My second aha moment reinforced how important peer feedback is. We have been practicing writing descriptive settings over the last week. I have explained how the reader needs to be able to picture the setting. We practiced this by getting the children to close their eyes and visualise the scene that I read to them. We began with very basic settings then discussed what might make it more effective. The children very quickly understood and participated. I then paired them up, reminding them of the learning intention, then share their own stories expecting reflective feedback from their peer. This was an excellent strategy - the children used the feedback, made changes and swapped roles. Most of the stories improved.

At the end of the session we reflected on the feedback strategy. One child (Year 3) said "It helped because I could go back and really focus on the parts of the setting that wasn't very descriptive. I liked the suggestions and it helped me come up with better language".

I have noticed the specific reflective feedback session has already helped focus the peer discussions. It has created some very constructive debating and the children justifying their suggestions.