| Teaching
Ideas and Units - Beaut Ideas
Peer Marking
Norma Watt uses
this strategy with her English 12C students, but it could be easily adapted
for younger students. Below is Norma’s description of how she organises
peer marking in her classroom. Introduction
I
give the students an essay topic to prepare several days in advance of
a test. (As the exams get closer, I abandon this privilege and give them
on-the-spot topics.) We use the students’ TCE candidate numbers for
identification, not names. I appreciate being able to read the anonymous
essays after they are marked: it's very liberating not to identify the
writer until after you've assessed the work!
The
Process
I
divide the class up into groups of 3 or 4 students, and give each group
3 or 4 essays to mark. I have two classes, so I swap the essays, which
assists in preserving anonymity. It also prevents students from keeping
a sharp ear out for the group marking their own essay! It is also a good
way to moderate among a number of classes and teachers when classes are
studying common texts. I don’t ask them to assess Criterion 1, but
I give them the standards for the relevant criteria, and ask them to play
teacher, with marking pens and comments as well as ratings. I insist that
they mark each essay together, rather than taking an essay each, so that
they can discuss intelligently the strengths and weaknesses of a particular
essay and better come to an agreement on the final ratings. It is a good
idea to hand each group only one essay at a time to mark in order to enforce
this.
They
always ask if their ratings will be recorded. My answer is that I will
read the essays to make sure there are no significantly inaccurate ratings,
and only change them if I strongly disagree with the group's final analysis.
I do, however, record them in a different colour in my mark book to indicate
that they are peer assessments, rather than mine.
Advantages
of Peer Assessment
1. Generally
the students become more critical of their own writing after evaluating
work written by others. This, in my view, is the overriding advantage
of the process.
2. They
are much more aware of the requirements for meeting the designated criteria
for any piece of work and see things from an assessor’s point of
view.
3. They
see examples of good writing to emulate.
4. Much
valuable discussion takes place in the course of agreeing on ratings.
5. It's
a very efficient way of getting immediate feedback on work completed
before any other activities inhibit the learning process - a class set
can be assessed in 1-1.5 hours by this method.
6. The
students take the awarded ratings very seriously, especially if the
teacher is recording them virtually untouched.
7. Many
of the written comments are quite perceptive, indicating a good understanding
of the strengths and weaknesses of a given piece.
8. It's a WONDERFUL way of cutting down on hours of teacher marking!
Disadvantages
of Peer Assessment
1. Students
tend to award the middle ratings of B and C. They need encouragement
and support to refine their critical awareness.
2. Sometimes
there is dissension in a group over the ratings - the occasional student
will complain about continually being overruled.
Student
Comments on Peer Assessment
A
Journal Entry
1. What did I learn from peer marking?
2. How
effective was this as a learning technique?
By marking
essays after writing one on the same topic beforehand, it made me far
more aware of what was required in an essay and the differences between
a good and a not so good style analysis. I realised the importance of
good structure, clear language and attention to detail. After reading
two or three, it became apparent that trivial details such as author's
name, where the article comes from, etc. are less important and should
take up less space and time. Also, I became aware that many people wrote
a lot on what the article was about and not so much on their interpretation
of the article and the stylistic techniques which are far more important.
I realise that when I personally write class essays, many of my paragraphs
are confused and ideas unordered as I write down whatever comes into my
head. Perhaps making a side list of things to mention before I start may
assist me in getting the essay to flow better and improve the structure.
It was obvious from marking other work that some people also have this
problem and I have come to understand the importance of clear structure,
as we often came across unclear ideas that jumped from one to another.
The importance of a good conclusion that sums up the essay and does not
introduce any new ideas became clear. Over all I felt that it was a very
good exercise and I learnt a lot on how to improve my own essay writing."
Other
Comments
• I
didn't realise each criterion branched off into so many different sub-sections,
but it did make it easier to give an overall mark.
• I
think we started marking too hard. The first one was much better than
the others, but the ratings didn't reflect that. Can we go back and change
it?
• It's
really hard not to compare the essays - just to mark on the criteria.
• I
think I would write my own essay differently if I could do it again.
• I
think the people who marked mine were too generous - they wanted to be
kind to me.
• I
didn't realize how hard it would be to mark. I feel sorry for teachers.
• I
found that whether or not I liked the person and their opinion swayed
my assessment and I had to steel myself and admit that if they hadn't
covered the criterion, they had to have a D.
• I
found it interesting to see how other people in the class wrote their
answer and it gave me some ideas on how to make my work better.
• I
found having to analyse other people's work a valuable experience. It
has really helped my understanding of how the criterion-based assessment
works.
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