Peer Review exercises provide an opportunity for students to practice giving and responding to constructive feedback and can also be a great way to build classroom camaraderie. While peer review can also be challenging in practice, some research-based strategies for an effective peer review session include preparing students ahead of time by modeling effective feedback and encouraging students to provide descriptive rather than evaluative comments.

As an example, here is a sample activity from my ENG100 class where students were asked to peer review each others’ introductions for an upcoming essay assignment. Please feel free to use and edit according to your own course and assignment criteria:

For more information and strategies for developing peer review exercises for your classes, here are two resources from the Center for Teaching and Learning at Washington University in St. Louis, including a detailed overview of how to incorporate peer review into a writing course and a sample worksheet for a peer review activity centered on a thesis-driven essay.