I must admit that I have never peer reviewed before. Reading a classmate's work and giving feedback, sure, but actually marking their paper and commenting for posterity was something I had never done and wasn't very sure how to handle.
In this respect Elbow and Belanoff's essay "A Community of Writers" was very illuminating. I realised that to help my students understand I really needed to get them to read this essay. Of course I am not delusional and I am aware that trying to get freshmen to read more than 3 pages for a composition class is not hopeful, but just plain unrealistic. So I did the next best thing. I made a bullet list of the different aspects that the essay wants students to consider while peer reviewing and decided to talk about that in class.
I felt the first thing that the students needed to know was that they were not being judged. The first thing we did in class that day was to talk about the apprehensions that they all seemed to feel. At the end of the discussion it seemed that we seemed to have established a basic idea of what peer reviewing entailed. They understood that every comment had its merit if it was backed up by reason and that every writer had the right to ignore suggestions made by commentators.
As I listed the criteria I had them talk as a class about what each criterion involved. We talked about the process, shared examples and spoke about possible pitfalls. Their first drafts were due that night and I felt that we had covered enough ground that would not only help them peer review each other but also critically revise their papers.
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