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Writing an Argument for the IELTS

Peer Review and Revisions

Date: 10/14/2021
Teacher: Noah McGeorge
Class: Advanced English for All
Class Size: 3
Class length: 6:00pm—7:20pm
Class description:
English for All offers training in American English, as well as test preparation, to adults in
Athens, OH for a low fee. This class is composed of a mix of students taking the IELTS, the
TOEFL, as well as no test. All students have graduated from an undergraduate college and
those without a master’s degree are planning to pursue a master’s in the future. The first
languages in the classroom include Latin American Spanish, Nepali, and Vietnamese. The
sweeping goals for the course are to increase student vocabulary, refine pronunciation, use
language in socially complex situations, and prepare for their respective assessments.

Terminal Objectives
By the end of class, students will be able to
● evaluate another’s writing on criteria for an effective written argument.
● politely articulate suggestions for improvement and defend their evaluations.
● revise their work based on feedback.
Assessment
Students will have
● written peer review notes on a graphic organizer that contains evaluation criteria.
● written a second draft of their argument that includes the
Materials.
● Peer Review Criteria Organizer
● Peer Review Mistakes Video (Bedley, 2009)
● Students’ completed first drafts
● “Bad Essay” (Labas, 2021).

Time
(mins) Enabling Objectives and Procedures

Prep
● Arrange desks in a circle (here it will look more like a triangle).
Enabling Objectives: Welcome and Warmup
Students will be able to
● speak uninterrupted for at least one minute.
● summarize their own writing.
15 mins Procedures
Welcome
● Students speak freely on the question, “How was it writing these essays?
Fun? Horrible?”
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Warmup & pre-reading

● Students recall the monologue format they are used to (preparing for one
minute, speaking freely for two).
● For one minute, students prepare a monologue that summarizes their
essays.
● Students verbally summarize their essays, speaking for at least one minute.
Assessment
Students will have
● spoken an uninterrupted summary of their essays for at least one minute.
Transition
● Teacher provides plenty of backchanneling on content of summaries
(“Great point!”) and praises effort put into monologues.
● Teacher says, “Sounds like you guys wrote great essays. Does that mean
you’re done?”
Enabling Objectives: Introduction to Peer Review
Students will be able to . . .
● follow instructions on a graphic organizer that facilitates peer review.
10 mins Procedures
● Students share their familiarity with “peer review” both as a phrase
(meaning of the words) and as a practice.
● (optional) Students might watch two minutes of the Peer Review Mistakes
video.
● Teacher distributes the Peer Review Criteria Organizer.
● Students read organizer silently.
● The teacher (feigning randomness) chooses the student who is most likely
to be lost in an explanation of instructions. That student accompanies the
teacher at the ELMO projector.
● Student places the “Bad Essay” under the ELMO and reads the introduction
to the class.
● Student places the Peer Review Criteria Organizer under the ELMO.
● Student rates the extent to which the “Bad Essay” meets the criteria for
“beginnings.”
● Student writes a short description of the introduction, an evaluation, and a
suggestion for improvement.
○ Seated students offer help if student at ELMO projector struggles
with these steps.

● Seated students each explain the steps they will complete for Peer Review
Criteria Organizer.
Assessment
Students will have . . .
● either demonstrated understanding of the Peer Review Criteria Organizer
verbally or by writing at the ELMO projector.
Transition
● All students return to their seats. Students ask any questions they still have.
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Enabling Objectives: Peer Review Analysis

Students will be able to
● rate 0-5 the extent to which two peers’ writing meets criteria for
○ a context-first introduction.
○ an arguable thesis.
○ use of topic sentences.
○ use of evidence.
○ use of transitions.
○ a conclusion with a call to action.
● write an evaluation of the extent to which the writing meets those criteria.
● write suggestions for strategies in meeting those criteria.
30 mins Procedures
● Students pass their papers one to the left.
● Teacher emphasizes that there is no time limit for reading or writing their
feedback. Teacher reminds the students to ask questions if they feel lost or
forget the meaning of any words.
● Students read their peer’s work and complete the Peer Review Criteria
Organizer.
● Every ten minutes of silence the teacher assesses progress.

Contingency planning
● Students may use notebook paper if they run out of writing space on the
graphic organizer.
● Some students may ask whether they should mark local/language errors
(perhaps ready to make editor’s marks they have learned in school) on
peers’ essays. Students should be instructed to focus on the criteria listed
on the graphic organizer. If there is time, students can mark each other’s
paper for local errors. The teacher can rationalize the choice in focus by
explaining that these criteria make for a better essay in general and are
scored more heavily than grammar on the IELTS.
● Some students may not know the meaning of words or whole sentences
used by their peers. Rather than the teacher explaining what meaning
student writers meant, students should ask one another.
● Some students may complete this activity before others. When a student
begins to look unoccupied, they can be prompted to read once more for the
criteria in the organizer and review their written feedback. If again the
student becomes unoccupied, that is when the student can make editor’s
marks for local errors.

Assessment
Students will have
● completed the Peer Review Criteria Organizer for one other student.
Transition
● Teacher praises effort.
● Teacher announces, “It’s time to talk about it.”
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Enabling Objectives
Students will be able to . . .
● offer constructive criticism to peers using their graphic organizers.
30 mins Procedures
● Students return essays to peers but not graphic organizers.
● One student volunteers to share their essay first.
● Students take turns reading their responses in the student organizer aloud,
pointing to the student writer’s essay where relevant.
● Student writers ask any clarifying questions.
● The student who is not the writer at the time and not the one who
completed the graphic organizer offers additional suggestions.
● Teacher prompts that student for advice throughout.

Assessment
Students will have . . .
● explained their responses in the graphic organizer.
● asked any clarifying questions.

Conclusion
● Students identify one thing they learned each.
● Students offer anything they liked or didn’t like about class.

Anticipated Problems and Solutions

Rationale
Anticipated Problems
● Some students may be absent.
○ If only one student is absent, students can work in pairs. If two students are
absent, the teacher and student can hold a writing tutoring session and the
student can complete a Peer Review Criteria Organizer for their own writing.
Rationale
Peer feedback format is used to (1) integrate reading skills, (2) see errors one may be making
in a new context, (2) facilitate interlanguage communication.
The describe, evaluate, advise framework is provided by the Eli Review (2016).
The “Bad Essay” was written by my peer C. Labas from Ohio University.
Other material, such as the essay criteria listed on the graphic organizer, is mine.
References
Bedley, T. [Tim Bedly]. (2009, Nov. 14). Writing peer review (peer critique) top 10
mistakes [video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBuq4qgRhCc
Eli Review. (2016). Describe—evaluate—suggest: A helpful feedback pattern. The Eli Review
Blog. Retrieved October 14, 2021. https://elireview.com/2016/08/03/describe-evaluate-
suggest/?_ga=2.195102444.1983049937.1634136840-60022219.163102750