UMass Lowell's First Year Writing Program

Gossipy Peer Review

The goal of this style of peer review is for the writer to witness how a genuine audience reacts to his/her writing. This activity was adapted from Peter Kittle’s article “Reading Practices as Revision Strategies: The Gossipy Reading Model.” The activity was designed by Tanya Rodrigue from Salem State University and shared by Kelly Drummey.

Group Work and Peer Review Activities using Talking Circles (from Ann McGill)

Refining an Introductory Paragraph

When students have written their rough drafts, pair them up. Each student reads her introduction aloud to her partner.  The two of them decide which introduction is better. Students then form groups of four and eventually eight. In a class of nineteen, this will result in two strong introductions

Online Peer Review (Peermark feature in Turnitin via Blackboard)

If you would like students to do peer review outside class, you can use the “peer mark” feature, which is inside Turnitin. You set it up when you create an assignment in Blackboard. You can create peer review questions for students to answer, with both text boxes and Likert scales.  The document below has instructions.