This activity occurs after students have read and given feedback on a peer’s essay. After the students have read and discussed what they liked and what they thought needed work on each other’s essays, go over with the class as a whole some of the common strengths they saw in their peers’ papers as well as some of the areas for improvement, and write them on the board.
These are identified as strengths and weaknesses of the class’s papers, collectively; individual papers are not identified or discussed in terms of strengths and weaknesses.
It may be done it in two columns with subtraction (negative attributes) and addition (positive attributes) signs. This cool-down works really well in opening a dialogue that will last the semester about what does and does not make good writing.