Nine ways to get your learners assessing each other’s work, thinking critically about success criteria, and pulling together like a well-oiled machine

Peer-assessment is a powerful tool when learners do it right.

It opens up success criteria, helping learners develop a better understanding of what they need to do to be successful.

And opening up success criteria is one of three key pillars of assessment for learning, alongside eliciting and using information and giving formative feedback.

Here, we’ll look at nine tried-and-tested ways you can run peer-assessment in your classroom.

Three paired peer-assessment strategies.

Three using triads.

And three using larger groups.

All of which get your learners focussed, on task and assessing each other’s work in a meaningful way.

Paired Peer-Assessment: Three Strategies

Paired Peer-Assessment: Method One

Allow between ten and fifteen minutes.

This should be after a few lesson’s worth of work has been completed by your learners.

Explain that learners will be working in pairs to mark each other’s books.

Spend five minutes revisiting what it is that you have been studying.

You might want to make a list of recent lesson topics on the board, or create a spider diagram of relevant keywords.

This will act as a primer for your learners, making it easier for them to mark their partner’s work effectively.

Learners now mark each other’s books.

Indicate that they should identify any errors or misconceptions they come across and that they should write notes of praise for things their partner has done well.

Ask them to conclude the marking with an overall comment.

This should include three good things about their partner’s work and one area for improvement.

Finally, ask learners to swap back their books. They should read through their partner’s marking and then discuss it with them.

You can scaffold this approach by providing guidance on what learners are looking for. Whether this is necessary will depend on your class and where they are at.

Another option is to use the activity as a pre-cursor to a discussion about what success looks like in your subject or in the topic you have been teaching (more apt at a primary level).

Paired Peer-Assessment: Method Two

For this activity, learners should have completed an extended piece of writing.

In pairs, learners take it in turns to read their work out to each other. This should be done twice.

The first time, the learner who is listening should remain silent.

The second time, the learner who is listening should ask questions.

They should feel free to interrupt their partner, though their questions must be connected to the work that is being read out.

Examples of what they might ask include:

Questions of clarification
Questions about the structure of the writing
Questions challenging what has been said
Questions about what is missing
Questions about the success criteria

(If necessary, you can scaffold this by giving learners exemplar questions they can use as a starting point.)

At the end of the second reading the learner who has been listening takes a minute or two to formulate their thoughts.

They can then deliver either an oral or a written peer-assessment in which they identify a range of good things and one area for improvement.

Learners then swap over and repeat the process.

If appropriate, you can direct the peer-assessment by asking the class, or certain pairs, to focus on something specific.

For example, you might ask everyone to focus on clarity and whether what your partner has written is sufficiently clear to be easily understood.

Older learners can take the focus into their own hands by giving their partner something specific to focus on. For example, a learner might ask their partner to assess how persuasive they think their writing is, or how well they have used key vocabulary.

Paired Peer-Assessment: Method Three

Learners are put into pairs.

The teacher sets up an activity in which each pair must work together to create something.

This could be a drama performance, a joint piece of writing, or a model of something the class have been studying.

When sufficient time has passed, the teacher asks pairs to get into groups of four.

In each group, learners take it in turns to share whatever it is they have produced.

At the end of the sharing, the pairs then take it in turns to peer-asses each other’s work.

The teacher might provide some criteria against which the assessments can take place, groups might agree among themselves how they want to go about their assessments, or the whole activity could start with the co-construction of success criteria, which are then used in the peer-assessments.

Peer-Assessment Triads: Three Strategies

Peer-Assessment Triads: Method One

Two learners have a discussion while a third observes.

At the end of the discussion (signalled by the teacher calling ‘time’) the first two learners turn to the third.

This learner gives a peer-assessment covering what they have heard and seen.

It is helpful if this learner has a pro-forma they can fill in or a list of criteria they can refer to while they are observing their peers.

This could be in the form of questions (What are they talking about? How well are they listening to one another?), or categories (Knowledge; Listening; Responding).

Providing this scaffolding helps ensure the peer-assessment has a meaningful structure and successfully targets learner effort.

If you want to give your learners a little more scope, provide them with a range of questions or categories and ask them to choose the ones on which they will focus.

The peer-assessment itself should combine an identification of strengths with an explanation of one area that could be improved (and, if possible, a demonstration of what improvement looks like).

The two learners can then restart their discussion and attempt to put the advice into action.

Peer-Assessment Triads: Method Two

After learners have produced an extended piece of individual work, ask them to get into groups of three.

They should pass their work to the person on their left, who will then go through it and create a peer-assessment.

If the work created is not physical – such as a piece of drama or a monologue – then learners will need to perform or demonstrate it to the person on their left.

When the peer-assessments have been completed, one learner begins the feedback process by talking through their judgements.

The person whose work was assessed listens carefully.

The third learner listens and then, when the first learner has finished speaking, asks their peer how they feel about what they’ve heard.

If necessary, they then ask follow-up questions to both of their fellow group members to facilitate a discussion.

Learners then swap roles and repeat the process a further two times, so everyone has a chance to play each role.

Peer-Assessment Triads: Method Three

Pupils work in groups of three to create a piece of work.

This can be a whole range of things, though it should have some depth to it (otherwise, there will be little to assess).

Learners clear a space on their table so they can display their work.

If appropriate, ask each group to write a short summary of what they have produced or an explanation of the rationale behind it.

They can then leave this on their table, beside the work itself.

Each group member is given a role:

Strength-Spotter
Improvement-Identifier
Target-Setter

Groups are invited to walk around the room and to find one piece of work to peer-assess.

When they have made their selection (and every piece of work must have one group peer-assessing it) the group members write out a peer-assessment.

Each learner contributes a section connected to their role – the identification of strengths, possible improvements or a target.

Finally, groups return to their own work and read through the peer-assessment that has been left for them.

(You can develop the activity by asking groups to go to more than one piece of work. Learners then end up with multiple peer-assessments to consider.)

Peer-Assessment in Groups: Three Strategies

Group Peer-Assessment: Method One

Set a task for learners to complete in groups.

Plan in advance how much time you will give to the activity.

When learners have reached the half-way point, ask them to stop whatever it is they are doing.

Each group should now select two members to take on specific roles.

One of these will provide a peer-assessment of the group’s work so far (Learner A) while another will do the same except for a different group (Learner B).

You should provide a set of success criteria, related to the task, learners can use to make their assessments.

Learner A begins. They look back over the work their group has done and identify what is going well and what could be improved.

After this, Learner B leaves and provides the same service for another group.

The key point here is that each group will get an internal and an external perspective on their work thus far.

With the peer-assessments complete, all learners return to their original groups.

The teacher announces that the original activity will recommence and invites groups to act on the feedback they have received.

Group Peer-Assessment: Method Two

Set a task for learners to complete in groups.

This should be something that can be left out on display, for example: a poster, a PowerPoint presentation (that can be printed off or displayed on a laptop) or a video of a speech that plays on a device.

Assign the following roles to your groups:

Strength-Spotters
Improvement-Identifiers
Target-Setters

It is preferable to have a high ratio of positive comments to developmental comments.

So, for example, if you have six groups, assign four as ‘Strength-Spotters’, one as ‘Improvement-Identifiers’ and one as ‘Target-Setters’.

Invite groups to walk around the room and to assess every piece of work on display, including their own.

The result of this will be that, upon returning to their work, each group will find multiple strengths, one potential improvement and one target.

If you have fewer groups than I have outlined here, I recommend dispensing with the ‘Improvement-Identifiers’, as what they provide overlaps a little with the ‘Target-Setters’.

Group Peer-Assessment: Method Three

Set a task for learners to complete in groups.

On completing the activity, ask groups to pair up (it is advisable to plan ahead here and to ensure that you have an even number of groups).

In the pairings, each group should take it in turns to perform, display or share their work.

They should talk through what it means, how it was made, and what they were trying to achieve.

Following this, the other group should provide a peer-assessment.

This can be unstructured, with learners making comments as they wish, or it can be structured through the use of the roles outlined above (Strength-Spotters, Improvement-Identifiers and Target-Setters).

If appropriate, provide success criteria learners can use when doing their peer-assessments.

You can share these at the start of the activity, or develop them with your learners before the task begins.

When the peer-assessments are completed, invite groups to review what they have produced and to see if they can make any edits or amendments based on the feedback they received.