What is Calibrated Peer Review™?

Calibrated Peer Review provides a mechanism for students to practice higher order working skills such as synthesis, analysis and evaluation. In writing, the students synthesize, organize and articulate their understanding. The peer reviewing process then allows them to confront other ways of thinking about the topic and to refine and reflect on their own understanding.

What is a Calibrated Peer Review™ Assignment?

A complete Calibrated Peer Review™ assignment consists of 9 sections that are seen and used by students, and four sections that are only seen by authors and other instructors. These latter sections are used in the program search functions for locating an assignment on a given topic. The student sections can be considered a lesson plan:

• The Title identifies the topic;
• The Learning Goals specify the objectives and purpose of the assignment;
• Resources including Hyperlinks to websites and files provide students with the study materials for the assignment
• Guidance on Studying Source Material, Guidance on Writing Text, and the Writing Prompt give students specific instructions on how or what to study in the resources, and what is expected in the essay they will write, and the specific writing task.
• Three Calibration Essays serve as models or typical student examples of the writing task that form the basis for training students to become competent reviewers.
• The Calibration Questions provide a rubric to help students peer review
• The Calibration Answer Keys with Explanations for training students.

Students are trained to evaluate essays on this topic by reviewing three samples along with critical points and issues that are expected in a text and explanations of why these samples do or do not meet the evaluation criteria that you expect from the class. link to Calibrated Peer Review™