1. Read instructions: Go through the instructions to understand the activity requirements.
2. Submission: Students submit their personal essay according to the requirements.
3. Self-assessment & peer review: Utilizing a comprehensive rubric, students evaluate their own work and then provide actionable and constructive feedback to their peers. For this assignment, there are comment and rubric criteria configured.
4. Rating and Reflection: Alongside providing feedback, students are also tasked with rating the feedback they receive from their peers (feedback-on-feedback). Additionally, reflection is key to the learning process. Students will be invited to reflect on the entire experience, focusing on what they’ve learned and how this activity has contributed to their growth.
5. Feedback Release: Student’s  feedback, along with their peers', will be released following the assignment deadline. This ensures everyone has ample time to engage with and learn from the feedback provided.
6. Grading: Instructor grades the students based on configured criteria and weighting.

This activity uses Peer Review to get students to critically evaluate their own and their peers’ personal essays and reflections with open-ended comments and rubric criteria.

Rubric

The rubric included in this activity focuses on two core criteria that reflect increasing levels of proficiency in:

• Proofreading: Assesses grammar, punctuation, spelling, and formatting, ranging from significant errors that disrupt readability to drafts with few or no mistakes.

• Length: Measures whether the draft meets expected page requirements.

In addition, there is a comment-only section encouraging reflective feedback on:

• Hook: The piece’s ability to capture reader interest with a compelling opening.
• Apparent Subject: Clarity of the topic or surface-level content.
• Deeper Subject: The presence of underlying insights or learning moments.

This rubric combines clear, behaviorally anchored scoring with qualitative commentary, supporting students in producing polished, well-structured writing while fostering critical thinking and peer review skills.