teaching journal

203 rubric/peer review process

OK, I know that a good number of students really don't like doing the peer review or using the rubric. Someone said that students shouldn't have anything to do with grading papers and that I should be the only one responsible. I don't know if I can address all that right now, but I need to do the blog assignment for this week -- let's see if I can just comment on the rubric and the peer review process: what do I like and dislike?

I really like that the rubric is a teaching/learning tool, not just a place to record a grade. But I'm not sure the rubric is really working. I'm not sure the categories are effective. That's one reason for this blog assignment -- I need to know what's working and not working with the rubric. I guess it's not so much the categories but the different criteria under each category that I wonder about. For instance, I've got mechanics as the last category and then I've got a list of things like comma splice, fragments, tense ... many reviewers just highlight the whole box, so I have a sense that this box may not be really helpful. There are other things that I comment on papers, like "introduce quotations" ... and there's nothing on the rubric on how to use supporting evidence from the text.

It's so quiet in class when we do the peer reviews, which is pretty cool, because it means reviewers are paying attention to their peers' writing. I like that students look at each other's papers first. I really think that writers are more conscious of a broader audience and their writing improves. I dunno...it's one thing to write an essay exam for the teacher; it's quite another to write an essay exam when you know the first reader will be one of your peers. What's the shift? Writers are more concerned about their writing when peers read it; writers are more concerned with grades when the teacher reads it. That's what I think. I'm hoping y'all will enlighten me if you agree or disagree.

I still don't think the rubric and peer review process are helping writers to really focus on their strengths and challenges. For instance, when the writers respond to the peer review, most writers seem to try to get through this part as quickly as possible. I don't think writers really look at the highlighted sections on the rubric and think about whether or not they agree with the reviewer. I think writers tend to read reviewers' comments and respond to those. Does that mean that a more effective rubric would be a letter? more writing by the reviewer? Again, these are all questions I can only answer with a lot of input by the writers in class.

posted by Sandra @ 2:12 AM