Composition Revision

Peer Assessment in a Collaborative

Learning Environment
By David Woo
Peer Assessment Rationale
 Students should become
independent, capable learners
 Students should become familiar with
the requisite features of a particular
text type
 Students should become adept at
using language to express cogently
their thinking skills
Peer Assessment Methodology
 Grading Rubric
 Focused Marking
 Language features that were to be
included in the composition
 Other items that arose during the
teacher’s initial editing of papers
Peer Assessment Sample
In an argumentative text, we would look for:
 General Items
 Comma splices
 Singular/Countable Nouns
 Parts of Speech
 Text-specific Features
 Thinking Skill - Refutation of opposing viewpoints
 Language Feature - Contrasting adverbs and
conjunctions (however; but; yet)
 Thinking Skill -Organization of different arguments
 Language Feature – Signposting (firstly; my second
point; finally)
Peer Assessment Sample Rubric
Dear _____________,

I've read your work. It is _____________. It deserves an A / a B / a C / a D / an E / an F (circle the

grade).

The thing I think you did the best was:

_______________________________ ___________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

I wonder what you think about paragraph _____________. Perhaps you could do something to make
it better or more interesting to read. For example, you could:

____________________________________________________________________ ______

_______________________________ ___________________________________________

I've provided some analysis of your grammar items and content (tick or circle where appropriate).
Poor Pass Excellent
Singular/Counta
1 2 3 4 5
ble Nouns
Parts of Speech 1 2 3 4 5
Paragraphing 1 2 3 4 5
Clear and not 1 2 3 4 5
confusing

Furthermore, you were asked to use signposting and contrasting adverbs and conjunctions. We have
just learned these grammar items and you were asked to highlight or underline them in your work. I
have put ticks next to the perfect ones and have circled ones that are used incorrectly. I hope this
helps you.

I spotted it (please
tick)
Signposting It was used correctly/incorrectly _____ times.
Contrasting Adverbs and
It was used correctly/incorrectly _____ times.
Conjunctions
Comma Splices It was used correctly/incorrectly _____ times.
Poor Handwriting It was used correctly/incorrectly _____ times.
Chinglish It was used correctly/incorrectly _____ times.

Keep writing. There's always room for improvement!

All the best,

_____________ (your name).

_____________ (the date)

Cooperative Learning Rationale
 Students should be able to work with
team members of different
performance level, gender, or
ethnicity
 Students should develop
responsibility for their teams’ learning
 Students should exceed their own
past performance with cooperative
effort
Cooperative Learning Methodology
 Student Teams-Achievement Divisions
(STAD)
 Students are assigned to four-member learning
teams.
 They assess team members’ compositions and
complete rubrics.
 Students rewrite their compositions.
 The teacher marks the students’ compositions.
 For each student, the teacher’s rubric and the
student’s rubric are compared. Marks are
awarded based on the improvement in writing.
 Extra marks can be awarded to teams which
demonstrate the greatest improvement.
Cooperative Learning Methodology
 Cooperative Integrated Reading and
Composition (CIRC)
 Students form four-member learning teams
 They assess team members’ compositions and
complete rubrics.
 Students rewrite their compositions.
 The teacher marks the students’ compositions.
 Each student who meets or exceeds the criteria
set on the teacher’s rubric will receive full
marks.