Reviewing for ReadWriteThink.org

Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in reviewing lesson plans for ReadWriteThink.org, a partner site of the Thinkfinity program. Our primary goal is to provide K–12 educators and students access to the highest quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction. The peer-review process is an integral step in ensuring that the lessons posted are of the utmost quality.

We greatly appreciate your involvement at this stage and value your professional insight. If you are interested in reviewing for ReadWriteThink.org, please sign up at Manuscript Central, then send an e-mail to the Assistant Editor, who will enable your reviewer status within the system.

Our review standard is “double blind”: You will not be told the name of the lesson writer, and he or she will not be given the name of the reviewers.

Factors to Keep in Mind

Before beginning your review, we recommend that you review our information for authors. As part of your review, you will need to comment on whether the lesson adequately follows the specified format and criteria.

As part of your review, for example, you should assess whether the lesson

Adequately follows the strategies presented in the related IRA journal article or book chapter

Meets the IRA/NCTE standards for the English language arts to which it is linked

Has appropriate online resources that students will use during the lesson

We ask that you complete your review of the lesson by the date requested. This date is important as it provides the ReadWriteThink.org staff time to edit the lesson according to your suggestions and return it to the lesson writer in a timely fashion. If you are unable to complete the review, please contact us as soon as possible so that we may assign another reviewer.

Submitting Your Review

To begin the review process, you must log in to the Manuscript Central system and download the lesson documents. After reading the lesson thoroughly, you will use the online form to rate each section of the lesson and to provide written comments to support the rating. To assist the lesson writer during the revision process, please cite specific examples from the lesson and include your suggestions on how to improve the plan. Keep in mind that all reviews are shared with the lesson writer, so please be constructive.

At the end of the form, you will be asked to give an overall rating for the lesson. Use the following guidelines when making your recommendation:

Accept — The lesson needs only minor copyediting to ensure that grammar and spelling are correct

Accept with content revisions — The lesson requires content changes and should be returned to the lesson writer prior to editing and publication

Reject — The lesson lacks substantive promotion of literacy learning, and in all likelihood cannot be revised by the lesson writer

Once again, thank you for making this valuable contribution to ReadWriteThink.org. We look forward to receiving your feedback.

Manuscript Central
Announcing “Manuscript Central,” a new online service for reviewing lessons.

Familiarize yourself with ReadWriteThink.org

Information for Authors
Use these guidelines when reviewing lessons, to ensure that the author followed the proper format.