Implementing Effective Peer-Feedback
This curriculum project is a bank of resources for teachers to use when implementing peer-feedback activities and peer-review protocols. The primary student population for the resources is middle school students, but they can be adapted for elementary and secondary level students. This bank of resources is organized by purpose and genre so that teachers can pick and choose which activities and graphic organizers apply to their classroom and content. The graphic organizers are designed for a variety of content areas as well as resources that are specifically for writing. The resources are organized into three categories: Building a Culture of Feedback, Feedback by Writing Genre, and Open-Ended Feedback. As the role of teachers in classrooms shifts away from being the primary source of information and feedback to that of a guide and facilitator, students are taking on a more active role in every process of their learning. This active role is dependent on a growth mindset, where students understand their strengths, acknowledge their challenges, and use tools like feedback to propel them toward improvement. The feedback cycle is an integral process in student learning, especially in writing. Teaching our students to give and receive high-quality feedback is imperative to the success of this process. Both giving meaningful feedback and learning from the feedback that we are given are lifelong skills that have immense benefits. However, implementing effective peer-feedback activities can be extremely challenging for teachers. It takes time to develop a culture of feedback, it releases responsibility and control to students, and the resources available are often too general or too specific to be applied to each teacher's needs.