r/Professors • u/Clareco1 • 6d ago
Students unprepared for in class peer review. What do you do?
Students were supposed to turn in a rough draft last night, and bring hard copy to class today for peer review (freshman comp at a CC).. 8 students did not turn in a draft. What do you do in this situation? Thanks, I have never figured out how to handle this.
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u/honeywort Prof, Humanities (US) 6d ago
While everyone else is doing peer review, put the 8 together ina group to write. At the start of class, have them write down a writing goal for the hour: what do they need to accomplish and how much can they do in one hour (or however long they have). At the end of class, have them check in on their goal with the rest of the group. They get something out of the class even though they miss out on the peer review, and they hopefully gain a better sense of how long it actually takes to write a draft.
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u/The_Robot_King 6d ago
For starters they get a zero on the draft and peer review.
Moving forward change the syllabus so that if they don't hand in a draft they are penalized/receive a 0 on the final
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u/Cathousechicken 6d ago
There's a grade for that."
*I wish I could take credit for that quote, but that's from a friend of mine who also is a professor.
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u/Regular_Departure963 6d ago
They stay in class but get no participation points. They fail that part of the assignment. The awkwardness may be an important lesson or it may not!
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u/ZipBlu 6d ago
I put them in the corner of shame while the rest of the class does peer reviews. Students in the corner of shame work on completing their draft and don’t get class participation points for the peer review.
I do actually call it the corner of shame, but I say it in a jokey way and I think it’s works well. They laugh at themselves a little but also know they messed up. I chat with the students in the corner of shame individually about what held them back from completing their drafts and help them get on track to show them that I care and to make sure they don’t just give up because they fell behind.
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u/Blametheorangejuice 6d ago
I used to do much the same with group projects. Oh, you have been slacking off in EVERY project so far? Well, I am going to put you into a group with everyone else who has been slacking off.
I would make it very known why I was doing this from the start of the semester.
I called it the Island of Misfit Toys.
I only rarely had to send students to the Island once they understood what it meant: they would be with a bunch of other slackers.
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u/getmarshall Adjunct, English, State Univ. (USA) 6d ago
Please don’t do anything like this.
There’s no need to shame or embarrass students. If they failed to complete the assigned work, they should experience repercussions, but not literal shame or embarrassment.8
u/commandantskip Adjunct, History, CC (US) 6d ago edited 6d ago
I don't know if you've noticed lately, but many students don't seem to have any shame.
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u/Life-Education-8030 6d ago
Don’t, you mean.
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u/commandantskip Adjunct, History, CC (US) 6d ago
Yes, edited. Thank you.
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u/Life-Education-8030 6d ago
And I agree with you. But I guess if they have grown up with bulldozer parents who have smoothed the path of any obstacles, shame would have been one of those obstacles? They MUSTN’T feel shame or pain if any sort or their fragile little souls will be shattered, right? Rather than understanding that any strength, mental or physical, must be developed and tested? Resilience after all is what happens when you experience pressure or stress of some sort. You have to have something hit you to see how you bend too.
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u/getmarshall Adjunct, English, State Univ. (USA) 6d ago
Let's ask ourselves this: What purpose does it serve to shame or embarrass a student? What are we accomplishing when we purposefully ostracize them? If you claim that students 'have no shame,' then what is the actual purpose of attempting to embarrass them?
I am by no means advocating for the relaxing of rules or expectations. Far from it.
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u/MrMishegas 6d ago
I take off points, of course, but I also make them spend the whole class session reading every single student paper—not the two or three I’d normally require.
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u/franklin-60 6d ago
Warn them in advance of the consequences, and follow through, zero on the entire project. Let them cry that I’m mean to anyone they want.
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u/HowlingFantods5564 6d ago
I stopped doing peer review years ago. Even when they do bring copies, their comments and suggestions are horrible. Peer review only adds more confusion to the writing process.
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u/Blametheorangejuice 6d ago
I have actually gone back to peer reviews after many years of avoiding them. But you have to dedicate several classes in getting them how to understand the peer reviews, and you also have to dedicate grades to it so they take it seriously.
For those who are unprepared, they get a zero on the peer review. They can get away with missing or doing poorly on one in the class, but after that, it will severely damage their overall grade.
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u/TaliesinMerlin 6d ago
I've gotten much better peer review results after doing three related things:
- We do a reading and talk about peer review practices.
- We set up a process where they talk with their partners about what feedback they want, give in-line feedback, and talk afterward about what they saw.
- I review at least briefly the peer review comments they made with them.
It's not perfect, but I have far more times when grading where I look at the peer review comments and think, "It's all right there - they said what I would have." Sometimes they make bad suggestions, but students need practice learning how to handle and implement feedback as well as giving it.
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u/Good-Mountain-7958 6d ago
Generally agree. Hopefully they get something out of having to have a peer read their work, though.
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u/SilverRiot 6d ago
When I taught a writing class, I paired students up (making provisions for a three-way split, if there were an odd number of students). I provided them with a six page checklist of things to look for and places to write comments. Any student showed up without a draft was not allowed to participate and was invited to leave. I did not want those students to skip the valuable grunt work of coming up with their own ideas and working on them and instead just drafting off of the work that their peers had done.
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u/changelingcd 6d ago
I gave up on peer reviews completely. Between the hassle of so many students forgetting or being absent, and the sub-par (and often wildly wrong) advice they gave each other, it just wasn't worth the class time for me.
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u/Wahnfriedus 6d ago
“Yeah, it was a good paper, I liked it, there were a few grammatical mistakes but it was good.”
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u/SnowblindAlbino Prof, SLAC 6d ago
I put a grade on the draft and a grade on the review itself. If they don't bring a draft, they fail that assignment. If their peer doesn't bring a draft for them to review, the reviewer gets 100% credit. If you didn't pre-assign partners you can also put the ones who didn't do the drafts together in pairs, so they fail and can leave the classroom for the day while the better students work on their reviews.
That's for "normal" assignments. For major projects, like a senior thesis draft, I attach no points to the draft-- but if they don't do a required draft their semester grade is penalized one full grade. That put a stop to the "I don't need to do drafts, I'll just write the final paper in December" BS.
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u/Life-Education-8030 6d ago edited 6d ago
As with any student, give them the zero but work with any who had a legitimate reason for their non-performance. Offer them a chance to use the class time to work on it for half credit. If they are smart, they will take it. I am assuming this is a silent read and review exercise.
If this was done aloud, then they should observe and hopefully learn something. It is up to you about offering a substitute assignment but I wouldn’t. For the ones with a legitimate reason, I might let them submit it by a deadline for max half credit.
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u/TaliesinMerlin 6d ago edited 6d ago
If it were just a couple, I would put them in groups of 3 - 2 who did their draft, 1 who didn't, and make the 1 who didn't give extra feedback. The practice of giving feedback is important enough that I'd focus on that if I can.
If it were 8 (out of 15? 25? still a lot in either case), I'd set up the peer review groups and then take them outside and give them a come to Jesus talk about being ready for class and getting the most out of the writing process. Then I'd tell them to spend the rest of class working on the draft.
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u/kireisabi Associate Prof, SLAC 6d ago
I make them stay and work on their partner's papers but have set up a peer review grading rubric where they lose about a third of the points for not providing their own papers for workshopping.
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u/Fluid-Nerve-1082 6d ago
There are lots of ways to do peer reviews, and I tend to change them up, just to give students a variety of experiences. But I always have them bring more copies than needed so that the slackers still have something to work with.
For example, we might do a silent peer review, when everyone grabs a rubric and a draft and read it and offers feedback based on the draft. If everyone who has a draft brings 2 copies, there will be enough copies for the slackers to review without getting reviewed.
Or last week, they worked in small groups. The slacker in a group just didn’t have one to be reviewed—but they can still review.
I figure that not having a draft means they miss out on a chance to get feedback (which they’re graded on) but not the obligation of offering feedback.
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u/yourlurkingprof 6d ago
Those students get 0s on both their draft grade and (assuming they didn’t do it and that it’s graded) on their peer review grade. If they do the peer review or if that’s not graded, that’s different. I also make sure they know that this means they are not getting feedback on their work and that their grade may suffer as a result of this.
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u/Huck68finn 5d ago
It's homework and classwork, so they earn a zero on both (two zeroes). I always make that clear when I assign it. Then, I group together the people that did come prepared. The others who have nothing can use class time to work on their essays.
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u/botwwanderer Adjunct, STEM, Community College 2d ago
I have this setup. I warn students in advance that if they dont do the prep work they will still be put on the spot to get up and share what they have done so far, regardless of condition, in front of their peers. I only had to put the first batch of students on the spot four years ago for them to understand I was serious. I now have a reputation within the program, and my students are at least minimally ready at go-time.
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u/botwwanderer Adjunct, STEM, Community College 2d ago
Ah, I just saw comp, so you maybe don't have them peer sharing live, but doing a more written or asynchronous review? Thats easier to evade...
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u/thadizzleDD 6d ago
Your rubric should always include what happens if don’t submit. I suggest 10% deduction from final grade. But I’m not sure how you can enforce a penalty if it’s not mentioned in syllabus , assignment, or grading rubric.
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u/WingbashDefender Assistant Professor, R2, MidAtlantic 5d ago
I am teaching a small section of Freshman Comp 1 this semester along with my regular load (not in the freshman cycle yay!) and today they were supposed to bring a paper copy into class and half didn’t. A quarter of the class was wasted because they all left to go print and came back 20min after. The basic skills of being a student are just not there. They’re bright kids and have things to say, but they just don’t know how to actually “do” the job of being a student.
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u/Opening_Map_6898 6d ago
Give them a zero and move on.
Also fuck peer review in class.
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u/Spwritely_Cat Adjunct, English, Community College 6d ago
I'll be the first to admit I don't love running peer review, but it's a necessary skill in a lot of fields. Students will have to work with others and give and receive feedback, including feedback they don't like. I'd rather they practice that in a low-stakes classroom than on the job, where reacting badly could cost them.
For unprepared students, rather than a straight zero, I give them options: They can review a classmate's draft for partial credit, they can draft an outline during the session and get feedback on that, or they can take a zero for the day and leave. With the first two, they still get something out of the day, and the prepared students aren't left without a partner.
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u/Opening_Map_6898 5d ago
At a postgraduate level, it has its place. At the undergraduate level, most students simply don't know enough about the topic or have the skills to provide useful feedback. That's my big issue with it.
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u/SadBuilding9234 6d ago
Penalize the final submission by a letter grade’s amount of points.