Engaging young writers in the process of reviewing each other's writing can be an effective pedagogical technique that models the way professional writers draw upon their colleagues to review in-process writings. However, while peer review may eventually save you some time, it requires more than simply asking students to exchange, read, and provide comments on papers. Young writers need to be taught how to be good responders and how best to engage effectively with and to provide constructive feedback regarding a peer's text.

Here are some strategies that you may find useful as you consider using peer review (click Expand for more details and information):

    1. Determine the extent to which you want to use peer review throughout your course. For example, will you require a session before each paper is due? Only before the final paper's due date?



    2. Determine how peer review groups will be constructed. Small groups (4 students maximum) are preferable, as is keeping students in the same group throughout the duration of the course.

    3. Decide upon a philosophical approach that will fit with your teaching style and the goals of the course. The following two approaches are taken from John Bean's Engaging Ideas (Jossey-Bass,1996). Expand


    4. Once you've determined your approach, construct a process for its implementation. (from John Bean's Engaging Ideas) Expand


    5. Require that students attach all peer comments to the drafts that they submit to you. It doesn't take long to read these comments and doing so will reveal a great deal about the learning taking place in the class. When you make your comments on a student's paper, you can refer to the peer reviewers' remarks as well, reinforcing the effectiveness of their work (e.g., "John and Katherine noted that your use of Freud and Belenkey was particularly effective. Consider similar kinds of support for the last point in your argument.") Expand