Lesson Materials:
Worksheets: 1. Language Narrative Peer Review; 2. Self-review checklist
Readings: 1. Richard Straub’s “Responding — Really Responding — to Other Students’ Writing“; 2. Model student essays
Templates for formatting papers: 1. MLA template; 2. Cover letter
Lesson Objectives: 1) Introduce peer review and discuss why it’s important; 2) Understand and identify strengths in peers’ narrative essays
Connection to Major Paper/Project: Activities focus on identifying strengths in peers’ and our own narratives. Students will be able to adjust their essays according to the questions and suggestions from their peers.
Connection to Course Goals: Students will achieve the following course goals: Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing and Engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.
Activities, Day 1:
Review homework assignments:
—Whole-class discussion of Straub’s essay.
—Pull up the student narratives and review the strengths and areas of growth.
- Review goals of the narrative essay assignment.
- Show sample peer review worksheet. But consider what would be most important to include in a peer review worksheet. This is similar to creating a class charter. Consider what feedback you want, what feedback you DON’T want, and write out rules of peer review.
Homework, to be completed before next class:
—Complete the first draft of your narrative essay. Return to Blackboard by midnight on Monday. Bring 3 copies to class!
By Sunday at 11:59pm, turn in the following to Week 3 assignment dropbox on Blackboard.
—Annotated model student essay with feedback
Activities, Day 2:
- Bring three copies of your essay to class. In groups of three students, you will read your essay and then the group members will respond using the language and literacy peer review worksheets we collaborated on in the previous class.
Homework, to be completed before next class:
—Using peer feedback, edit your language and literacy narrative. Return the second draft with the cover letter in one document to the Blackboard assignment dropbox.
—This is a template for the cover letter. Answer the questions in 2-3 sentences. When you’ve answered the questions, then remove the questions, leaving just the answers. Edit it together so it is more like an essay (not just a Q&A).
—Select an advertisement, any advertisement!, and post a link or an image to this Google Doc. We will discuss these advertisements in class next week.
