Self-Peer Comparison

This activity is a good way to get learners thinking about perspectives and interpretations.

It works as follows:

Ask learners to produce a self-assessment of their work but to keep the results of this secret.

Learners then get into pairs, swap their work and complete a peer-assessment.

These are shared and learners compare what their partner has written with their own self-assessments.

Finally, a discussion ensues in which pairs talk about the self- and peer-assessments they have given.

Conversations should focus on the similarities and differences, as well as anything else that seems particularly interesting.

The great advantage of this activity is that it presents learners with a personal and an external perspective on their work.

It may be that in some instances these prove to be fairly similar – perhaps even identical.

In many cases, however, there are likely to be differences between the two assessments.

These may be in terms of the strengths, targets or improvements that have been identified; the overall response to the work; or the way in which it has been understood by the assessor.

Through discussion, the causes of these differences can be drawn out and made plain.

It may be that learners will disagree with one another.

That’s fine. It will likely have a positive effect by stimulating learners into defending the assessments they have made.

This will result in them marshalling reasons, evidence and examples in order to support their arguments (the assessments they have made are arguments – they are conclusions made on the basis of evidence).

In order to encourage learners to think carefully about the differences between their self-assessments and the peer-assessments their partners have created, build some reflection time into the activity.

This may take the form of a couple of minutes in-between the returning of the peer-assessments and the beginning of the discussion, in which learners think in silence about what has been written and make some notes in response (potentially including questions they would like to ask their partner).

By delineating a period of time in which learners have to reflect, you stress the importance to them of considering the implications of the differences in the assessments.

In addition, it helps learners to understand how texts are open to multiple interpretations – not all of which will agree.

Here’s one final thought.

You might like to create a pro-forma for this task. It could be as simple as an A4-sheet divided in half.

Learners complete their self-assessment on the top half of their sheet, fold this over so that it is hidden, and pass the paper to their partner.

They, in turn, complete a peer-assessment on the bottom half of the sheet.

When the pro-forma is returned, learners open them up and compare the two assessments.

A nice aspect of this approach is its theatricality.

Opening up the sheet to its full size, and revealing the two assessments, side-by-side, is mildly dramatic, adding a excitement to the activity, and giving learners a highly visual comparison of their self-assessment and their partner’s peer-assessment.

Silent Debate Peer-Assessment

Silent debate works as follows:

Five or six large sheets of sugar paper are distributed through the room.

Each has a question or statement related to the topic written in the middle of it.

Learners walk around the room in silence.

They make comments on the sheets of paper, responding to the questions/statements.

When they have finished, they continue to walk around except they now make comments on what other people have written.

At the end of the activity, there is a discussion.

This either takes place in groups, or as a whole class. The teacher and the learners look at the comments that have been made and pick out some to discuss.

Silent debate peer-assessment works as follows:

As above, except in place of questions or statements insert anonymous work, or work that you have kept from the previous year.

Instead of writing comments, learners identify strengths or suggest ways the work could be improved.

At the end of the activity, you have two options.

First, divide the class into groups and give each group one of the sheets of sugar paper, complete with the now annotated work on it.

Groups then discuss the comments written on their sheets, identifying those they think are most useful, relevant or pertinent.

Second, do something similar, but as a whole class.

Here, you can pull out comments you find interesting, ask whoever wrote them to explain their thinking, and build a whole-class discussion from there.

This activity has several advantages:

• It provides learners with an opportunity to peer-assess multiple pieces of work. This widens their range of reference points, making it easier for them to think about what makes a good piece of work in relation to the topic.
• Learners have the chance to read a number of other people’s peer-assessments. This gives them access to a wide range of ideas. It also helps them to refine their peer-assessments by providing examples to which they can compare their own thinking.
• By using anonymous work, or work produced by learners during the previous year, the activity depersonalises the peer-assessment process. This means that learners are solely focussed on the peer-assessment. This makes the activity good for honing peer-assessment skills and for learning from mistakes.

A further possibility you might like to pursue, that extends and develops the activity, works as follows:

At the conclusion of the silent debate, divide your class into the same number of groups as there are large sheets of paper (you will need to think ahead here to ensure you do not end up with oversized groups).

Give each group one of the sheets of paper. Ask them to analyse the peer-assessments and to pick out what they think are the three most compelling targets or improvements.

Having done this, the group should redo the original piece of work, taking account of the targets and improvements on which they have settled.

Conclude the activity by having groups present their new pieces of work to one another.