Lesson 6: Day 5 - Essay Peer Review

Google Doc for This Lesson


Activity 1: Peer Review Workshop

Overview: In this workshop, students will exchange essays and provide feedback to a peer using a structured checklist aligned to the rubric. The activity emphasizes positive, constructive feedback while helping students reflect on their own writing. By engaging in peer review, students strengthen their ability to recognize strong use of evidence, clear organization, meaningful connections to today, and overall writing clarity.

Time: 30 minutes

Format: Partners

Objective: SWBAT evaluate a peer’s essay using the rubric-based checklist and provide constructive feedback that identifies strengths and suggests specific improvements.

  • Explain the goal: “Today, we will act as editors. Your job is to help your partner improve their essay with thoughtful feedback.”

  • Project and review the ICY Graduate Essay: Peer Feedback Workshop worksheet.

  • Assign partners or invite students to choose their own partners. 

  • Give students 15 minutes to read each other’s essays, check off criteria, and write comments.

  • Encourage them to use evidence-based feedback: 

    • “You gave a strong example when you…” or 

    • “This paragraph could be clearer if…”.

  • Share out: Invite partners to discuss their comments with each other.

    • Remind them to share one strength and one suggestion for improvement.

  • Wrap-Up

    • Ask one or two volunteers to share: “What will you revise in your own essay after today?”

Activity 2: Read Aloud

Overview: In this activity, students will read the Institute for Colored Youth Timeline. Students will follow along and listen for key milestones in the founding, growth, and impact of ICY. The read-aloud format highlights how a timeline can serve as both a historical source and a storytelling tool, showing the evolution of ICY from its founding in 1837 through its broader influence on education and civil rights.

Time: 20 minutes

Format: Whole Group

Objective: Students will be able to identify major milestones in the history of the Institute for Colored Youth by listening to a teacher-led read aloud of the ICY Timeline and noting the significance of key events.

  • Tell students: “Today we will examine a timeline of the Institute for Colored Youth. As we read, listen for the important events that show how ICY grew and why it mattered.”

  • Project the Institute for Colored Youth Timeline.

  • Read each entry aloud as written, pausing briefly to check for understanding:

  • “Why was this moment important?”

  • “How might this moment have impacted Philadelphia’s Black Metropolis”

Wrap-Up:
Ask: “Looking at this whole timeline, what patterns do you see? How do these events connect to what we’ve already learned about Black education and leadership?