5 Ways to Make Peer Review More Efficient in a High School Classroom

Far too often are students left on their own during Peer Review, and they soon come to believe that it is an unnecessary part of the writing process. In order to combat this idea, I’ve come up with 5 ways to make peer reviewing days more efficient and enjoyable for you and your students.

1. Scaffolding

Image from Learning to Teach English

Leading up to a Peer Review day, you should be telling students what is good, helpful constructive criticism versus blatant and destructive criticism, as well as criticism that is neither good nor bad (for example, random reaffirming words in the margins like “Good” and “I like this part” do absolutely nothing besides build false security for the writing receiving the peer edits). Scaffold leading up to the peer reviewing days by having mini lessons or even a lesson the day of the peer review day. Things to go over are destructive criticism (criticism that attacks the individual instead of giving ways to strengthen their writing), how to give constructive criticism, and more. 

Emily (last name not available) from Learning to Teach English offers the following steps for scaffolding peer review:

1. Think about what you want students to gain from reviewing each other’s work. Pick the two or three main points.
2. Frame questions that help the reviewers focus on these points. Depending on the level, these might be yes/no questions, ask for an appropriate example from the essay, or ask for an explanation.
3. Create a simple worksheet with these questions on it. At the top, be sure to have lines for the date, the writer’s name, the essay’s title, and the reviewer’s name. Leave room at the bottom for your feedback to the reviewer about their review. Only one review per piece of paper, for sorting’s sake. Make sure you have enough copies of the worksheet for students to review multiple assignments, as time will allow.
4. Introduce peer review in class the day the writing is due. Ideally, peer review is good practice for the reviewer and good information for the writer. Today, you’re going to begin by just having everyone practice reviewing.
5. Students should pass their completed essays two people to the left. They should read the essay that’s passed to them and then fill out the entire review worksheet. I recommend a time limit. As time allows, they can pass the essays left again (and again…) and review the next one that comes their way.
6. Essays and reviews get handed in at the same time. If you have a class with more than about five people, I recommend that you sort the papers as they hand them in. Make a pile of Student A’s essay and all the reviews about that essay, a separate pile of Student B’s essay with all the reviews on his essay, and so on.

Having clear expectations and an easy to follow process will help students be successful during peer review.

2. Modeling

 

"Modeling is an instructional strategy in which the teacher demonstrates a new concept or approach to learning and students learn by observing. Modeling describes the process of learning or acquiring new information, skills, or behavior through observation, rather than through direct experience or trial and error efforts." (Abdullahi Salisu, Emmanuel N. Ransom)

No, not quite this kind of modeling, but "modeling" refers to a  strategy where teachers demonstrate an activity or skill and students observe. Modeling is crucial for all aspects of learning, but especially so when students have never done whatever activity it is you are introducing.

Going hand in hand with scaffolding, modeling how to give constructive criticism is absolutely crucial when introducing peer review to your students. Southwestern University did an article on how to teach Peer Review and offers the following advice on modeling: 

“To help students better understand what kinds of feedback you expect them to write on the peer review form, you may want to give them examples of different types of comments. We’ve attached a handout with sample student peer review comments that you might review with your class.  By discussing which comments are most appropriate and helpful, and what makes them so, you can offer students a model of the kinds of responses that will be most productive for their classmates.” Southwestern University

As Southwestern University explained in their article, you simply can't expect students to review others' papers efficiently if you don't model and show what kinds of comments are helpful for the writing process. I recommend checking out Southwestern University's post on peer review (linked above) to see their handouts and lesson plans.

3. Do Peer Review in class (do not assign it as homework!)

    

Image from "How Much Time Should
 Students Spend Doing Homework?"

Luckily, in my high school experience with peer review, I never had to do it outside of the classroom on my own. We always did it in the class together so that, if I had a question for the writer or a question for the teaching about what sort of advice to give, I could just ask. While it is ideal for students to do their peer review work outside of the class instead of spending precious class time, it is crucial for students to be in the classroom environment so they can ask questions if needed. Additionally, many students don’t see peer review as an actual helpful part of the writing process and are more likely to blow it off if a teacher assigns it as homework. 

The University of Waterloo remarks in "Using Student Review in Any Class" that "One of the benefits of conducting peer reviews as an in-class activity rather than an online assignment is that students learn to see readers and viewers of their work as human beings with authentic responses. When doing peer review in person, surface-level editing becomes less valuable than a meaningful discussion of ideas or organization". By giving students the time to review, comment on, and discuss their comments with a peer, it allows them to bounce ideas off each other and to help one another further clarify ideas and concepts in their papers.

4. Monitoring

   

   Image from Collaborative Classroom

Although it is tempting to just let the students work independently during a peer review day, it is crucial that the teacher monitors student feedback. EdSurge writes on this very subject, saying that: 

“Students often feel uncertain about the peer review process. Their most common fear is that they will receive “unfair” feedback from peers. To help alleviate this problem, I recommend that teachers moderate the process. Read at least some of the exchanges between students and add your own perspectives when specific student feedback is lacking. Some digital tools for peer review makes this easy by allowing students to flag feedback for teacher moderation.” EdSurge

This doesn’t mean that you need to look at EVERY SINGLE comment that a student made, but create a system where students can flag certain comments from their peer reviewer for you to look at. You can either do this electronically or tell the students that if they receive a comment that seems contradictory or questionable to come talk to you.

However, make it clear that the purpose of peer review is for your students to review one another's papers. You can absolutely give students feedback on their papers, but don't allow it to get mixed into peer review. Students need the chance to talk through things with their peers before coming to you for "answers" - allow them to go through their papers together first.

5. Environment

   

   Image from The Health Teacher

This is more of a personal anecdote, but ask your students what kind of environment they work best in! Try to replicate their personal writing space as much as you possibly can - take a poll to see who likes to work with music, what kind of music, etc. According to the National Center on Safe Supportive Environments, "Several studies on the effects of experiencing calm music have suggested that it can reduce aggressive behavior and regulate moods, particularly feelings of anxiety and stress". When students are able to manage their emotions in more positive ways, students are able to enhance their learning potential (Foran, 2009). You can also ask students if they prefer to sit in their desks or on the floor or in the hallway, to work independently or with the person they are peer reviewing a paper for, when they need breaks, etc. Peer review can be fun - trust me! It’s a point where students can feel vulnerable, but dispel the feeling that they are being judged or tested at this point by making the atmosphere friendly.

Other Resources

In preparation for doing peer review in my own classroom, I've come across a few websites and blogs that have many more tips, mini lessons, and other resources for peer review. Here are a few: 

Read, Write, Think: Peer Review Strategy Guide, Peer Review: Narrative Lesson Plan, Resume Peer Review Guide, Peer Review Guidelines for Persuasive Letters, Narrative Peer Review Form

Writing Across the Curriculum: Activities for Focused Peer Review

Washington English: Peer Review Sample Sheet

Washington University: Planning and Guiding In-Class Peer Review