Building Communication Skills With Peer Critique

At Whiting Lane Elementary School, in West Hartford, Connecticut, all students are held to a high standard for presenting their ideas—and they receive direct instruction and support in order to be successful in building communication skills. In a fourth-grade classroom, curriculum specialist Karen Bridges leads students through a feedback activity where they have opportunities to practice in trios, using a rubric to give thoughtful, productive critiques of their classmates’ presentations on local history. 

The school prides itself on creating safe and supportive learning environments, so a foundation has already been laid that allows students to feel comfortable in sharing their works-in-progress with each other. The students take turns actively listening and rating their peers on clarity of speech, confidence in body language, and quality of their accompanying slide decks. An anchor chart with sentence stems for both positive feedback and constructive criticism is posted on the wall of the classroom, giving structure to the conversation to ensure that it is helpful. 

The results are tangible: better, more polished student work, stronger communication and public speaking skills, and importantly, a deeper sense of shared responsibility and ease with collaboration within the classroom community. “I want students to feel that sense of pride in their work and to feel a sense of pride knowing that I’m also helping a friend, a peer, to improve what they are doing,” says principal Karen Kukish. “I know that it’s my responsibility as part of that classroom family to exchange my thoughts and ideas with my classmates.”

To try this activity (and adapt it for any subject), download the peer feedback rubric as seen in the video, developed by Whiting Lane fourth-grade teacher Dawn Beckley. It’s meant to be printed as two-sided and cut in half.

For more research and resources on how to scaffold peer-to-peer assessment and feedback at all grade levels, read Paige Tutt’s article for Edutopia titled “Teaching Kids to Give and Receive Quality Peer Feedback.”