On January 12, 2015 Barb Pitchford and I co-wrote a blog on Student Self-Assessment. We got a ton of positive feedback regarding this entry and also a lot of questions asking for more strategies to use to support students in self-assessment.
Barb and I recently proposed a book for publication – without self and peer assessment our final product would have been something that we weren’t very proud of. We determined that we weren’t really satisfied with our early proposal and we wanted our proposal to really “stand out” so we added links throughout the proposal that took the reader to tools that we had created on “google”. We revised our work at least six times before we were ready to hit the “send” button. Being a learner in the 21st century requires oneself to be critical of one’s work. The competition is immense now that we are competing on a world stage.
It is our goal to involve students as much as possible in analyzing their own work. If the teacher is the only person giving them feedback to close the gap, the balance of power is wrong. The students become powerless, with no ownership in their learning.
We want students to use self-assessment continuously because it is a part of the learning process. Revision, reflection, the identification of successes and the identification of mistakes in the learning should be a natural part of the learning process. In most of the schools Barb and I work with, revision is only done in writing and not as often as we would like to see it. Most often the teacher feels as if they can’t get quality feedback to the students as much as they would like to. That is why self and peer assessment strategies are necessary components to the formative process.
Here are 3 more strategies to support you in your “formative process” journey. All of these strategies utilize “success criteria”. Please refer to the December 3 Blog – “3 Tips to Increase Learning” to refresh your memory on this concept.
- Success Criteria Check Lists: Students copy the success criteria for the assignment or assessment task on the top of their paper. They can check off all of the criteria as they work or after they are finished working to ensure that they have met the criteria. They can then give it to a peer to check. Their peer can use another color to check to see if they matched. If there are mismatches, the student would revise their work.
- Proof Cards: Proof cards can be made using any scrap piece of paper or index card. The purpose of the “proof card” is for students to show “proof” of what they can do. Here are some examples of “proof cards”
- Student Self-Review: Using a student self-review frame can support goal setting and student self-assessment. Here is an example of a blank Student Self-Review frame:
Works Cited:
Student Self-Assessment and Goal Setting by Kathleen Gregory, Caren Cameron and Anne Davies
Formative Assessment in the Secondary Classroom by Shirley Clarke.
