Formatively assessing student work and student self-assessment can be a powerful tool to identify student academic knowledge and skill needs. When students are self-assessing their own work, they are becoming empowered in taking ownership of learning and fostering a growth mindset.
The main purpose of formative and student self-assessment is for students to be able to self-monitor and self-regulate their learning in order to take ownership and reach goals.
As referenced in the examples above, students may use cognitive strategies, such as questioning, to assess what they learned and metacognitive strategies, such as questioning, to assess how they learned in order to self-regulate their learning. These questions may be embedded in discussion or on a tool or in a rubric.
The following resources provide a few examples of how to engage students in reflection and self-assessment and provide data on students’ progress towards a learning target in reading and writing instruction.
Tools and Strategies for Formative Assessment and for Students to Track, Self-Assess, and Peer-Assess Progress Towards the Learning Target
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Tools to Self-Assess What I learned - Students need to be able to assess whether or not they developed the knowledge and skills needed to reach the learning target. These are the student “look-fors” in a lesson. These tools may be used for instruction, modeling, guided practice, and a then turned into questions and inserted in a tool for self-assessment.
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Tools to Self-Assess How I Learned - Students need to be able to reflect and assess what worked, what didn’t work and what they may do differently
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Tools to Assess What Was Learned and How It Was Learned - An instructor may combine the cognitive (what I learned) questions and metacognitive (how I learned) questions into one tool.
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Providing Feedback that Feeds Learning Forward - As instructors formatively assess learning and students self-assess, providing effective feedback that feeds learning forward is essential for learning reinforcement.
- Student Feedback That Moves Learning Forward Guide (679K PDF)
- Watch as Steve Hinds provides feedback to student in a manner that fosters critical thinking, reflection, and learning. Although the examples are from a math classroom, the questions can be applied to any content area.