Using Peer Review to Improve Student Writing Adam Clark, Ph.D. The University of Arizona Family Studies and Human Development

Outline Student Writing Practices and Perceptions Types of Feedback Peer Review Assignment Example Issues with Peer Review Assignments

Student Perceptions of Writing “I understand that [the peer-reviews] are there to help us revise our work, but I think at this point as a college student, being in a 400 upper-level class would expect [sic] me to be able to write essays with great content.” Don’t view writing as a process Overconfidence in their ability to write effectively

Student Writing Practices Most energy is spent on “bookends” of writing process (Kolb, Longest, & Jensen, 2011) Intermediate steps are neglected Revisions, if any, are to “clean up” (Sommers, 1980) Work linearly from beginning to end

Student Writing Practices From Kolb et al. (2011)

The Value of Peer Review Provides opportunity to get formative feedback Limitation: Quality of feedback received depends on reviewer skill level Encourages students to think critically about the assignment Giving feedback helps improve reviewers’ writing quality

Writing Feedback Exercise Take a few minutes to read over the essay prompt and writing sample provided. Write feedback to this student.

Types of Feedback Summative Formative Surface Level Grammar, spelling, sentence structure, etc. Polishing of technical aspects Meaning Level Organizational and conceptual clarity Consideration of audience and author’s intentions Students who give more meaning-level comments showed the most improvement on their own final drafts (Li, Liu, & Steckelberg, 2010; Lundstrom, & Baker, 2009)

Meaning-level Comments There is some good information here, but I have trouble following your argument. I think that you need to work on developing a stronger organizational structure that will give you paper more flow. There were numerous editing problems. In particular, I notices a problem with comma usage and excessively long sentences. The author needs to work on basic grammar and style. The author makes claims about _______, but does not provide any evidence. The author needs to work to demonstrate that claims are true with evidence from research. From Baker (2016)

Peer Review Assignment Example Counseling Theory Paper Summative assessment for FSHD 405: Introduction to Counseling Theories Students must: Describe details of a therapy model of their choice Apply chosen therapy model to a case example provided Discuss strengths and limitations of their chosen approach Peer Review Timeline Must submit a rough draft about a month before the final draft deadline. Must submit peer review about two weeks before final draft deadline.

Peer Review Assignment Example Peer Review Components Content Spelling and grammar APA Style Document formatting

Issues with Peer Review Assignments Non-submissions Assigning reviewers Short terms (e.g., Summer, Winter)

References Baker, K.M. (2016). Peer review as a strategy for improving students’ writing process. Active Learning in Higher Education, 17(3), 1-14 Kolb, K.H., Longest, K.C., & Jensen, M.J. (2011). Assessing the writing process: Do writing-intensive first-year seminars change how students write? Teaching Sociology, 41(1), 20-31. Li, L., Liu, X, & Steckelberg, A.L., (2010), Assessor or assessee: How student learning improves giving and receiving feedback. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41(3), 525-536. Lundstrom, K. & Baker, W. (2009). To give is better than to receive: The benefits of peer review to the reviewer’s own writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, 18(1), 30-43.

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