Making Peer Assessment Work in PE

Clarifying what students look for can lead to feedback a partner can actually use.

This is the third article in the four-part series Assessing Without Sacrificing Activity Time. In last week’s article, we looked at how stations can create opportunities to assess students more closely without stopping activity for everyone else.

This week, we shift some of the assessment process beyond the teacher and look at how students can use clear criteria to assess a peer and provide feedback their partner can actually use.

At the end of the article, I’ve also included free peer assessment templates that you can use or adapt for your own classes.

Imagine students are working with partners on a movement skill. They are taking repeated attempts, switching roles, and continuing to practice while you circulate around the class.

You might get to each pair several times, but there is no way you can see every attempt. While you are watching one student, there could be another 10 or 15 students practicing somewhere else.

At the same time, many of those students already have someone beside them watching.

This creates an opportunity, but simply asking students to “give each other feedback” is unlikely to get us very far. Without a clear focus, students may rely on comments like “good job” or “try again,” offer suggestions based on opinion, or simply say something to get the task done. None of that necessarily helps the student understand the learning or what to do next.

The issue is not necessarily whether students can assess one another. It is whether we have given them something clear enough to assess

Making Peer Assessment Manageable

Peer assessment does not mean students need to become substitute teachers or expert assessors. It can be much simpler than that.

If students know what they are learning and have clear success criteria, we can ask them to focus on one or two specific things while they watch a partner perform. Students are not trained assessors, so asking them to work with a long list of criteria or complicated language can make the task overwhelming very quickly. Keeping the focus to one or two clear criteria gives them a better chance of knowing what to look for and providing feedback connected to the learning.

They also need to understand the criteria before they use them to assess someone else. If students have already seen the criteria modeled, discussed what they mean, or used them during earlier learning, they are much more likely to recognize what they are looking for when they see it.

The social side of peer assessment matters too. Being observed by a classmate can feel uncomfortable, particularly when students do not know one another well or when there are social hierarchies within the class. That means we also need to be mindful, especially at first, of who we pair together for peer assessment.

The Value of Peer Assessment

When students assess a peer using clear criteria, they have to think about what the learning actually looks like. They are not just performing the skill or applying the concept themselves. They are watching for it in someone else, which can help make the learning clearer for both the student doing the observing and the student receiving the feedback.

The feedback also needs somewhere to go. If one student observes a partner, provides feedback, and then the activity ends, much of the value is lost. Whenever possible, the student receiving the feedback should have another opportunity to use it. That might mean identifying one thing to work on and applying it during the next few attempts.

In that way, peer assessment becomes part of the learning process rather than something students simply complete.

What This Could Look Like in PE

Suppose students are working with partners on a volleyball forearm pass. They have already been introduced to the success criteria, seen them modelled, and had some time to practice. Each pair has a simple checklist with the success criteria they can refer to while observing.

Rather than asking the observing student to assess the entire forearm pass, you could give them one or two success criteria to focus on, such as keeping their arms straight and together to create a flat platform and pointing their thumbs down. While their partner completes several passes, the observer uses the checklist to focus specifically on those criteria. They then share what they noticed and one suggestion connected to the criteria. For example, “Your arms came apart on a few passes. Try keeping them together and point your thumbs down when the ball contacts your forearms.” The student then completes several more passes, using the feedback before the partners switch roles.

The exchange does not need to take several minutes, and it does not need to involve a lengthy assessment sheet or wordy rubric to be effective. Rather, the student doing the assessment needs clarity on what to look for and what the feedback should focus on.

The same basic approach can be used beyond movement skills. If students are working on a game-play concept, such as creating space on offense, a peer could watch for whether their partner moves into open space after making a pass and provide feedback before the next round of play. The student then has another opportunity to apply that feedback when they return to the game.

What About Activity Time?

It is worth acknowledging that with peer assessment, there will be short periods when a student is watching rather than moving. In a series about assessing without sacrificing activity time, that matters.

But that does not necessarily mean the time is being lost. If students are watching for a specific success criterion, they are still engaged in the learning. They are seeing what the criterion looks like, thinking about whether it is present, and using that information to give feedback.

That can also help the student doing the observing. By watching for the criterion in their partner, they can develop a clearer understanding of what success looks like and what they need to do themselves. When they get back to the activity, that understanding can help improve the quality of their own attempts.

Peer assessment can also create opportunities for students to talk about learning and support one another. This will depend on the class and how the process is structured, but when it works well, the time spent observing is not simply time away from movement. It can help students better understand what they are learning, recognize their strengths, and identify what to work on when they are moving.

The Takeaway

Peer assessment does not need to mean stopping activity so students can complete an assessment of one another. When students are already working with partners or alternating attempts, there are opportunities to build assessment into what they are already doing.

The key is to keep the focus clear and manageable. Give students something specific to notice, make sure they understand what they are looking for, and provide an opportunity for the student receiving the feedback to use it.

If you are thinking about trying peer assessment, start small. The next time students are already working with a partner, choose one success criterion they know well and have them watch for it during a few attempts. Then give the student another opportunity to act on what their partner noticed.

Coming up Next Week

Peer assessment gives students an opportunity to use criteria to notice and respond to someone else’s learning. But those same criteria can also help students pay closer attention to their own learning.

Next week, we’ll look at how students can use self-assessment to recognize where they are in their learning and what they might work on next.

See you then.