|
 |
Peer Critique Groups
(14 February 2007)
A few years ago, sitting in an individual
student writing conference, I realized that I was more or less
reading from a script, dominating the "discussion" with a
mini-lecture, which could just as easily, and with far less overall
effort, been given once to the entire class.
Conferences are not supposed to be
this way.
What I have started developing in
response (and this is an ongoing process) are group peer critique
conferences, designed to facilitate student engagement with the
class and with their own essays.
Benefits of Peer Critique Groups
When effective, peer critique groups combine written and oral
communication, helping students to think about their writing
as they receive immediate audience feedback, from their peers as
well as the instructor, on their texts.
More specifically, peer critique groups:
 |
give
students practice in close reading of written texts.
|
|
allow
students to evaluate multiple essays for strengths and areas to
improve (this practice can then be applied to their own
writing).
|
|
give
students feedback for revision (helping them to generate more
effective revision strategies).
|
|
allow
students to take an active role in the writing and learning
process.
|
|
help
students to write with more than a single teacher as their
audience.
|
|
help
students to better understand the writing strategies associated
with each essay and understand how these strategies influence
meaning. |
Difficulties with
Peer Critique Groups
Despite the potential benefits, both
faculty and students can cite difficulties with peer critique
groups:
Faculty say that they take up
valuable class time and that students are not prepared or qualified
to offer advice to peers.
Students themselves sometimes feel
unqualified to offer suggestions, and they worry about tone--being
"too nice" or "too harsh" in their comments.
Suggestions for Effective Peer
Critique Groups
Peer critique groups work best when
there is a clear process with specific goals, so I divide the
activity into 3 parts for the students: pre-conference preparation,
the conference itself, and post-conference follow-up.
The groups also benefit from teacher
participation, so I conduct the sessions outside of class, where I
can be involved (though my role is usually more of an observer who
reiterates what the students themselves have said).
More specifically, when setting up
the peer critique groups, I:
|
Discuss goals for the activity
with the students, using the
Peer Critique Group Set-Up handout; I also ask students to help
generate class
standards, which I collate and distribute.
|
|
Provide
Peer Critique Group
Directions for the session itself, reminding the students
that they are only making suggestions (rather than correcting
another student's writing) and that they should be constructive
in their comments (pointing out only what worked well does not
help other writers construct effective revision plans). To insure
greater preparation, I ask students to bring typed comments to
distribute to each author.
|
|
Ask each writer to formulate a
Revision Plan, following the
peer critique conference (addressing the fact that students make
excellent suggestions in the sessions, but too often, the
author's chose not to implement the changes). |
Feel free to adapt any of my handouts
to your own class. Also, please send your own variations to the peer
critique groups, and we'll post them as well.
Good Luck! |
 |
|
