I like the idea of peer review, but I also know that some students would be mortified to have someone else critique their work, so I came up with an alternative that worked nicely. I arranged my desks in a big circle, and I made a copy of the Peer Review (which I modified slightly by removing the first critierion… I want to be the one that looks at the design doc). Students wrote the name of the project, but not their own name, on the top of the form. Then they passed their laptop and their form to the left. Now each student had a project & paper from a new student, and they put checkmarks and perhaps a comment on the peer review form. When done, they passed to the left again. Eventually, you got your own laptop & paper back with feedback from everyone in class, as well as a mix of comments. It was chaotic, but worked really well. Students appreciated the comments and they also got to see what their classmates had developed. As you would expect, some of the projects were superb and others didn’t meet the basic requirements, and that too was good for them all to see. There were 22 students in class that day, and it took about an hour to complete. I would love other approaches if you have one!
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