Wednesday, September 8, 2010
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While working on my Results Only Learning Environment (ROLE) experiment, one piece that has me constantly pondering is student self-assessment.
If you understand anything about the Results Only concept, you know that participants must be able to assess their own progress. I teach seventh grade, so asking 12-year-olds to grade themselves is sort of like asking teachers to stay away from the pastries sitting on a counter in the mail room; it's not impossible, just difficult. 
They can handle it
It's not that my students can't do it. In past years, I have asked students to peer-edit their written work and even score their own practice achievement tests, using a rubric that I provide.
Honesty is not my concern; I find that in most cases students are quite critical of their own work and do an adequate job of grading.
So my quandary is not the act off self-assessment, it's what to assess.
Have idea? I'll assign.
Students in a Results Only Learning Environment must become conditioned to evaluate their own progress almost all of the time. Sure, 12-year-olds need help; I understand that they are neither experienced nor educated enough to take on all of the grading. With proper coaching, though, I believe they can see mistakes and fix them -- indicating real learning.
So, if you were a seventh-grade language arts teacher, what activities do you believe lend themselves nicely to student self-assessment?
I'd love to get your suggestions.
