PFL V ...Peer Critique for an eMagazine

After publishing online newspapers, the PFL V class has now made available to the wider audience an online magazine with fictional news articles. The magazine is called "A Tela" which means "screen" in English, as a way to represent the different news you may see on TV or computer screens. The magazine has three separate sections:  Recent Events, Science & Technology, Culture & Travel. Anyone can read the articles and make comments by accessing the publication at the Issuu site shown below.

The class worked collaboratively to develop the design style of the magazine and some students created the cover. A Google Presentation file was used to house all the articles under the same design, so each student was responsible for copying a master slide and adding his o her own content. A PDF version of this Google Presentation was then uploaded into Issuu, making the online magazine very easy to do.

You can access the magazine below. A snapshot of students'comments is also shown at the end of this post.

eMagazine: A TELA

Commenting on each other's articles was an important part of the project, as the goal is to use peer critique as a means of constant improvement.  In order to provide constructive feedback, students learned in class about  peer critique. They also debated about how to provide feedback after watching the video Critique and Feedback - The story of Austin's butterfly


PEER CRITIQUE Techniques:

Kind but Honest:

• Depersonalize comments, rephrasing as "it should have ..."
• Phrase advice in the form of a question.

Helpful

• Explain why the the advice is helpful using "so that..."

Specific

• Zoom in on details and offer specific advice for improvement

(Source: Improving Peer Feedback with Critique. The Learning Soy. Feb 2013)

A sample of peer feedback is seen on the image below. Keep in mind that these are Portuguese as Foreign Language students.