Peer Assessment

<b> Forum for the discussion of assessment and testing of ESL/EFL students </b>

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RachelMHansen
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 9:16 pm
Location: Camden, NJ

Peer Assessment

Post by RachelMHansen » Tue Jun 12, 2012 5:45 pm

I have been reading a lot about self/peer- assessment. But, how effective can self/peer-assessment really be, especially for students with limited English skills? One major benefit that I’ve read about is “increased motivation because of self-involvement in the process of learning.” I am definitely open to ideas that focus less on lecturing. However, I have had students work in pairs and review each others written work, but this seems to run the risk of students wasting time. Is the benefit of peer-assessment/work worth this risk?

satter06
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 1:04 am

Post by satter06 » Tue Jun 26, 2012 1:32 am

I believe that peer assessment is important for the students to be apart of. Students always want to feel accepted by their peers and want their feedback so if done in an organized way, students can benefit from peer and self assessment. Also research has shown that peer and self assessment allows for students to have direct involvement in the classroom, encourages autonomy and increases motivation because students are involved in their own learning.
The next time you want to peer/self assess student work try this idea: give each student a small paper bag and have them place it next to their project or writing sample. Have students look at each others’ work and write a phrase on a strip of paper about the project to be placed in the bag. For lower level students they can choose from various sentence starters and higher level students can write their own positive feedback. Organize the students so that they spend only a certain amount of time at each desk and can rotate easily to the next desk. After this activity, students can then read through their comments and write a few sentences assessing their own work.
To save on time have the seating arrangment already set up and strips of paper for students. It can still take time but it is worth it.

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