Musical Peer Reviews

My students just finished rough drafts of an argumentative essay about whether students should have the responsibility of cleaning their school. I provided them with two sources, an article and a video. Because I wanted to take them through the process step by step, I required them to all take the same side of the argument. Each day, I modeled what I wanted them to do and gave mini-lessons on citing sources, writing hooks, writing clinchers, etc. Students spent several class periods writing in class, and after each period, I read each student's draft and gave as much feedback as I could. As they worked, I walked around to answer questions and help them revise. Since they had so much feedback from me, and I was pretty tired of reading their essays, I decided to have them give peer feedback before submitting their final drafts. While driving to school this morning, I got a great idea-MUSICAL peer review because what ISN'T better with music?

Here's how it worked:

1) Students opened up their Chromebooks to their essays.

2) I gave students a list of 11 questions for peer feedback that they were told to write their name on and place to the right of their Chromebook. The questions were simple yes/no questions or questions that asked them to rate something on a scale of 1-5.

3) Then, I did a practice run of what students would be doing.

4) I turned on upbeat music and students were told to walk around while the music played.

When the music stopped, they were to take a seat at the nearest computer and answer the first question. Then, I turned the music on again and repeated the process for a total of eleven times. Of course, students danced and sang and acted like typical seventh-graders which I LOVED!

Once they finished, they returned to their original seats to read the feedback they received. I gave them time to make revisions. Finally, I provided them with a rubric and asked them to highlight the parts of the rubric that they felt described their essay and write the grade they deserved at the top.

Honestly, I do not think I will spend much time reading their essays again. I have already read them twice and know that they were all pretty solid. I loved this activity. Nobody got bored! Musical Peer Reviews exceeded my expectations. I thought the students would have a hard time settling down and focusing once the music stopped, but they were awesome!

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