Structured Peer Assessment
Peer feedback only works when students understand quality. Use exemplars first so students assess against shared criteria. Without shared criteria, peer feedback is opinion, not evidence.
The strategy, as published
Exactly as it appears on the card
Part of Students as Learning Resources in 02 Formative Assessment, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.
Why you might use it
The problem it may help with
Peer assessment has a bad name in classrooms where it means swapping books and hunting for spelling errors. The card locates the fault precisely: without shared criteria, peer feedback is opinion, not evidence.
The structure starts before any assessing happens. Pupils who have examined exemplars and agreed what quality looks like have a standard to assess against; pupils who have not can only compare the work with their own taste.
What it might look like
One version of it, in a classroom
Before assessing each other's speeches, the class watches two recorded examples and agrees what separated them. Only then do pairs assess, against that agreed list, with one rule: every judgement has to point to a specific moment in the speech.
Try it
A way to begin
Before your next peer assessment, insert one exemplar discussion and have the class agree the criteria they will use. Same task, one added step.
What to notice
Reading what happens
- Whether feedback cites the shared criteria or drifts back to personal preference.
- How pupils receive peer judgements compared with yours, and whether criteria they helped build change that.
Things to think about
Before and while you use it
- Pairings carry social weight. Who assesses whom, and whether some work is better assessed anonymously, is exactly the kind of call the teacher in the room makes and a website cannot.
The wider thinking
Where the evidence sits
Sadler's argument is that any assessor needs a concept of quality they can apply; Berger's classroom practice shows pupils building that concept from real examples of excellent work. The card’s attribution stands as published: Sadler, Berger.
The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Formative Assessment.
Keep exploring
Where next?
Back to this strategy in 02 Formative Assessment, across to what you're trying to improve, or into all 144 at once.
Want to take this further?
Support is available
Pedagogy First gives you a starting point. If you want support exploring how approaches like this can work across your school, trust or professional learning programme, that work is available.