Writing, reviewing, and revising - peer feedback and writing in English

Interest in peer feedback has steadily increased over the past decades, but little is known about its role and potential benefits in writing instruction in compulsory school. Studies at university level show that peer assessment can improve students' vocabulary, inspire meaning-focused revision changes, and develop audience awareness. My paper is based on my doctoral project in which the overarching research question is What do pupils learn about writing in English by giving feedback?

My project was carried out in three classes in year 8 in Swedish school. It is a qualitative intervention study and the genre-based writing instruction involved cooperation with the class teachers. The teaching units comprised a lesson where the pupils read and commented on their peers' texts. Since the project focused on pupils as peer reviewers none of the pupils received feedback before revising their own texts. By analysing the revision changes made in drafts written before and after the peer-review session, I have linked their writing to this activity.

Results show that pupils make revision changes affecting both the macro- and the micro-level of writing, and that more than half of these revisions can be linked to peer review, that is reading, discussing and commenting on peers' texts. Still, peer review only constituted one activity during the teaching unit; the rest of the instruction was also a likely influence on the texts and revisions. In the presentation I discuss how criteria, sample texts, peer feedback and the teacher together contribute to shape pupils' learning.