Having the opportunity to observe Anna was beneficial to me because the day I observed her, she was leading a peer review. This is an activity I sometimes struggle with when presenting it to my students because my students have had negative experiences with peer review in high school. As a result, they frequently approach the activity with resistance. Through observing Anna, I was able to pick up some great techniques to use in my upcoming peer review activity. As I discuss what I observed in her class, I will be sharing how I applied what I learned from the observation within each subcategory rather than in a separate Application subcategory. Principle The importance of peer review is being taught because the class has just completed their rough drafts on their visual analysis assignments. Method Anna organized the peer review by randomly pairing up students by numbering them off and giving them a handout (mentioned in more detail in Materials section) to guide the peer review. I thought pairing the students up was effective because it allowed the students to focus on one other visual project for twenty minutes and give a detailed review rather than focusing on all of their classmates projects for a minute each and giving a superficial review. One thing I would have done differently is have the students discuss the information on the handout instead of having them write out their responses. I feel this would have been more beneficial to the person who was receiving the review because they would be able to jot down meaningful notes and clarify any questions they had about the review on the spot. Materials Anna uses a hand out to guide the peer review. The top of the handout has a few questions for the composer of the visual to answer before passing it along to the reviewer. I thought this was a great idea because it helped the students get the reviewing process started by first analyzing their own work. This section also allowed the composer to pose questions and ask for specific help from their reviewer. The next time I have a peer review activity, I plan to implement this self reflection and audience question section into my peer review sheet. The second half the sheet included some standard questions to help the responder critique the visual. This is something that I had already planned on including in my peer review sheet. One thing that surprised me the existence of a third section to the handout. This third section asked the composer of the visual to reflect on the comments that had been made on their visual. I really liked this last section and plan to include it in my next peer review activity. I might even turn it into a “contract for revision” where my students email the answer to the question to me, and later, when grading their papers, I will use their answer to verify whether or not they made the improvements that they thought were necessary after peer review. Curricular Coherence Anna introduced peer review by explaining the handout before distributing it. At first, I thought this was a bad idea because it would have been better for the students to be able to see the document she was explaining as she explained it. After thinking about her decision a little more thoroughly, I agreed with her decision to hold off on handing it out because the first task on the handout was something the student could get started write away on which might have distracted them from listening to her instructions and explanation. She created curricular coherence by reminding students how peer reviews had helped them in previous assignments and how this peer review would help them with the final draft of their upcoming assignment Classroom Dynamics When I went to observe Anna, I intentionally arrived early to see how she interacted with students before class started. She arrived about five minutes before class and was immediately approached by a student with a question about the upcoming assignment. She answered it quickly and then made her way around the room to students who had already arrived that had been absent the previous class (Friday). She handed them back the previous assignment that she had handed back to the rest of the class Friday along with a worksheet that they had worked on Friday. She explained that if they completed the worksheet, they could salvage some of the participation points they had missed out on for being absent. I thought she handled pre-class classroom dynamics in a very personable way. By approaching the students that were absent Friday and giving the individual attention as needed, she showed them not only that she had noticed that they were gone but also that she cared about them as individuals because she had taken the time to prepare a way for them to make up their work. This sense of caring was consistent throughout the class as she lectured and addressed students individually always with a smile and in an unintimidating manner. Watching her interact with the students reminded me how important it is to keep a smile on my face and constantly show my students through my actions that I care about them as individuals. Dealing with Issues Anna did an excellent job politely directing students who had questions specific to their assignment to ask her at a later time. She did this when in the middle of a class discussion about Assignment Five, the assignment they were performing the peer review on, a student wanted her to answer a question specific to his assignment. Instead of answering the questions, she referred to using the peer review as a way to get feedback and then mentioned that the students should stop in during her office hours if they have very particular questions concerning their assignment. If she would have answered his question during the middle of the discussion, it might have led to an inundation of specific questions and answers that would not be valuable to the class as a whole but only to a few individuals and their work. I was grateful to have the opportunity to observe this interaction because sometimes I feel guilty turning down a student in need during discussions and telling them to stop in during my office hours. Her reference to office hours was a nice little bit of reassurance that I am in fact not doing something wrong in my class when I try to keep class time focus general so I can make the most of all my students’ time instead of just some of my students’ time. |