Two- Day Lesson Plan for Essay Peer Review and Revision

Teacher: Peter Joyce

Grade: 9th
Content Area: ELA
Class Length: Two 45 minutes classes

1. Content and Standards:

CC.1.4.9-10.A:
Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and
information clearly and accurately.
CC.1.4.9-10.C:
Develop and analyze the topic with relevant, well-chosen, and sufficient facts, extended
definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the
audience’s knowledge of the topic; include graphics and multimedia when useful to aiding
comprehension.

2. Prerequisites: All students must turn in rough drafts of the Romeo and Juliet essay.

3. Essential Questions:
Why do we write about literature?

4. Materials and Equipment: Peer Review Checklist

5. Instructional Objective:
After reviewing the work of their peers, students will be able to evaluate their own writing for
strength of thesis, use of in-text citations, and voice.

6. Instructional Procedures:

Romeo and Juliet Final Essay Prompt:

Romeo and Juliet overcome their parents’ disapproval and Romeo’s banishment to
consummate their “death-marked love” (Prologue.9). Their reckless pursuit of love ends in
the deaths of themselves and others, proving that “violent delights have violent ends'' (2.6.8).
What do the actions of Romeo and Juliet say about Shakespeare’s view of love?

Essay Requirements:
A creative title.
1 paragraph with a clear, arguable thesis and concluding statement.
Proper use of parenthetical citations.

Read over the rubric carefully. The essay will be graded on a 9-point scale with the
possibility of 2 extra points. However, the essay is worth 40 points. The number of points you
earn will be based on the percentages shown here: (Actual prompt includes a detailed rubric
listing the grading criteria: Answer to Question, Organization, Evidence, Grammar, and
Voice).
 Day #1

Before:
Students should have written a rough draft of their Romeo and Juliet critical analysis essay of
and turned it in on Google Classwork.
(Final Essay Prompt attached to lesson plan)
Review procedure with students (5 mins)

During:
Students will go to separate Google Meets based on what group they have been placed in
(groups are listed in a Google Doc on Google Classroom). Groups have been pre-selected
according to student achievement. For example, A and B students have been grouped with
other A and B students. These groupings should make peer feedback more meaningful.

Each student will present their essay to the group while their peers read and review their
essay using a peer review checklist.

After:
Before the end of class, each group must determine which essay was the most developed.
The student with best essay will email it to me to review. I will review each of the best essays
to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of the class’s writing.

Day #2

Before:
Essay Tips Presentation (10 min):
Discuss students’ most help needed areas of essay writing and provide good and bad
examples from student’s rough drafts.

During (35 mins)

I allow students the rest of the class period to work on their essays. I will remain in the
Google Meet for the entirety of the class period for student conferencing.

7. Assessment: I will review peer review selected essays. Based on these essays, I will identify
students’ most helped needed areas. I will re-teach students in these areas based in a minilesson.
Students’ final essays will tell me whether this re-teaching was successful. After reviewing
students’ final essays, I will re-teach students in their most helped need areas again.
 Essay Writing Tips
Strong thesis statement:
In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare presents Benvolio and Tybalt as foils to emphasize the conflict
between the good and evil natures that exist in people.
-Clearly expresses an idea.
-Specific; limited to one idea.
-Presents an arguable idea, one that is not overly obvious and needs defending.
-Introduces the title and author.
-Title of play is italicized.

Potential concluding statement:

Through the contrasting fates of Benvolio and Tybalt, Shakespeare shows evil to be a self-destructive
force.
-Presents a new, more well-developed idea based on analysis

Overly general topic sentence:

Shakespeare is the author of the play Romeo and Juliet, using the play as a way to pass on what he
believes was love.

Taking too long to get to thesis statement:

In the tragedy Romeo and Juliet written by the English playwright William Shakespeare, two teenagers
explore the world of secret, forbidden romance together. However, their careless actions spiral into a
series of unfortunate events, leading to their deaths. The decisions of Romeo and Juliet throughout the
play give a glimpse of Shakespeare’s view of love. Through the lines of the tragedy, Shakespeare
expressed that love can be fatal and bitter if not properly conveyed.

Good embedding of quote:

When Romeo first sets sight on Juliet, he is shocked by her beauty, claiming that her “Beauty [is] too rich
for use, for earth too dear,” questioning if his “heart [loved] till now” (1.5.45-50).
-Introduces the quote.
-Changes grammar to fit the sentence using brackets

Poor use of embedded quote:

While both of them had different views on love, ultimately they become the same, “My bounty is as
boundless as the sea, My love as deep” (2.2.133).
-Who said this? Romeo or Juliet?
-Unclear how this quote shows Romeo and Juliet’s views on love becoming the same.

Use of a drop quote:

Another reckless act is the risky plan to fake Juliet’s death. “I long to die If what thou speak’st speak not
of remedy” (4.1.68-69). It is clear Juliet is in distress, and she expresses that if there is no other way to
be with Romeo, she would rather die.
-Quote stands alone without context.
-Connection between the prior sentence and the quote is unclear.

Good use of evidence:

From the beginning of the play, death acts as an obstacle for Romeo and Juliet. When Romeo comes to
Juliet's balcony in the night, Juliet warns him, "if they do see thee they will murder thee" (2.2.70).
Romeo refuses to leave because he wants to know if she loves him, claiming he would rather die than
find she does not love him. This moment demonstrates how Romeo's love of Juliet could have led to his
death because of his reckless actions.
-Makes an assertion.
-Presents textual evidence.
-Explains how evidence supports their assertion.

Lines breaks are represented with “/”:

When Romeo learns that he is banished for killing Tybalt, he sees his name as a disgrace to Juliet and
asks Friar Laurence where in his body does his name live so that he “may sack/ The hateful mansion”
(3.3.107-108).

Proper citation of multiple quotes in same sentence:

After Friar Laurence’s plan fails miserably, Romeo, misled and thinking that Juliet is dead, goes to an
apothecary and buys a “dram of poison” that is so fast that the “taker will fall dead” as fast as “powder
fired/doth hurry from the fatal cannon’s womb” (5.1.60,62,64-65).
-Quotes are separated by a comma in the parenthetical citation.