Dr. Lyons assigned a short essay at the beginning of the semester in her CLS 401 course. After rough drafts were handed in, Dr. Lyons introduced the grading criteria to the class and students evaluated each others’ papers according to the criteria. The students then rewrote their papers in light of the peer assessments and submitted their original paper, the revised paper, and the peer feedback. In addition to providing comments on the papers, Dr. Lyons also provided comments on the peer feedback to both the writer of the paper and the writer of the feedback. The same grading criteria were also used to grade a second writing assignment and a final assignment in which students were invited to re-address the first essay topic.

Approximately 1/3rd of the students showed improvement in their writing and critical thinking throughout the semester. Because this was a capstone course, many students who didn’t show improvement were already in the A/A- range. However, the assignment to revisit the first essay yielded disappointing results. Students were unwilling to revisit their initial conclusions or to dig deeper than they had initially. Dr. Lyons reported that the grading criteria were helpful to students as they learned to think more critically about the materials that they read. This exercise was also very useful for her as a teacher, although she found that it is difficult to assess the results of one’s own teaching.

Assignment

Lyons Assignment

Rubric

Lyons Rubric