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Self-Assessment

Nov 30

Self – Assessment

Students must understand their own strengths and weaknesses or they will not make progress. Studies have shown that students that reflect on their own learning achieve at significantly higher levels. This is particularly true for students who typically struggle academically. Both self-assessment and peer-assessment practices teach students to focus on learning targets so that they have a better understanding of what it means to achieve success. Judgments based on evidence of learning are routinely modeled by the teacher. A teacher may first work with his/her class to make a list of criteria for an assignment. Students will be encouraged to refer to that list before, during and when they think they are finished. Anonymous samples of work at different levels of quality (exemplars) are judged together first as a class. Reasons for specific judgments are discussed until the teacher feels that his/her students are ready to look at their own work. When students learn how to properly self-assess, they learn to make accurate judgments about what they know. They learn to look for the evidence in their own work always being mindful of the learning target or goal. They begin to recognize the level of quality their own work shows and see what steps they need to take to improve on it. Often, a teacher will provide a rubric at the very beginning of an assignment. A rubric is a scoring grid with criteria and several levels of quality described for each criterion listed. As students practice these activities during their school day, their teachers may ask them to keep track of their learning in a journal or in their agenda. So the next time you talk to your child about what they learned in school, ask them to show you some evidence!