Teacher: Jennifer Owen + Kendall Umetsu

Date: 10/21/14
School: Thompson Valley High School
Grade Level: 11th
Content Area: English
Title: Peer Review Essay Workshop
Lesson #:_1_ of --_2_

Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson: (Write Content Standards directly from the
standard)

Understandings: (Big Ideas)

Students will understand the importance of editing written work and working
collaboratively with their peers.
Students will better understand the components and workings of compare and contrast
essays.
Inquiry Questions: (Essential questions relating knowledge at end of the unit of instruction,
select applicable questions from standard)
1. What was gained from having peers review my work?
2. Did I learn anything about my own writing by looking at my peers?
3. Were the comments I received constructive?
4. Will I be able to use my peers comments to better my writing?
Evidence Outcomes: (Learning Targets)
Every student will be able to: Read through their peers work critically and leave beneficial
comments, suggestions, and comments by focusing on a targeted segment of an essay.
I can: Competently review my peers work, looking for content, grammar, syntax, and

structural errors, and leave constructive and beneficial feedback to help improve their
work.
This means: I can help my peers improve their writing, while also increasing my own
skill at editing and reflect back on my own writing.

List of Assessments: (Write the number of the learning target associated with each
assessment)
1. Students will turn in a reflection at the end of class as a Ticket Out the Door

describing:
1. What they liked about the activity
2. What they didnt like about the activity
3. What the best feedback they received was

Planned Lesson Activities

Name and Purpose of Lesson
Should be a creative title for you
and the students to associate with
the activity. Think of the purpose
as the mini-rationale for what you
are trying to accomplish through
this lesson.
Approx. Time and Materials
How long do you expect the
activity to last and what materials
will you need?

Anticipatory Set
The hook to grab students
attention. These are actions and
statements by the teacher to relate
the experiences of the students to
the objectives of the lesson, To put
students into a receptive frame of
mind.

To focus student attention on

the lesson.

To create an organizing
framework for the ideas, principles,
or information that is to follow
(advanced organizers)
An anticipatory set is used any

The Crucible and The Majestic Essay Peer Feedback

or Peer to Peer
To practice focusing on essay elements in order to
decipher purpose within the whole. To offer/receive
constructive feedback and make revisions.

Approximately 35 minutes
Students will need:
A writing utensil
Their essay printed out and brought to class
A handout they will receive in class
An additional half sheet of paper
Ask students to participate in a Hands Up activity,
where students raise their hands if they agree with the
following questions:
1. I feel confident with where my essay is
right now and am ready to turn it in
2. I need more time working on my essay
3. I am confused by certain parts of the
essay writing procedure (i.e. thesis, thesis
connects, textual evidence, etc.)
4. I would like time in class to work on
finishing and bettering my essay
Explain to students that not only are they getting time
to work on their essays in class, but they also get to
borrow ideas from their peers and better their own

time a different activity or new

concept is to be introduced.

writing by helping each other

Procedures
(Include a play-by-play account of
what students and teacher will do
from the minute they arrive to the
minute they leave your classroom.
Indicate the length of each
segment of the lesson. List actual
minutes.)
Indicate whether each is:
-teacher input
-modeling
-questioning strategies
-guided/unguided:
-whole-class practice
-group practice
-individual practice
-check for understanding
-other

1. Once we start with our lesson we will begin with the

anticipatory set (Hands Up) calling for student
participation 5 minutes, whole class participation
2. Handout peer review worksheet and proceed to
explain how this activity will work as well as why its
beneficial 7-10 minutes, teacher input/other
3. Allow for five minutes for peers to review each
others work before passing their sheet to the next
person 20 minutes, individual practice
4. Wrap up Have students do a quick 2 minute
Ticket Out the Door 2 minutes, check for
understanding

Closure
Those actions or statements by a
teacher that are designed to bring
a lesson presentation to an
appropriate conclusion. Used to
help students bring things together
in their own minds, to make sense
out of what has just been taught.
Any Questions? No. OK, lets
move on is not closure. Closure is
used:

To cue students to the fact

that they have arrived at an
important point in the lesson or the
end of a lesson.

To help organize student

learning
To help form a coherent picture
and to consolidate.

After having completed the peer review handout, we

will call the class back to attention and ask students to
hand back the essays to their owners and allow
students to quickly read over the comments. We will
then ask students to participate in a Ticket Out the
Door, going over the questions we would like them to
address:
1.
What you liked about this activity
2.
What you didnt like about this activity
3.
What was the best/most constructive
feedback you received

Differentiation
To modify: If the activity is too

We will explain that we would also like students to

underline what they think the essays thesis statement

advanced for a child, how will you

modify it so that they can be
successful?
To extend: If the activity is too
easy for a child, how will you
extend it to develop their emerging
skills?

is, the textual evidence, and main points. We have

several students who have IEPs and 504s, so this
allows for less writing but still actively engages
students in identifying main components in an
academic essay.
Students who find themselves very uncomfortable
with the idea of having several of their peers read
their work may opt to edit their own essays. They will
still be required to fill out the handout and read their
essay critically in targeted points.
Students who are excelling with this activity and finish
editing before the end of the time we can ask to write
overall notes about the paragraph or move onto the
next paragraph.

Assessment
How will you know if students met
the learning targets? Write a
description of what you were
looking for in each assessment.

Monitoring the class, we will be able to stop and not

only answer questions, but also quickly review
students comments on their peers essays. In this
way we will make sure that students are actively
engaged in the activity. Our Ticket Out the Door will
allow us to see if students were able to understand
the importance of this activity and what they were able
to draw out of it.

Post Lesson Reflection

1.
To what extent were lesson objectives achieved? (Utilize assessment data to
justify your level of achievement)
The lesson was surprisingly successful. With students in different stages of completion,
there were opportunities for students to slip through the cracks, but the students were
engaged and interactive during the lesson. Students gained insight into the different
elements of their essays. They needed a longer class period, or multiple class periods
in order to dig deeper into significant elements of their papers. Students were, however,
successful in answering questions about their peers papers. Reviewing the feedback
provided allowed me to determine that most students were thorough and constructive in
reviewing their peers work.
2.
What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would you make if you
were to teach again?

There were a few things that I would change if teaching this lesson again, but the
primary things refer to time and skill. Most students were able to get through papers
within the allotted time. However, I think students would have been able to dig deeper
and reflect more thoroughly with more time per section. I would add a significant amount
of modeling as well. Because we were not there every day, we were not aware of some
of the issues students were having with completing their essays on time. Students were
in different phases of completion, which means I would have rather done things a little
differently. Students were staying on track, but it would have been beneficial to go
through certain things as a group. Modeling the introduction and thesis questions and
identification would have assisted students who were still unclear on what or where the
thesis is meant to appear. These things would give students a little more guidance with
the topic of peer reviews and allow them to feel more comfortable with the process
before starting on their own.
3. What do you envision for the next lesson? (Continued practice, reteach
content, etc.)
Due to the difficulties this class had with essay elements and composition, I would do
additional revision and editing as well as work on final drafts. Students work on their
essays in labs at school. While this utilizes a great deal of classroom time, it also
presents an opportunity to work with students individually with problem areas. Because
the class periods are quite short, I would have used the next day to discuss the peer
editing further. Rather than a brief ticket out the door what did you think about the
activity, I would uncover the outcomes. Where students are struggling the most, what
the connections between essay content and evidence, and inquiry questions such as
those. In a class where fewer students are struggling, I would have students take their
final drafts and have students do a self-evaluation with the standards-based grading
rubric. Students would self-grade their final essays before submission at the end of the
class period.