Reviewing Your Peers’ Blog Posts

Please be sensitive and professional as you write short blog reviews and contributions for your peers. When making suggestions or critiques of something I find it helpful, and more gentle to use the phrasing:

 

“I worry that [problem here] …. and I wonder if… [suggestion here].” For example, if the blog post is a summary of a technology without much critical analysis, you might say, “I worry that you don’t point out any possible drawbacks of using video creation assignments, I wonder if, in addition to your excellent summary of video editing with iMovie, it would be helpful for your readers to know what you think its strengths and weaknesses are as a teaching tool for elementary school-aged learners?” 

 

Phrasing your suggestion this way will make it less likely that the person receiving the feedback will become defensive, and more likely that they will seriously consider following your suggestion.

Blog Review Criteria 

  1. Review the blog post rubric and make sure that all the facets have been addressed.
  2. Identify 2 (or more) things you like about your peer’s blog post.
  3. Identify 1 thing about the blog post you think could be improved (“I wonder if…”).
  4. Early in the semester tell your peer one or more things you like about the overall blog organization, menu structure, or look & feel of the website as well as one way to possibly improve it.
  5. Go through the blog post rubric to make sure they’ve met each of the criteria. If they have not, please gently ask them to, “review rubric point #2 to make sure you’ve met the criteria…”
  6. Post your review via a comment on their blog post, or if commenting is turned off, email that feedback to the person, including the blog post URL you are referring to.

Receiving Feedback from your Peers

Please remember that the feedback you’ve received are the opinions of your classmates, so please critically reflect on the suggestions before you accept or reject them. Some of the feedback might be relevant and helpful, and some may not be as helpful. You can decide whether or not you want to make the feedback in blog post comments public or not.

 

If you have any concerns about the feedback you receive please contact or email me so that we can discuss it: sonjajohnston@uvic.ca