by Heather Carreiro

Created on: August 28, 2008

INTRODUCTION

A peer is someone who works or studies at the same level as you. In school, your classmates are your peers. At an office, your co-workers are you peers. Peer reviewing is the process of having your work editing and reviewed by your classmates or other writers.

When we write, it is always good to ask for someone else's feedback. Authors usually have qualified people edit their work and help them revise it. Using peer review in your class is a great way for students to practice proofreading and revising skills. It will teach them how to improve their own work and how to give constructive criticism. It will also save you, the teacher, from going through their papers again and again with a red pen. Yes, you want students to create polished work, but they should be the ones to do the polishing. Using peer review in a class setting also allows students to interact with each other and practice effective communication skills.

PEER REVIEWING PAIRS - HOW TO ASSIGN THEM

When you do peer editing in a class, it is best for the teacher to assign partners for peer editing. You may want to divide your class into weaker and stronger students. Put weaker students in column A and stronger ones in column B. I like to have each student work with two partners, one from each column. Let's imagine we have a class of eight students.

(A) Weaker Writers - Sarah, Andy, Robert, Susan
(B) Stronger Writers - Allison, James, Lucy, Erica

Plan on doing the peer review process twice. The first time, match a student from group A with a student from group B. This will allow a weaker student to take help from a stronger student. For example we could have the following four pairs:

Peer Review 1(A+B) - Sarah & Allison, Andy & James, Robert & Lucy, Susan & Erica

For the second round of peer reviewing, allow weaker students to work together and stronger students to work together. It is important to give stronger students a chance to give each other feedback and advice. Otherwise, stronger students will not improve their writing. They will not feel challenged if they are always working with weaker writers. We could have the four following pairs:

Peer Review 2 (A+A, B+B) - Sarah & Susan, Andy & Robert, Allison & Erica, Lucy & James

Make sure for this pairing that the weaker writers can work with a partner they feel comfortable with. Don't pair two naughty students together as they may neglect the assignment and disrupt the class.

Before the peer review activity starts, write the two sets of pairings

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