For the Personal Narrative assignment, lecturer Jane DuPuis recommends a collaborative exercise for preparing students to develop their drafts and ideas. In preparation for the Personal Narrative peer review, DuPuis presents a slide presentation.
By this point in the course, students have read and discussed chapter 2 in The Concise St. Martin’s Guide to Writing and have written in-progress drafts of their personal narrative essays. DuPuis takes the class through the presentation, which guides ENGL 150 students to consider how well their in-progress Personal Narrative drafts meet the assignment requirements and to look closely at the final draft rubric. The main purpose is to help students think of ways to improve their drafts before peer review. Dupuis and her students collaborate to add comments and explanations to the presentation, along with asking for questions about the material. There is a “speed mingling” interlude that gives students the opportunity to stand up and chat with at least a couple of peers about their drafts and challenges they face in writing the Personal Narrative.
The last part of the presentation calls for small groups of students to closely examine sections of the Personal Narrative rubric and explain to the class the differences among the “Excellent,” “Good,” and “Fair” levels of performance.
By facilitating a collaborative analysis of the Personal Narrative assignment, its expectations, and students’ own progress through the assignment, DuPuis’ activity creates an active new approach to how students engage with the peer review process, and how they reflect on their own writing prior to final submission and assessment.
Access Jane DuPuis’ Personal Narrative – Peer Review Preparation activity here.