GEOGRAPHY TUTORIALS
 
6. Peer-assesment of essays.

By having them quickly mark a succession of each other's essays this exercise helps students to get to grips with the marking criteria, to get confidence that they're all in the same beginners' boat, to understand that students can learn from each other as well as from the staff...

 

Early in the semester students do a couple of "practice" essays to help them get their eye in for what is expected of them at this level. I usually do something like this with at least one of those practice essays.

OK, do you have your essays all ready to hand in? You have 30 seconds to have a final check through your essay to make sure that you've done everything you're supposed to have done. Have you included a reference list, stapled the pages together, and added your name to the front of the essay? No, I can't lend you a stapler; if you have any friends perhaps one of them can lend you one.

Please pass your essay around the table to the person on your left... now pass it round one more place... so everybody should have an essay in front of them that isn't their own or that of the person sitting next to them.

Exercise 1 - about 5 minutes

What I would like you to do is mark the essay you have in front of you, give it a letter grade based on the Keele marking system and write two comments: something about the essay that you think is really good and something that you think would make it even better. (Students typically get their heads down and start reading methodically from the start of the essay. I let them do that for about 10 seconds, and then...) The only constraint is that you have only ONE MINUTE to mark the essay, so you don't have time to read it (Students express shock, horror etc.). You know what the real essentials are: have they answered the question, have they provided evidence and references, have they structured the essay logically, have they used digrams effectively and have they followed the house style? You can judge all of those essentials quickly by looking at the essay as a whole and reading key sections like the opening paragraph. At this stage don't get bogged down in detail by reading the whole thing. Just LOOK at it. (Pause for 30 seconds or so). OK - now give it a mark: Very good = A; Good = B+; OK = B-; Poor=C; Very Poor = D or E. Quick, quick, make your mind up now. First impressions. What jumped out. Now, having seen that you were able to reach an opinion on the essay really quickly by looking at those key criteria, what does that tell you you need to make really prominent in your own essays when you write? Yes, evidence that you've met those key criteria.

Exercise 2 - about 10 minutes plus follow-up discussion.

Obviously that isn't how I will mark your essays: we go deeper than first impressions. Let's try something a bit more realistic. Here (give them the handout) is a copy of the marking and feedback sheet that I will be using when I mark your essays. You'll remember this because we looked at it talked about it in a previous tutorial when I set the essay and explained the marking criteria. What I would like you to do now is pass the essay around one the table more place so you have a fresh essay, and now mark this one using this official feedback sheet. I don't want to spend the whole session on this so let's speed up reality a bit and I'll give you 5 minutes on this. While you are doing it, keep remembering your own essay and thinking if there are good ideas in the one you're marking that you could have tried in yours, and whether there are things in this one that you think you've done better. Learn from each other. (Give them a few minutes to work on this, taking questions and discussion while they are doing it... students will probably ask things like "do you lose marks for..." and "are you allowed to...". This is one of those 'teachable moments' when students become susceptible to learning!). OK, time up. Now I'm going to give you a few minutes to find the person whose essay you marked and tell them what you thought about it: you'll need to move around or shout across the room because you need to talk to the person whose essay you marked and the person who marked yours. Have a chat while I go and freshen up my coffee and then when I come back I'll ask you why you think we just did that exercise and what you learnt from it...