Lesson Plan 1: Introducing Online Peer Review
Objective: We decided to introduce online peer review for the second major writing assignment: The Rhetorical Analysis. I noticed that there could be more being done with peer review when I observed the class doing in-class peer review for the first writing assignment, the Academic Summary, so I talked to my professor and he let me introduce and manage online peer review to the class. This first lesson plan’s objective is to have a discussion with the class to see how they feel about in-class peer review, and then introduce them to online peer review.
Materials Needed (Students):
Materials Needed (Jenna):
Time Estimate: 10 Minutes
Lesson Plan:
Method of Assessing the Objective: After the discussion, I’m just going to ask them if all of this makes sense. If they understand why they’re transitioning into online peer review, then I think that the objective is met.
(NEW) Reflection: Doing this lesson plan a second time was still really useful. I took notes this time during the discussion so that I could keep track and remember throughout the semester. I got similar feedback from the first time I did this lesson plan; most students don't really have any feelings about peer review at all because they never really learned how to give an effective one. I wasn't really surprised by this same response; I think that a lot of professors could focus more on peer review and what makes an effective one. I did notice that this semester the lesson plan ended up being shorter than last semester - around 10 minutes or so. Maybe even less. It's a pretty basic topic and Professor Kim and I just wanted to see where this semester's section was at when it came to peer review.
Materials Needed (Students):
- Nothing - just an open ear and attention.
Materials Needed (Jenna):
- Discussion Questions
Time Estimate: 10 Minutes
Lesson Plan:
- 0:00-0:05 -- Introduce my style and the topic of peer review in general. Professor Kim likes to do class more lecture style with participation while he’s writing notes on the board. I start off by stating that my style of lesson plans is to be as discussion-based as possible. I ask everyone to just make sure that their phones and computers are away so that we can have a good discussion and then start asking the students about their experience with peer review
- 0:05-0:10 -- Have a discussion asking the students what their experiences are with peer review in high school
- Questions:
- Is peer review something that you’ve done before in high school?
- For those of you that have done peer review in high school, were you ever taught on how to make an effective peer review, or were you just assumed you knew what to do?
- Do you like peer review? Do you find it helpful? If you don’t, why not? Is there any way that you could find it helpful?
- NOTE: a big thing that students probably bring up is that they don’t feel like they’re skilled enough to give an effective peer review because they don’t feel confident in their writing. This will 90% happen in discussion, so when this topic is brought up
- How do you guys feel about in-class peer review? Do you think that you’re making good use out of the time that we have in class to do peer review?
- How would you feel if you had peer review as an online homework assignment? (Ensure to the students here that they would get a grade on completion; the grading aspect is just so that I can make sure that everyone is doing an effective peer review and give you credit for your feedback!)
- Questions:
- 0:10 -- Introduce that for the next assignment, for the Rhetorical Analysis, we’re going to experiment with doing online peer review homework assignments that I will help guide you through. We’re doing this change because we want peer review to be helpful for you and because I want you to feel more confident in your writing as you’re writing these major assignments, so peer review is something that helps in that process. Then Wrap up discussion and say that next class I’ll show them examples on the projector of the type of peer review that I’m looking for
Method of Assessing the Objective: After the discussion, I’m just going to ask them if all of this makes sense. If they understand why they’re transitioning into online peer review, then I think that the objective is met.
(NEW) Reflection: Doing this lesson plan a second time was still really useful. I took notes this time during the discussion so that I could keep track and remember throughout the semester. I got similar feedback from the first time I did this lesson plan; most students don't really have any feelings about peer review at all because they never really learned how to give an effective one. I wasn't really surprised by this same response; I think that a lot of professors could focus more on peer review and what makes an effective one. I did notice that this semester the lesson plan ended up being shorter than last semester - around 10 minutes or so. Maybe even less. It's a pretty basic topic and Professor Kim and I just wanted to see where this semester's section was at when it came to peer review.