Peer Assessments in High School Classrooms

From https://www.pinterest.com/pin/175640454193382542/

 

Peer assessments is a popular assessment method that involves giving students the opportunity to evaluate their classmates work using an already established grading system, while providing feedback for improvement.  The application of this method serves to not only deepen the learning process for all students (both 'graders' and 'gradees'), but can also effectively help save teachers time by lowering their workload. Below is are some tips on how to incorporate peer assessment in the classroom.  I also include a list of advantages in using peer assessment, as well as some examples of how peer assessments can be integrated within the classroom.

Practical Tips on Using Peer Assessments:

- Be Clear on Expectations.  Explain to all students your expectations of the evaluation process to the class, prior to commencing any type of peer assessment.  Give students a guideline (or rubric) explaining the details of how to provide positive, constructive feedback, while showing them examples of what good feedback looks like.  Have students practice evaluating each other by overlooking what they have commented on their peers work.  This process should only be used for formative assessments, not summative.
- Plan Ahead of Time.  Be sure to know specifically which assignments can be and will be peer assessed, prior to assigning the task to students.  Not all assignments are created equal and thus, careful thought about which are appropriate for peer assessment, is vital.
- Different Passes, Different Students.  For the best outcome in learning, students should give and receive feedback from a variety of peers.  Thus, having the same assignment peer assessed in different stages by different students, when possible and appropriate, is ideal.

Some Advantages to Peer Assessing:

- Students who grade their classmates work often learn from their peers' ideas, successes and mistakes.
- Receiving valuable suggestions and ideas from peers, to improve one's work.
- Learning valuable humanistic skills, such as compassion and respect.
- Enhancing written (or verbal) communication skills
- Students get quicker feedback on their work (usually within minutes)
- Gives students practice in reading, understanding and using rubrics (as they are used as a guideline to grade peer work)
- Increases all students self-confidence

List of Peer Assessment Activities: 

- Star/Star/Wish:  Students are paired and asked to read over each other's written work.  The reader must identify two things the author did well (stars) and one specific suggestion for improvement (wish).
- Think/Pair/Share: Students are required to think about a question posed or a problem to solve within the classroom, pair up with a peer, and share each other's solution.  This can be used as a peer assessment strategy when used as an information tool.
- Gallery Walk:  Students walk throughout the classroom and give each other feedback on their project or assignment.
- Plus, Minus, Interesting:  Students give their peers feedback by telling them one thing that was good about the work evaluated, one thing that needs improving, and one thing that they found interesting.
- Traffic lights: Using a highlighter (green, yellow, red), students color the side of the margin for each section of an assignment reviewed, to indicate whether the success criteria (provided by the teacher) have been reached or still need improvement.

I believe that peer assessments is a great strategy and as a result, will be implementing it in my future classrooms.  If you have any other great examples of how peer assessment can be incorporated in the classroom, please post them in the comments below.