Peer assessment in the classroom

 

Shared by M. Ángela Zarzosa:

One of the things that gives me the best results is peer correction. I don't always use it, because if it is used a lot, it gets“burnt”. When I have a grammar exercise that I need to make sure that each and every student has it correctly corrected and understood, I use it.

It unfolds like this: I tell them to do the exercise in their notebook and when they think they have finished it and have it well done, raise their hands. I go to his desk and correct him, scoring that exercise from 0 to 10 and also noting the order in which they finished with respect to the class. This will not have repercussions at the grade level, but it gives us a lot of information, both for me and for the student himself.

I ask that student who already has the exercise perfectly corrected to take a red pen, as it will help me correct the work of his classmates. I allow him/her to get up from his/her table, and keeping all the appropriate measures, I ask him/her to help me correct the homework of another classmate or classmates. In this way we are 2 people standing at this time in class. Both the teacher and the student, we walk around the class waiting for another 2 classmates to finish and we can correct. When we have finished, we are already 4 people correcting and the rest seated. So on until everyone has their work corrected. The maximum that could be raised is half, but that almost never happens, because the first students usually correct more than one classmate, so the ratio is usually one third.

I have found that this strategy is good for students who finish quickly, who do not sit around bored and doing nothing, for medium students, who by dint of correcting, correctly fix the target content and slower students also benefit, since they have of the extra time they need to be able to finish on time.

It is convenient that at another time take a look at what was corrected personally, in case a student corrector has made a mistake, or also what I usually do is project or copy on the board all the exercise correctly solved, once they have all finished. If a student has made a mistake when correcting, the “injured” student will quickly communicate it to me and that will be very valuable information for me, to be able to fix knowledge of the student who has corrected badly.

I have noticed that this system makes students try to focus and do the exercise quickly, because they do not want to be the last or last to finish (although there is no penalty for grading).

It is important to make everyone understand that nothing happens because a colleague corrects your homework, that it is to help me, and that another day others will finish and correct the rest, since some exercises are good for some and others for others.