I can not believe the school year is almost over. I have to admit this year has been one of the most stressful years of teaching yet. (Besides my first year of course!) This year my county has implemented many new strategies for teaching. New common core, new grading system and new self reflection VSET. As part of my goals and self reflection this school year I wanted to focus on self assessment in the classroom. I do this in a variety of ways. First, let's talk about self assessment in writing. When my class and I started exploring writing we discussed as a group what our grades (P1, P2, P3, P4) would look like and why. I created examples of each writing piece using the same topic with my class. (We wrote about a duck). I then used these writing examples to help guide my students in their self assessment all year long. After each writing piece my students compare their writing to the writing samples located on the board above each wiring bin. They then place their piece accordingly to what they believe their writing score will be. My students have really become stronger writers because of this self assessment They have grown from P1's to P4's and even some P5's. My students love grading themselves, I feel like it gives them a sense of personal achievement. They are always striving to make themselves better writers! Here are some pictures and examples of my students using self assessment strategies for writing.
As you can see in my pictures my students also use a card to help them while writing. They use this to indicate if they are on task and completing their work with out any problem vs. if they are in need of assistance. A colleague of mine adapted this for our Kindergarten classroom after collaborating with a second grade teacher at my school who uses a more advanced version of the card.
I have also used learning targets in my classroom to help self assess other subjects such as math, science and social studies. My students use the target to rate their understanding of the lesson being taught.
I am really interested in learning more about self assessment. Please share any ideas you may have about self assessment in your classroom. If you have a blog post about self assessment or writing, feel free to leave your link below. If you have used any of these self assessment practices that I discussed in this post I would love to hear if it worked well in your classroom. I look forward to everyone's feedback.
Until next time friends!
