Peer Editing with Google Documents

Imagine this scenario in Mr. Tek's history class, in which students write a thesis paragraph about whether or not Alexander the Great was really "great."
  1. For homework, students create a Google Document, and write a paragraph with a strong thesis statement.
  2. In class the next day, Mr. Tek assigns peer pairs, telling each student who will be peer reviewing their paragraph.
  3. Students open the paragraphs on their devices, and share the documents with their partners (using the blue "Share" button). Students also share the documents with Mr. Tek.  [For this activity, the Sharing permission is set to "Can comment," so that peers can make comments with changing the text of the document.]
  4. Students comment on each others' paragraphs, including both positive feedback and constructive criticism.
  5. Students then return to their own paragraphs, and make changes based on their reviewers' comments.
  6. That evening, Mr. Tek can open each document and judge the quality of the writing and the comments.  If interested, he can also go to "File...See Revision History" to check out the "before and after" of the paragraph, to see the quality of the revisions!


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