STRATEGY GUIDE
Peer Review
 

Grades K–5

Publisher

Strategy Guide Teaching Writing

Series

See All Strategy Guides in this series 

 

ABOUT THIS STRATEGY GUIDECOMMENTS

 

Research Basis
Strategy in Practice
Related Resources

This strategy guide explains how you can employ peer review in your classroom, guiding students as they offer
each other constructive feedback to improve their writing and communication skills.

RESEARCH BASIS
 

Peer review refers to the many ways in which students can share their creative work with peers for constructive
feedback and then use this feedback to revise and improve their work. For the writing process, revision is as
important as drafting, but students often feel they cannot let go of their original words. By keeping an audience in
mind and participating in focused peer review interactions, students can offer productive feedback, accept
constructive criticism, and master revision. This is true of other creative projects, such as class presentations,
podcasts, or blogs. Online tools can also help to broaden the concept of “peers.”

Real literacy happens in a community of people who can make meaningful connections. Peer review facilitates the
type of social interaction and collaboration that is vital for student learning.
 

STRATEGY IN PRACTICE
 
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Peer review can be used for different class projects in a variety of ways:

Teach students to use these three steps to give peer feedback: Compliments, Suggestions, and Corrections (see
the Peer Edit with Perfection! Handout). Explain that starting with something positive makes the other person
feel encouraged. You can also use Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial to walk through the feedback process with
your students.

Provide students with sentence starter templates, such as, “My favorite part was _________ because
__________,” to guide students in offering different types of feedback. After they start with something positive,
have students point out areas that could be improved in terms of content, style, voice, and clarity by using
another sentence starter (“A suggestion I can offer for improvement is ___________.”). The peer editor can mark
spelling and grammar errors directly on the piece of writing.

Teach students what constructive feedback means (providing feedback about areas that need improvement
without criticizing the person). Feedback should be done in an analytical, kind way. Model this for students and
ask them to try it. Show examples of vague feedback (“This should be more interesting.”) and clear feedback (“A
description of the main character would help me to imagine him/her better.”), and have students point out
which kind of feedback is most useful. The Peer Editing Guide offers general advice on how to listen to and
 receive feedback, as well as how to give it.

For younger students, explain that you need helpers, so you will show them how to be writing teachers for each
other. Model peer review by reading a student’s piece aloud, then have him/her leave the room while you discuss
with the rest of the class what questions you will ask to elicit more detail. Have the student return, and ask those
questions. Model active listening by repeating what the student says in different words. For very young students,
encourage them to share personal stories with the class through drawings before gradually writing their stories.

Create a chart and display it in the classroom so students can see the important steps of peer editing. For
example, the steps might include: 1. Read the piece, 2. Say what you like about it, 3. Ask what the main idea is,
4. Listen, 5. Say “Add that, please” when you hear a good detail. For pre‑writers, “Add that, please” might mean
adding a detail to a picture. Make the chart gradually longer for subsequent sessions, and invite students to add
dialogue to it based on what worked for them.

Incorporate ways in which students will review each other’s work when you plan projects. Take note of which
students work well together during peer review sessions for future pairings. Consider having two peer review
sessions for the same project to encourage more thought and several rounds of revision.

Have students review and comment on each other’s work online using Nicenet, a class blog, or class website.

Have students write a class book, then take turns bringing it home to read. Encourage them to discuss the writing
process with their parents or guardians and explain how they offered constructive feedback to help their peers.

Using peer review strategies, your students can learn to reflect on their own work, self‑edit, listen to their peers,
and assist others with constructive feedback. By guiding peer editing, you will ensure that your students’ work
reflects thoughtful revision.

RELATED RESOURCES
 
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Grades   3 – 6  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

The Houdini Box: What Did Houdini Hide? Writing Creative Endings

Students are encouraged to understand a book that the teacher reads aloud to create a new ending for it
using the writing process.
 

Grades   9 – 12  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

And in Conclusion: Inquiring into Strategies for Writing Effective Conclusions

While drafting a literary analysis essay (or another type of argument) of their own, students work in pairs to
investigate advice for writing conclusions and to analyze conclusions of sample essays. They then draft two
conclusions for their essay, select one, and reflect on what they have learned through the process.
 

Grades   9 – 12  |  Lesson Plan  |  Unit

Reading Shakespeare's The Tempest through a Postcolonial Lens

Students take a postcolonial perspective on the portrayal of Caliban from Shakespeare's The Tempest by
comparing it to a modern adaptation of the play.
 

Grades   9 – 12  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Analyzing the Rhetoric of Corporate Logos across Time

Students think critically about how design elements in logos work together to tell a changing story about a
company or product in this visual rhetoric lesson.
 

Grades   K – 2  |  Lesson Plan  |  Minilesson

Collaborative Stories 2: Revising

Using a collaborative story written by students, the teacher leads a shared‑revising activity to help students
consider content when revising, with students participating in the marking of text revisions.
 

Grades   3 – 5  |  Lesson Plan  |  Unit

Nature Reflections: Interactive Language Practice for English‑Language Learners

Students whose first language is not English reflect on nature through readings, a visit to a green area, and
bookmaking using the writing process and peer feedback.
 

Grades   3 – 5  |  Lesson Plan  |  Unit

My Family Traditions: A Class Book and a Potluck Lunch

After analyzing Family Pictures/Cuadros de Familia by Carmen Lomas Garza, students create a class book
with artwork and information about their ancestry, traditions, and recipes, followed by a potluck lunch.
 

Grades   3 – 5  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Peer Edit With Perfection: Effective Strategies

Students take a fresh look at the revision process and help one another polish their written work through a
peer‑editing strategy that is simple, systematic, and constructive.
 

Grades   6 – 8  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Improve Students' Writing Using Online Workshops

"If tomorrow morning the sky falls...have clouds for breakfast." Cooper Eden's book If You're Afraid of the
Dark, Remember the Night Rainbow offers unconventional responses to life's challenges, and this lesson's
activities encourage students to do the same. Online writing groups provide a forum for constructive peer
review.
 

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