My first response is that perhaps the peer assessment could be done over the course of two discussions rather than one. I would have liked to have some more back and forth with the group members about my own writing and also to have the opportunity to discuss how they felt about my assessment of their papers. Maybe other groups had this, but in my group this did not happen. More time for discussion might facilitate this, or maybe not. At any rate it would have been nice to have some kind of discussion rather than simply reading what was written about the papers. A synchronous discussion might facilitate this, but assuming that most students in online classes choose the online format for time flexibility purposes, this might not work. Since that might not work, my suggestion is a longer discussion period.
The assessments given to me contained no suggestions or much in the way of criticism, so I am not sure how I can use these assessments to improve my paper. This was disappointing to me since I am sure I have much room for improvement. This could actually become another suggestion on how to make the peer assessment better. Don't be afraid to be tough on your classmates. I was not terribly tough on the papers I read, but I actually thought they were pretty well done and completed the assignment. Maybe I could have been tougher too and that is something to bear in mind for next time. Most of us in this class are preparing to be teachers which means we will be reviewing assignments and giving out grades. Sometimes bad grades will be given. The point of tough criticism is not to be mean, but rather to offer ways for the student to find improvement. Having said that, whoever is in my group next time, look out!
It was useful to read my classmates papers however. I saw some shortcomings in my own work just by reading theirs. For instance, I now feel that my analysis paragraphs are insufficient. I have too much time spent on summary and not nearly enough on analysis. I will work to expand and clarify my analysis for the final paper.
Hi Drew--all very good observations, and I'm going to take a look at the Syllabus to see how we can spread the peer assessment process across *two* discussions instead of just one (and perhaps, then, the second discussion can take the place of the Blog post reflection on peer assessment that Sunday...).
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