Activity Showcase: Peer Review and Self-Assessment (Paula Patch)

The grading rubric is a great tool for facilitating both self- and peer assessment. During most of our peer review sessions, the students refer to and use the grading rubric for the assignment, which is useful for several reasons:

• They are using the same criteria to assess their work and their peers’ work as I will use to assess the product. They have no excuse for not understanding the expectations for the assignment.
• On that note, if they don’t understand the expectations as they are written on the rubric, this is a good time to ask me questions about it.
• The rubric stands in for me in the role of assessor, which
  • frees me up to play different roles during the review session, such as mentor or “pretend” peer
  • allows students to step into my role for a while, to view their own writing from my perspective. I tend to refer to this shift as the “What would Professor Patch say?” perspective. It works best on the second and subsequent assignments, when they’ve “heard” me in feedback on at least one major writing assignment.

The students evaluate one another’s writing by marking the rubric and by making comments in the margins of the peer’s essay.

After they have received feedback from their peers, students complete the reflective self-assessment activity, which I copy onto the back of the rubric. When they leave the review session, they have multiple types of feedback, along with a plan, to refer to as they revise their essays.

Rhetorical Analysis Essay Grading Rubric

Essay Is	Exceeds Expectations	Meets Minimum Expectations	Needs Work	Does Not Meet Assignment Requirements	Points Earned/ Allotted
Argumentative Includes a thesis Focuses on the thesis throughout					_____/15
Analytical Describes, explains, and reflects on how/why/to whom your sources present information SHOULD NOT simply summarize what the sources say SHOULD NOT attempt to answer your research question					_____/25
Well-supported Includes multiple examples of relevant textual evidence from each source Provides an explanation or interpretation of the evidence that clearly ties the evidence to the argument					_____/25
Meets audience expectations Engaging Clean and clear MLA formatting and documentation					_____/15

Comments:

Self-Assessment and Revision Plan

What do you like best about your essay?

What do you like least?

Look at the rubric:

What does your essay seem to be missing?

Where can your essay be strengthened?

Based on the feedback from your peers and your self-assessment, list at list 5 things to work on in your revision:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Tags: assignment, peer response, writing process