Self Assessment in the Classroom

Self Assessment. What is it exactly and why is it important for a classroom setting. As a prospective teacher and a current student, self assessment and reflection has actually become a pivotal part of my education journey, and something that I know I would like to incorporate into my future classroom. Self assessment actually goes hand in hand to a term that I had recently learned in one of my education courses, assessment as learning (AaL). This means that there is an emphasis “on developing self-assessment and metacognition….the goal is for students to monitor their own learning” (Drake, Reid, & Kolohon, 2014, p. 17). This means that students are able to critically think about what they are doing and to better understand what worked and maybe did not work in their learning.

In my educational journey, a lot of the time self assessment is used to help me reflect on my work, and as a result, has helped me self identify with what areas I need to improve upon; along with helping me to celebrate my own academic accomplishments.

            The one technique that I have found to be a great way to implement and get students talking about their work is “Two Stars and a Wish”. This technique is one of my favourites and has been used in a few of my courses. The premise of this technique is that students are able to comment on two aspects of their work that they liked and one aspect of their work that they think they need to improve. What makes this technique work so well is that it encourages students to think critically about their work and to develop the skills needed to provide constructive criticism. Below is an example of how to format the “Two Stars and a Wish” concept:

Image from http://www.communication4all.co.uk/http/Thinking.htm

            So what exactly are the benefits of self assessment? According to the University College Dublin,  one benefit of self assessment provides students with a chance to reflect on the work that they are doing in a way that helps them enter a deeper level of learning. This is created by having students reflect on their learning experiences, which allows for them to become more comfortable and confident in their academic abilities (Hernandez, 2010, p. 2).

            One way that we can help guide students to reflect and self assess their work is by creating success criteria. By definition, success criteria is an “outline for the ‘look fors’ to achieve the learning goal” (Drake et al., 2014, p. 76). In one fo my education courses, one of our assignments was actually to create our own success criteria for ourselves to use as a guide to help us set our learning goals for the course. While having your students create their own learning goal and success criteria may be a bit too much for them, at first, creating one as a class might work better.

            Patrick Johnson created a wonderful slide show of what learning goals and success criteria are and how they fit together. In addition, this clip from YouTube really ties in the ideas of self assessment and how it can be used in the classroom:

Video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkFWbC91PXQ 

            What I know is that as a prospective teacher, I have a long way to go in understanding and developing my skills in self assessment, learning goals and success criteria. I hope that this post helps give you some ideas on how you have implemented this in your classroom.

Till next time,

Miss Chong

References

Communication 4 All (n.d) Developing thinking. Retrieved from http://www.communication4all.co.uk/http/Thinking.htm 

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st century learner. Canada: Oxford University Press.

Hernandez, R. (2010, January 20) Assessment: Benefits and challenges of using self and peer assessment. Retrieved from http://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/UCDTLA0033.pdf

Jobs for the Future (2013, August 22). Self-assessment: Reflection from students and teachers [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkFWbC91PXQ

Johnson, P. (2010, October 24). learning+goals+and+success+criteria. Retrieved fromhttp://www.slideshare.net/mrjohnsonsclass/learninggoalsandsuccesscriteria

Welcome!

     Hello, my name is Miss Chong and I am currently a fourth year student at Brock University in the Concurrent Education program. I am currently a prospective teacher for the intermediate and senior grade levels for the subject areas of dramatic arts and history.

     My main interests in education are literacy and the process of how students come to understand concepts through their learning styles. I hope to do more work in this field of education and potentially continue my own education in developing a greater understanding of literacy and how students come to understand and learn in order to better teach and work with my future students.

     I hope that you find my blog interesting as I continue on my journey in becoming an educator.

     Cheers,

     Miss Chong