Student Self-Assessment

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STUDENT SELF-ASSESSMENT

a complex story and invite students to reflect on that story as it is happening so the reflection itself impacts the story’s outcome. There is a powerful relationship between learning, documentation of learning, goal setting, and self-assessment.

The setup for using data notebooks and portfolios has to begin by carefully considering student autonomy. It is healthy to co-construct which learning to focus on during documentation and how to collect and organize data. It is important that students and teachers partner in decision making and that the teacher protects the private nature of student progress to ensure emotional safety. (See chapter 6, page 109, for a more detailed discussion on this.) Data notebooks, portfolios, and self-assessment tools are wrapped up in relationships—between teachers and students and between students and themselves— and these relationships have to be treated with care, from beginning to end. Aspects of data notebooks, portfolios, and other self-assessment tools will remain private for students, while others may become public. Transparency about each is critical in building trust between teachers and learners. Students need to understand that when assessment serves learning (instead of judging it), these data and other forms of documentation occasionally represent less-than-proficient work. In fact, capturing evidence of imperfection is an important part of learning

In this chapter, you will explore some important considerations for self-assessment, such as providing accessible documentation, offering predictable supports, and establishing a predictable routine. You also will learn practical strategies and tools for setting up the self-assessment process with your students. The chapter ends with clear steps for where to start and questions to guide conversations and reflections with colleagues and students.

Considerations for Self-Assessment I have started many well-intentioned organizational ideas with students, only to have momentum fizzle weeks after we begin. Binders with color-coded features, journals with daily entries, and mathematics notebooks with consistent reflection have all begun with a strong desire to impact learning. However, like a fitness plan, while having the desire to make a change is an important first step, successful outcomes depend on more than good intentions—there needs to be a structured plan, with check-ins along the way, and daily commitment. Most important, students need relevant purpose and some quick wins to support this purpose, so confidence builds and the effort feels worthwhile. Setting up students for this kind of immediate success with data notebooks, portfolios, and other selfassessment tools begins with preparation. Data notebooks, portolios, and other formative self-assessment processes depend on features that support predictability and early confidence. Researcher

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Students’ learning stories are personal—they reflect the people experiencing them. When we, as educators, ask students to keep track of their learning in notebooks, portfolios, or computer files, we encourage the creation of artifacts that reflect who students are at moments in time. These artifacts can serve as the foundation of the kind of self-assessment that moves beyond “a thing to do” and into a mechanism that drives rich and complex learning. When we are clear about why we intend to use self-assessment tools, we can begin to plan how to use them in the most powerful ways. Self-assessment is part of a deep learning process that helps individuals explore how their learning occurs over time. When we intentionally plan ways to use it well to nurture learning, we are setting up learners for success. We want data notebooks or portfolios to serve as artifacts of what is most important. Curation of what belongs in data notebooks or portfolios is critical, and teachers and students need to negotiate that curation together.

something new. It is through these imperfections that self-assessment can flourish. Students can examine products and performances that are not yet proficient and consider strategies and approaches to get them closer to their goals. This is a shift in the role of assessment and may initially be difficult for students to embrace, especially when they believe that assessment comes at the end of learning and should reflect complete success; anything less than that indicates some kind of failure. It is critical that data notebooks and portfolios contain false starts, searching ideas, and questions. When they don’t, they severely limit the potential to develop thinking and generate ideas. Instead, they become transactional, serving only to fill a book and please the teacher. The power of selfassessment is far greater than simply demonstrating compliance and perfection.


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