peer assessment | A Journey Through Learning

Write a 250 word assignment (2 hrs)

Using the assignment criteria, write 250 words of your assignment, complete with references and bibliography. You will then write a self-assessment of your short piece of work and include this with your mini snapshot essay. You will then share this with your critical peer and give written feedback to each other on your work.

Evidence: Your written 250 word assessment. In addition you should add in your self-assessment feedback and your peer assessment feedback.

Personal Thoughts:

This was a difficult task to complete. I don’t often share any assignment work I have produced due to my lack of confidence and not wanting to pass on incorrect info or scare someone if they haven’t written about something I have or vice versa. Also, this task was a challenge to try and fit in. When it comes to writing an assignment, I like to lock myself away in my room and just get on with it!

In addition, sharing a piece of approx 250 words, that I felt happy with or that will even be used within the final assignment was a slight challenge. I was fully prepared for this and welcomed some feedback, positive/negative. I gave my justification for choosing this particular section and also what else I was hoping to discuss within the assignment.

I personally found this task very difficult to do – giving someone feedback on their academic work when I don’t feel like I am in a position to do so. For example, I don’t feel qualified enough to do this. I also believe everyone has different ways of writing an assignment, taking a different spin every time which also makes it a challenge to give some constructive criticism/feedback further than “looks good, keep going”. I feel we did manage to give each other something that we may want to look at and work on however this was quite an uncomfortable task to do.

My word count is slightly over due to in text references and not wanting to stop half way through a sentence.

A copy of the 250 words & self/peer feedback can be viewed as a word document –

Assignment Snapshot Task

Develop a Presentation about HWB research; carry out a self-assessment of your work (3 hrs).

Working with a critical friend (peer), each person present five slides (must be pictures) that can be used to summarise a piece of research or a policy focus in the wider area of HWB. The pair should decide and identify the assessment criteria that have to be used. This should be displayed in your e-portfolio. Write up a self-assessment of your presentation before you present it to your critical friend. Present your presentation to your critical friend and collect detailed feedback from your peer.

Think about – are you meeting the agreed assessment criteria, have you practised your presentation, does it have impact, are you getting across the key points.

Evidence: A copy of your PowerPoint presentation. In addition, you should add your self-assessment feedback based on the assessment criteria. A copy of assessment criteria should be added.

Personal Thoughts:

This activity was quite time consuming to do. Thinking of the wider aspect of HWB, I wanted to focus on a policy/research document which hadn’t been considered in class. This led to the presentation focusing on the policy document ‘Achieving Our Potential’ which aims to tackle poverty and income inequality. The issue of poverty is something which we did look at in class however this was more based around the context of the attainment gap. Throughout the presentation, my aim was to:

discuss what poverty is, the causes, how it’s measured whilst giving statistics in relation to Scotland and also consider child poverty
discuss income inequality and its effects, also the notion of ‘working poverty’
discuss the government policy and it’s aims
consider the policy in relation to others, eg. Early Years Framework; early intervention etc.
emphasise there are many strategies/initiatives being implemented to tackle these issues in order for Scotland to become a fairer, healthier, more prosperous place to live – increasing the overall wellbeing of all those living in the nation; one alone will not achieve anything

Before carrying out the presentation, we decided on a criteria which we would self/peer assess against. Looking back, I believe we could have made this more specific however at the time of creating it we were unsure of what we should have. This may have helped develop the presentation further. In terms of practising the presentation, I feel this was something we lacked. Although we felt we knew our topics quite well and given the environment which it was presented (library) in, less reliance on notes may have improved the overall quality. I feel the chosen images, on each slide, were relevant to the current area being discussed – the audience recognised how they related to the topic.

By the end of the presentation, it was made clear that I had given clear and relevant information – focusing on key points – which is what I hoped I would do, enabling the audience to (potentially) learn something new, as I did with theirs. I found it challenging to be critical in my feedback however do feel I gave some constructive criticism to my peer.

The presentation can be viewed as a PowerPoint document –

HWB presentation

A copy of the self/peer assessment feedback sheet has been included –

‘Snapshot’ Assignment Feedback

HWB Presentation