A Presentation by Michelle Brown

Peer Reviews:

An Outline of Major Themes and Ideas to Address

Methods

Framing the Activity

While facilitating freshman peer review activities it is crucial to first create a foundation from which students will expand upon. This can be done in several ways:

1. Establish the room as a community and stress the importance of collaboration

2. Explain critical reading skills and how to use it during peer reviews

3. Discuss rhetorical thinking

Choose Your Questions Carefully

If you use specific questions to guide students during peer review sessions pick questions that resist yes or no answers. Think of questions that require a careful reading of the text. A way to emphasis community involvement is to craft some or all of the questions as a class. If you choose to write all of your own questions and are concerned about the clarity of the questions try answering them yourself before using them in your class. These are a few examples of the type of questions you could use:

1. Look at both the introduction and conclusion. Write down the question or issue addressed in the introduction and the statement made in the conclusion. Are they addressing the same thing? Explain why or why not?

2. What is your understanding of the author’s “life-place”? Explain why you can or can’t answer this question.

3. How vivid is the storytelling? Do the details given allow you to picture what the author is seeing? Why or why not?

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Picking the Activities

While conducting research about the peer review process I came across several methods other instructors have found effective. Your choices may include, but are not limited to, the following suggestions:

1. Peer review partners, either assigned or not

2. Anonymous reviews where names are taken off of drafts

3. Group reviews where everyone passes drafts to one side (repeated multiple times)

The Variables

It is important to remember that our classes are unique ecosystems and one method or approach is not universal. Our classes have different dynamics regarding race, gender, class, and backgrounds. This is why variety and flexibility are the two main elements of successful peer review activities.