There are 5 main components of implementing self assessment:
It is imperative that students clearly understand the criteria in which they are assessing themselves. For division I this can be tricky as assessment terminology is often not in language students will understand. A strategy to help this problem is the co-creation of criteria. Additionally, I really liked when students were able to develop symbols for different levels based on what made sense to them. For instance, one rubric I saw on speaking in a grade 1 classroom for the category volume students selected a mouse, a bear, and a lion. The mouse was too quiet, the lion was too loud and the bear was just right.
Modeling the process of self-assessment is important for students to see. Students need to be taught how to critically look at their own work. During the modeling stage I focused on what questions students can ask themselves.
- Can this be better?
- What can I change for next time?
- What do I want to leave the same?
- How would an expert do this?
Practicing is extremely important; the growth that my students made in their self-assessment ability from January to April was a pleasure to watch. Students started by giving themselves all green or mastery and the more they practiced critically examining their work and the more I modeled for them the closer their assessment aligned to mine. I knew I had won the students over when they cheered when I wrote self-assessment on the board they loved to be able to take ownership and have say in their assessment.
Ann Davies strongly suggests only using self-assessment for formative assessment this way students can use this assessment to grow as a learner. Many studies have found that that summative self-assessment skews the results as it is a high stakes situation and students are more likely to give themselves a higher grade. Allowing students to improve, revise, and make goals for the future create a more welcoming self-assessment environment where students feel comfortable taking risks.
Feedback both on the students work and on their self-assessment is important to helping align student and teacher assessment. With practice and feedback students self-assessment will get closer aligned to the teachers.