Reflection
Text Version:
Professor Kim and I decided to input graded online peer review for two of the major writing assignments as an experiment to see if online peer review would be more helpful to the students. One of the hardest parts of peer review is that most people don’t put enough effort into giving an effective peer review, which is why we added the incentive of giving them extra points for completing online peer review assignments. I wanted to give the students a reason to work hard on their peer reviews, especially because it was something that they were doing outside of class. I also made sure that I was communicating well enough with the students through the multiple short discussions which I think helped clarify why we were trying online peer review in the first place. For some, in-class peer review worked fine, but after learning about peer review in my seminar last semester, I knew that more could be done. While it was more work than the students probably expected outside of the classroom, I think they know now that it was for their own benefit.
I would say that online peer review has been successful and I’m really satisfied with the way that it turned out! I’ve read in my students’ reflections and blogs that it’s one of the things that they’ve enjoyed most about ENGL101S. They are becoming more confident in their writing and spending more time on not just writing itself, but the act of looking at and assessing writing too. I think that a skill that goes overlooked is being able to recognize strong points in your own writing; no one really knows in English101S if what they’re writing is good or not. So when they see strong points in another paper while they’re doing a peer review, it really improves their writing in disguise. Seeing the impact that online peer review has made on my students this semester inspires me to work harder in my next, third semester being a UTA. I’m especially grateful that the students in my English101S class was so willing and able to work with me; they barely complained and were very respectful when something went wrong with ELMS. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of students to try online peer review with.
I believe that if we dedicate a part of the syllabus to online peer review, then it’s something that could really improve the students’ writing processes. This semester was seen as an experiment for Professor Kim and I, and I appreciate that he trusted me to take control of introducing it to the students. Seeing the overflowing amount of positive feedback with online peer review ensures that I want to incorporate it into the whole course next semester. I think doing these small lesson plans was the perfect way to introduce online peer review to the class because it was an ongoing project for us; it was something that I was always checking in on. I also think that it generally gave me more of a place in the classroom as a UTA instead of just being the person that grades and helps when asked. I’m really happy with how online peer review went this semester overall and I’m excited to hopefully do it again next semester.