Topic: Peer Review

10-second review: Students practice reading aloud from published material to prepare them for reading aloud their compositions to a partner. Author assumes a literature class in which students could practice reading the literature aloud.

Title: “Approaching Authentic Peer Review.” Nelson Graff. English Journal (May 2009), 81-87. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Summary: Students read their compositions aloud to a partner. The partner’s role is not to fix the composition, but to understand it. The author’s technique suggests many interruptions—at the end of each sentence and each paragraph—to reflect on what has been read. The listener then reads the composition aloud to the writer, with the same interruptions at the end of each sentence and paragraph, with reflections.

Comment: Makes practicing reading aloud an important part of the English program and applies it to reading their compositions aloud. I like the idea of the listener’s purpose: understanding and not fixing the composition. However, I think, after some preliminary practice in reading published material aloud, I would focus just on reading the compositions aloud effectively. That practice would best occur by reading the composition silently before reading aloud.

I disagree with the interruptions after each sentence and paragraph for reflections by the reader. I think I would simply have the reader read the composition aloud and the listener to try to report what has been heard and to raise questions about what is not clear. The writer jots notes on the composition about what the listener has said. I thinks it’s also valuable for the listener to read aloud the writer’s composition to the writer. But first the listener needs to read the composition silently in order to prepare for reading it aloud. RayS.