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Guidelines for Peer Review
Instructions for Peer Review
Peer reviews are an essential part of the revision process, as it’s important to receive feedback on your writing. Even the best writers ask for others to read their work. All you need to do is turn to the acknowledgement section of many books to find praise for others who have read drafts of the book. All important writing should be read by someone else prior to submission.
To earn credit for peer review, you must submit a draft to the peer review discussion board by the due date and comment on one of your classmates’ drafts by the second due date (the schedule lists two due dates: the first is when you must submit your draft; the second is when you must submit your responses to others). You must submit a draft AND comment on someone else’s draft to earn any credit for peer review. Just submitting a draft OR just commenting on someone’s draft will not earn credit.
Posting Your Draft
Create a new thread and post your draft as an attachment. Your attachment must be saved as a or x document. Please ensure that your draft uploads correctly.
Responding to Classmates
Questions for Peer Review
1. Read your peer’s essay from beginning to end just to let its ideas wash over you. What are your initial thoughts? Did your peer satisfy the requirements of assignment? Please explain in detail.
2. Review the essay’s title as well as its introduction and conclusion. Think about the relationships among these three components. Do they match or do they disagree? Make note of strengths or weaknesses in these crucial areas. Please explain in detail.
3. Find the essay’s thesis. Is it clear? Is it well positioned? Paraphrase (put in your own words) the thesis of the essay to check your understanding. Review the assignment guidelines to ensure that your peer’s thesis is on target. Make note of strengths or weaknesses in this area. Please explain in detail.
4. Focus on the individual paragraphs of the essay. Does each paragraph have a topic sentence that previews the ideas of the paragraph? Observe the essay’s development of paragraphs. Does each paragraph have a single main idea that relates to the thesis? Are there any paragraphs that seem disconnected or out of place?
5. Consider the essay’s use of the English language. Are sentence structures, grammar, spelling, punctuation and mechanics employed effectively, or do errors distract the reader from understanding and enjoying the writer’s analysis? Make note of strengths and weaknesses in this area. Please explain in detail.
Remember: When in doubt about how to do the peer review, be honest, helpful, and constructive. Saying “Great job! Don’t change a word!” never helped anyone to be a better writer.Instructions for Peer Review Peer reviews are an essential part of the revision process, as it’s important to receive feedback on your writing. Even the best writers ask for others to read their work. All you need to do is turn to the acknowledgement section of many books to find praise for others who have read drafts of the book. All important writing should be read by someone else prior to submission. To earn credit for peer review, you must submit a draft to the peer review discussion board by the due date and comment on one of your classmates’ drafts by the second due date (the schedule lists two due dates: the first is when you must submit your draft; the second is when you must submit your responses to others). You must submit a draft AND comment on someone else’s draft to earn any credit for peer review. Just submitting a draft OR just commenting on someone’s draft will not earn credit. Posting Your Draft
To post your draft, go to the discussion board for peer review included within the unit.
Create a new thread and post your draft as an attachment. Your attachment must be saved as a or x document. Please ensure that your draft uploads correctly.
Select a classmate’s thread and download his/her attached draft.
Reply to his/her thread to indicate the draft is under review (i.e. John Dow is currently reviewing the document). Do not select the paper if someone else is already reviewing.
Read the draft carefully and respond to the questions listed below, either in a new document or at the top of your classmate’s document. At the very least, you must answer the questions, but you can also use the “Comment” function in Microsoft Word to write comments to your classmates within the essay (put your cursor where you want the comment, go to the “Review” tab in Microsoft Word, and select “New Comment”).
Complete the review and save the document to your computer.
Once you have completed the review, reply to your classmate’s thread and upload the review.
Create a conversation with your group by answering the questions below. If one of your group mates has a question or concern, be sure to address it. You will be graded on your interaction with each other. Try to have a conversation about the course material.
1. What did you learn in this unit?
2. How did you learn it? What techniques or strategies did you find most helpful? Have those techniques changed from previous units?
3. What else would you like to learn related to the topics covered in this unit?
4. Do you have any questions or concerns about anything related to the course?
Summary / Response Essay
Introduction
In the article “Should Students Learn about Black Lives Matter in School?” which has been written by Hayley Glatter and published by The Atlantic on July 21st, 2016, the auther is rebuking the practice where school textbooks take time to be updated. The writer raises a number of current issues; such issue is racism, and the author proposes that “Public-school teachers should stand up against racism, and should stand up against religious intolerance.” (Glatter).
Summary of the Article
Glatter regrets that the current bureaucratic timelines where schools receive textbooks on seven-year cycles or even longer suppress any prospect of students learning current affairs through history textbooks. However, there are some teachers who do not rely on outdated books to teach students sensitive topics in the class. Such teachers believe that even if text books for social studies were up-to-date, they would not be reliable because they avoid controversy. Teaching students against discrimination is considered a controversial topic.
Teachers who attempt to incorporate current events into the classroom face numerous challenges. Some struggle to deliberate on sensitive topics since they feel that they do not have sufficient knowledge regarding the issue. Others may feel that they already have more than enough content to cover, while others lack the school support needed to introduce and do such conversations. In order to be able to effectively compare the past with the present, it is imperative that teachers have access to quality teaching materials. However, this may be challenging to achieve because books are often biased and silent about controversy. The author suggests that text-books are not the only means that can be used to teach current events. She advises teachers to make use of the primary sources available. She says: “For teachers seeking to bring current-events lessons to the classroom, not only are there primary sources covering the Black Lives Matter movement readily available, but the inclusion of these documents also aligns closely with Common Core standards.” (Glatter).
Response to the Article
I find this article quite useful, both to the educators and the institutions responsible for curriculum development. The author speaks about the issue of updating social studies textbooks with up-to-date information on current events for the benefit of the learners. However, this can be mitigated by primary materials such as newspapers which discuss the topics. Introducing topics about racial prejudice and discrimination in general to students while they are young makes it easy to fight the vice. Availing this knowledge to the students is important because they are already reading about it on social media but they do not have a chance to read and talk about it
Conclusion
The bureaucratic process of distributing textbooks to schools takes too long, making it hard for students to access content with current events. One of the current events is racism, which all public school teachers must stand against. Educators who seek to make their learners aware of the current happenings use primary-source documents. In this regard, schools have implemented the common core standards, thus motivating students to make use of these resources.
Work Cited
Glatter, Hayley. “Should Students Learn About Black Lives Matter in School?” 21 July 2016. The Atlantic . 4 February 2018
