The Purpose of Data Notebooks and Portfolios

TENTH-GRADE CLASSROOM

“Davis, can I chat with you about your reflection before you start your next assignment?” The teacher holds up the reflection form and accompanying Giving Effective Feedback assignment. Davis nods, walks back to the teacher’s table, and sits down beside her. She arranges the criteria-focused reflection form and Davis’s written feedback side by side so they can both see them easily .

The teacher begins by pointing to a comment next to the second criterion on the form. “You reflected that you didn’t provide a specific example to support your feedback suggestion to the author of the writing sample you looked at. I read your feedback, and I agree that an example might have helped clarify your suggestion that the author add clearer transitions. This was an accurate reflection.” She pauses a moment and looks at Davis to determine whether her observations are making sense. Davis nods, and she continues, “Examples can really help a writer imagine new ways for constructing their writing . ”

“I like examples when people are giving me feedback,” Davis confirms. “It helps me see how I could change things to make them better . But what if I don’t like their example? Do I have to do it?”

“No. That is the beauty of feedback,” the teacher explains. “It is supposed to cause us to think, but it isn’t a recipe to follow. We have to figure out what to do on our own. That is why your reflection makes sense—an example or two might have helped the writer think more clearly about how they could solve the challenge you identified.”

“I get it,” Davis replies. “I should have done that. I knew it.”

“Right. However, you noticed this before you handed in your feedback to me and also returned it to the author. I was wondering why, if you knew you needed an example, you didn’t just add it to your feedback?” This puzzles the teacher. If Davis knows better, why doesn’t he apply the self-assessment to the assignment?

“I thought I couldn’t,” Davis explains. “I thought this reflection was a different assignment.”

The teacher nods her head, suddenly understanding what is going on. She realizes that Davis saw the feedback and the accompanying reflection as two different assignments rather than connected. She follows up by asking, “Now that we have talked, can you imagine a way to enhance your feedback? Do you have any changes you’d like to make so the author feels supported and clear about your suggestions?”

“Yes, I’d like to add some examples to my comments so I’m clearer. I need to help the author think, right? I want to try that. Maybe I will ask a couple of extra questions, too.”

Self-assessment can occur in different ways and with different areas of focus. However, there are some common attributes present that establish these scenarios as representative of assessment in general and self-assessment in particular. The act of assessing anything requires a comparison of the skills and understanding indicated by evidence in this moment to desired skills and understanding as represented within goals (in education, this most often means standards, outcomes, or competencies). Assessment becomes self-assessment when learners play an active role in gathering and analyzing evidence, setting short-term goals, making decisions to advance those goals, and reflecting on the success of those decisions. The specific attributes that help shift our assessment focus to self-assessment are as follows.

• Attention: The teacher draws students’ attention to their current state (the most recent evidence

of the state of developing skills and understanding), which may include describing a product or performance as well as processes or decisions that are occurring. • Focus: A goal, desired outcome, or future state receives the focus. This future state may involve longer-term standards, outcomes, or competencies. Teachers might drive these standards or goals, or students might determine shorter-term actions or decisions. • Evidence: There is an emphasis on evidence that supports the description of current state, the assertion of the goal, or both. In the case of self-assessment, students are highly involved in the collection and analysis of evidence. • Effort: The teacher, mentor, or facilitator makes efforts to establish actions, decisions,