece of "real-world writing" posted by a classmate (but NOT written by him/her). For essay #2, each student identified 1 improvement for a piece of "real-world writing." For essay #3, I assigned partners to review one another's brainstorming. This time, the entire class submitted the assignment for peer review (12), all but one student completed a review, nine of the ten reflected positively (see results),and four requested to do more peer review in the future. See additional results and reflection in attachment.
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| cats-removing-fear-peer-review.docx | 20.32 KB |
Comments
Kelly, this is great. I have been toying with the idea of using peer review with my students but wasn't sure how it would go. I will definitely use this method when I begin using it in my class. Well done.
Kelly, this really changes the aura of writing in that it shifts from chore to exploration. Thanks.
This was not only a creative assignment but I liked how your assessment was counting the number times that students expressed a thought to you.
Thanks, Kelly, for sharing your resources! My peer review session for ENG101 went well. It was very positive: students enjoyed the networking aspect (I mixed them up, instead of pairing up with someone next to them), and they learned what the other student was interested in academically, on top of incorporating constructive feedback into their paper.