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I am going to research the effectiveness of peer-assessment for written productions in a B2 English classroom with 28 teenage students.

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The classroom I am going to study belongs to a private secondary school named Instituto Nuevo Siglo in General Roca, Argentina. In this school, students are divided according to their level of proficiency of English, in this case my students are in the B2 level course. This is why there is an age gap between the students which ranges from 14 to 17 years old. They have 2-hour English lessons twice a week. They are polite students, but at the same time it is a noisy classroom due to the large number of members in it. This factor also affects teacher assessment when tasks are done in groups since it is difficult for me to check individualities: what is difficult for whom, who is working and who is not, and so on. As regards classroom seating arrangement, students can choose with whom they sit; they usually choose group pods. It is noticeable that they prefer to sit with their friends who are from the same course and not to mix with students from other years.

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The problem I observed when using peer-assessment in the B2 English classroom in Nuevo Siglo was that feedback from peers wasn’t well received. The one time we used the ladder of feedback, students were not satisfied with the results. They even felt angry with their classmates for saying that some parts of their stories were not clear enough and the ones who didn’t receive suggestions felt happy for that. There are many possible causes for this: lack of training for peer-assessment, lack of openness to receive corrections, lack of bonding among students from different years, and students’ view on the writing process. Firstly, it was the first time students applied peer-assessment and although we, my teaching-practice peer and I, provided them with a rubric (the ladder of feedback) so that they gave feedback in a nice way, they didn’t accept their classmates’ comments well; so, maybe the problem was that they needed more training as regards this topic before assessing their classmates’ work. Secondly, this problem might be just because students don’t like receiving corrections in general. Thirdly, since students are grouped according to their level of language proficiency and there are 28 members in this classroom, they might have not liked receiving feedback from peers they don’t know much or from those who are younger than them. Lastly, another possible cause might be students’ view on the writing process. If their teacher adopted a product-based approach to writing, they are not used to correcting their written works more than once. These four possible causes might have coexisted at the moment I observed the problem and now I will take them into account to carry out this action research.

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The main aim of this action research project is to train students to give and receive feedback from their peers respectfully to check whether instruction is a fundamental factor to check the effectiveness of peer-assessment.

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I am going to use data I had already gathered when I first assigned my students the task of peer-assessing another group’s text through the ladder of feedback. Additionally, I plan to prepare a presentation on the process-based approach to writing and how self- and peer-assessment are fundamental when adopting this approach. Furthermore, I am going to design different types of rubrics for students to assess firstly their own written productions, and later their peers’.  This will be carried out in different periods. The first period will last a week in which each student will select one story they had written individually, complete a self-assessment rubric and then hand in the two versions of their story plus the rubric. In the second period, students will exchange the last version of their stories with their peers and they will complete the rubric “the ladder of feedback”. This period may last between one and two weeks; students may apply the necessary changes if they agree with their classmates’ suggestions. In the third and last period I will repeat the same activity I did in my teaching practice, write a story in groups and exchange their stories with other groups.

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I will start analysing the data while gathering it on my own. I won’t wait until all the periods are over to do so. I am planning to check what type of comments students write to themselves and to their peers after they complete each rubric I will give them. The categories of analysis I am going to take into account are: completion of rubrics, attitudes (whether they are positive or negative; willingness and complaints) towards revising their and others’ works, and modifications they apply to their written pieces.

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In my Action Research Project, I will quote some authors who support peer-assessment as an effective tool for continuous assessment. For instance, Brown (2004) states that peer-assessment will give us “the benefit of a community of learners capable of teaching each other something” (p. 270). Additionally, following Puhl (1997), I will mention some of the benefits this type of assessment has for students, such as “reminds learners they are not working in isolation”, “helps create a community of learners”, “improves the process; motivates, even inspires”, and “stimulates meta-cognition”. Apart from this, I will follow the guidelines for self- and peer-assessment proposed by Brown (2004): tell students the purpose of the assessment, define the task(s) clearly, encourage impartial evaluation of performance or ability, and ensure beneficial washback through follow-up tasks.

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As an answer to the problem observed in this ARP, we can think of many possible solutions. Probably, the most obvious and important one is to provide students with explicit explanation and more guided instructions as regards the enormous benefits they will derive from peer-assessment for written productions. Another feasible solution to the problem is to give students many instances of peer-assessment in order to help them familiarise themselves with this type of assessment. We can provide scaffolding by starting with self-assessment and then move to peer-assessment. Additionally, the rubrics can be less complex at the beginning (e.g. checklists or rating scales) and then increase their complexity (e.g. offering suggestions/making corrections). Apart from this, if the actual cause for the problem presented is that students don’t receive feedback from their peers well because of the lack of bonding among them, a possible solution might be giving them opportunities to get to know each other more so that they realise everyone has something to contribute in the group. Anyway, I wouldn’t implement this last suggestion at the beginning since it is the least likely solution to the problem.

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I am going to carry out a four-week period of explicit instructions and many instances of opportunities to use self- and peer-assessment for writing pieces. Since the aim is to check whether appropriate teacher instruction and practice for peer-assessments results in reaping its benefits, once this is proved, the idea is to keep on using peer-assessment throughout the academic year.

During the first week, I will ask students to select one story they have written and to self-assess it with a checklist I will design so that they check whether the fundamental parts of a story are present (beginning, prompt, events, tension, climax, middle and end). Then, they will have to apply the necessary modifications to improve their work. In the second week, I will deliver a brief presentation on the benefits peer-assessment has; and I will also ask my students about their feelings as regards having their pieces of writing read and corrected by their peers. After this, I will invite them to exchange their improved version of their stories with a classmate and focus on the meaning of the story. At the beginning students will be asked to orally share what they liked about their classmates' stories. Later, they will be asked to complete “the ladder of feedback” rubric. In the third week, students will return their classmates’ stories with the rubric that takes into account four aspects: clarify, value, state concerns, and suggest. Students will work in pairs with the person who peer-assessed their work and they will discuss the feedback together. Once they have talked about this, students will decide if they want to modify their stories or not. Finally, in the fourth and last week of this action research project, I will evaluate the effectiveness of this solution through follow-up tasks that will also assure me that washback is beneficial, as Brown (2004) proposed. One of the tasks will be a reflective survey in which students will say how they felt when giving feedback to their classmates, when receiving feedback or corrections, whether they would like to keep on doing this, and so on. Additionally, they will be asked to compare self-assessment and peer-assessment.

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I believe that this action research project will be extremely useful for my teaching practice because it is stated by many authors that peer-assessment is beneficial for students, however, the time I used it, it caused more problems than solutions. This is why by carrying out this ARP, I will check whether explicit teacher instruction as regards how to provide feedback and training are fundamental to reap the benefits of peer-assessment in narratives. I think that if these two factors, explicit instruction and training, prove to be what was missing the first time, I will end up considering them when introducing peer-assessment in any other type of English courses.

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Brown, H. D. 2004. Language Assessment. Principles and Classroom Practices. Longman. Chapter 10.

Puhl, Carol A. 1997. Develop, Not Judge: Continuous Assessment in the ESL Classroom. English Teaching Forum.