10 Incisive Peer Review Questions for Social Justice Capstone Projects

The Capstone Challenge Every Social Justice Teacher Faces

Gary’s 12th graders were deep into their capstone projects: selecting a current social justice issue, finding a human story of suffering, and gathering 10 key facts. He needed sharp, insightful peer-review questions to push students to evaluate relevance, credibility, empathy, and gaps - without spending hours crafting them himself.

His prompt was clear:

“I'm having my 12th graders work on a capstone social justice project. They have selected a current issue, a story about people suffering from the issue, and 10 important facts. I would like students to peer review to see if the facts are relevant to the story. What might be 10 incisive questions for review?”

In seconds, Alayna delivered these 10 powerful, ready-to-use questions (100 % verbatim - no changes made):

Exact Alayna Output

10 Peer Review Questions

Hi Gary! It sounds like your 12th graders are diving into some really meaningful work. Transitioning from a personal narrative to broader systemic data can be tricky for students, so peer review is a great way to ensure their "10 facts" aren't just random statistics, but are actually building a bridge between the individual story and the social justice issue.

Here are 10 incisive questions designed to help your students evaluate the relevance and impact of the facts chosen by their peers:

Peer Review Questions: Linking Story to Statistics

1. The "Bridge" Test: Does this fact directly explain a specific struggle or obstacle mentioned in the story? If the person in the story faces a specific barrier, does this fact show how many others face that same barrier?
2. Scale and Scope: Does this fact help the reader understand that the individual’s story is a symptom of a larger, systemic problem rather than just an isolated incident?
3. The "So What?" Factor: If you removed this specific fact, would the reader’s understanding of the person's suffering change? If not, is there a more impactful fact that could take its place?
4. Root Cause Analysis: Does the fact point to the why behind the suffering described in the story? (e.g., If the story is about hunger, does the fact address food deserts or income inequality?)
5. Humanizing the Data: How would the life of the person in the story be different if the statistic in this fact were improved or reversed?
6. Geographic & Demographic Alignment: Does the fact match the context of the story? (e.g., If the story is about a local community, is the fact about that specific city/state, or is it too broad to be relevant?)
7. Emotional vs. Logical Resonance: Does the fact reinforce the "mood" of the story? For example, if the story is about the resilience of a refugee, does the fact highlight the systemic hurdles they have successfully navigated?
8. Contradiction Check: Does any part of the story seem to contradict the facts provided? If so, how can the student clarify the relationship between the individual's experience and the general data?
9. The Timeline Check: Is the fact current enough to reflect the reality the person in the story is living through today?
10. Actionable Insight: Does this fact highlight a specific area where "justice" is missing? Does it point toward a potential solution or policy change that would help the person in the story?

Ready-to-Use Peer Review Template

You can print this out or post it on your LMS for the students to use during the session.

If you’d like to turn these findings into a presentation later on, don't forget you can use Alayna's AI Slides Generator for Google Slides. It’s a great way for them to visualize their stories and data side-by-side. You can find it here.

How are the students feeling about their topics so far? Are there any specific issues they are struggling to find data for?

Why These Questions Are Now Gary’s Go-To for Capstone Peer Review

• Deep Critical Thinking Prompts: These questions are designed to push students far beyond surface-level "good job" comments. By challenging reviewers to evaluate "Root Cause Analysis" and the "So What? Factor," the prompts mirror the analytical depth required in college-level social justice research and senior capstone seminars.
• The "Bridge Test" Scaffolding: The sequence is intentionally designed to help students connect individual suffering to systemic data. Question #1 (The Bridge Test) and Question #2 (Scale and Scope) provide the exact scaffolding 12th graders need to prove that a personal story is a symptom of a larger social problem rather than an isolated incident.
• Ready-to-Print or Project Instantly: Gary can simply copy the clean, numbered list into Google Docs or his LMS and have a complete peer-review protocol ready for his session. This "Zero-Prep" design saves precious class time, allowing the focus to remain on the student-led discussion of their "10 facts."
• Universal Application for Social Justice: These prompts are equally effective for projects on food deserts, income inequality, or refugee resilience. Because the questions focus on the relationship between story and data, they deliver powerful, issue-specific insights across any topic without requiring a single modification.
• Humanizing the Data through Empathy: Dedicated questions on "Humanizing the Data" and "Emotional vs. Logical Resonance" ensure that the statistics don't become dry or detached. This encourages a nuanced, respectful dialogue that keeps the human experience at the center of the research process.
• Reusable & Adaptable for Future Cycles: Gary can save this master list and instantly regenerate variations to fit new curriculum needs. Whether he wants to "emphasize policy implications" or "focus on geographic alignment," he can update his entire peer-review protocol in seconds, making this a permanent high-ROI teaching asset.

Ready to transform your students’ capstone feedback into deeper, more impactful learning experiences?

Copy Gary’s prompt into Alayna’s AI Teaching Assistant (Chat) and create your own tailored questions instantly.

👉 Try this exact prompt for free

Tags: #PeerReview #SocialJustice #CapstoneProject #CriticalThinking #HighSchool #SocialStudies #Philosophy #AIteachingAssistant #Chat