At the English 10 meeting, KC discussed using the tree map for peer review for the student's first essay. Each branch would be labeled with the six traits of writing--ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions.Under each of the six branches, sub-branches for strengths (+) and weaknesses (-) would be drawn. As students read each other's essay, they list details under the appropriate + or - branch.
To facilitate this process, students exchanged notebooks with their peer review partner. The peer reviewer created the 6 Traits tree map in the author's notebook. That way, the author not only had the information ready for revision of this particular essay, but also the author had the tree map record in the notebook to review when writing subsequent essays.
This strategy reminded me of the time that I graded blue book essays by simply creating a strengths (+) and weaknesses (-) tree map on the front of each blue book. I then listed a few ideas under the - and a few under the +. Assessing essays this way was efficient since I did not write comments throughout the blue book, and the tree map was meaningful to students because they could see a quick summary of their strengths and weaknesses. Students also liked seeing that they did get at least one positive comment.
2 comments:
Atree map needs at least 3 catagories or it is a double bubble.RM
Sarah Curtis did tell Ruth Mary and me that tree maps need three braches at Thinking Maps: Train the Trainer, but I'm not sure if I completely agree with her. A tree map simply lists details; my brain doesn't need to compare or contrast information to list. If you want to remain with a minimum of three branches for writing evaluation, then the branches under each writing trait could be 1)strengths (exceeds expectations), 2) meets expectations, and 3) weaknesses or below expectations. But a teacher would need to decide if 18 branches (6 x 3) is just too much for a peer review. I just did + and - on my blue book assessment to keep the tree map manageable.
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