For History 97, the sophomore tutorial, students peer review each other's work. Each student writes a primary source based paper, which is based on a shared source base that all of the students have read. Students have to provide detailed written and oral feedback on each of their peers' papers. To guide their responses, the instructors provide a list of questions or points to consider. Students are to identify the argument and evaluate the extent to which it is supported by evidence, the organization of the paper, and the quality of the prose.
How do you craft a good thesis statement? In this activity, students work together to refine their ideas and put together possible evidence for different topics. The purpose is to teach students how to connect their thesis statement with the rest of their paper, and to revise the two in tandem (start with a draft thesis, bring some evidence together, revise the thesis to better reflect the evidence, revise the evidence to better fit the thesis, etc.)
For the third paper of the semester, Jerusha Achterberg has her students do small-group workshops where they read and provide feedback for each other in groups of 2-3.
In Jerusha Achterberg's first and second Expos workshops of the semester, she chooses two paper drafts from the section and all the other students read and comment on those two papers. The authors also serve as the moderators for each other's discussion.
For Rachel Meyer's junior tutorial on Social Class, students read each other's research proposals before class and then participated in an in-class workshop to discuss each proposal.
In Math 152, Professor Paul Bamberg and his co-teacher structured the class in a seminar format, where students did mini-lectures for each other in class and critiqued each other content as well as style.
Students present on a topic related to the Portuguese-speaking world or their personal travels, while the other students write down three questions or things they learned.
