Strengths in the Classroom: Analytical

My top 5 StrengthsFinder Themes are...
  1. Learner
  2. Individualization
  3. Strategic
  4. Analytical
  5. Achiever
This week, I decided to aim my Analytical strengths to find a new (and hopefully better) way to conduct Peer Review in my classroom.

Both my Language Arts 9 and my Honors Language Arts 10 classes are writing final essays for their respective units. 9th grade is writing a 5 paragraph Persuasive Argument and the 10th graders are writing a 5 page Research Paper. I've been doing Peer Review since my first year of teaching, but I've never felt that I've gotten it quite right. 

One big reason why it never quite works out is due to my students - not all of them do the work, so that means it's tough to plan ahead on Peer Review days. 

The other big reason why it never quite works out is due to my organization - I just cannot seem to find a strategy, model, or set of questions that has made me go "A-hah! This is how it's done!" Because of that, and because of my Achieving, Analytical self, I decided to do a mini cycle of Action Research (and I mean MINI).

During my research, I discovered that my pre-conceived notions of what Peer Review was, was actually pretty off-the-mark. What I was doing, and calling Peer Review, was actually just a watered-down version of the real stuff.

In my research, I found that Peer Review should be done continuously throughout the year, students should be using the same Peer Review format (guided questions), and they should be working within the same Peer Review groups all year. This sounds more like a cohort than just a one-day activity, and the teachers and professors who wrote the research emphasized that doing Peer Review in this highly structured way led to better results. 

I'm not prepared (nor do I have the time) to begin this, since there are only 15 days left of the school year, but I am strongly considering this for next year. Below, I've attached images of what I created. Keep in mind that I heavily relied on several documents to synthesize my own, so not everything is my original idea; rather, it is my version of the ideas.

My Analytical strength helped me assess the situation, develop a mini Action Research cycle, and come to conclusions that seem to have gone well.

I actually did my Peer Review sessions today, and I had no complaints about the structure and I feel that students did get more out of this experience than in previous interactions with the Peer Review process.



Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 13, 2018 at 6:56 AM

    I can definitely see how your analytical strength was leveraged using peer reviews! I am also looking for ways to use peer reviews in my fifth grade classroom, which is hard because some of my students are very advanced writers while some are still at a very primary level. This makes it hard because I feel like not all my students are getting adequate feedback. How have you monitored that in your classroom?

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  2. AnonymousMay 15, 2018 at 5:52 PM

    You seem to have a very clear direction of where you want to take your peer reviews next year. Your forms are very clear and easy to follow. I like that you have an area for "praise" first...we all want to hear what we did well...before the polishing starts to happen! I do see the value in grouping students with the same peers for the entire year...it is almost as if they would become their own mini learning community. My question is similar to Sally's question...do you have a plan of how you would group your students for peer review? Would you select their groups or let them choose?

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  3. AnonymousMay 20, 2018 at 9:30 AM

    I really like those forms! I can see how your students would like the guided format. I think that when students work with each other throughout the year, they may be more willing to give real feedback to each other. One of the sessions I attended at the Spring Conference focused on peer review and the importance of teaching students how to do it-- and I think this is a really good first step towards getting there.

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