OER4Schools/Peer and self-assessment

Title: 4.4 - Peer and self-assessment
Number: 4.4

The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource

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Table of contents.

4.4 - Peer and self-assessment >>>

Facilitator's version, Participants' version

Learning intentions and objectives.
In this session you will learn about:

• Combining use of two self-assessment measures - inventory andtraffic lights
• Understanding peer and self-assessment
• Learning to use strategies for peer and self-assessment

Success criteria.
To meet the learning intentions you will:

ICT components.
The ICT components you will focus on are

• Repeat of ICT sequencing

Review of follow-up activities from last session

Educator note

If you are running a professional learning programme which follows these sessions in sequence, then you should do the review of follow-up activities relating to the (Category:OER4S CPD). The 'review of follow-up activities' for that session is available, and also shown below in the session text. However, if you are following selected sessions in a different order, then you should use the reflection appropriate to the previous session you did.

The review of the follow-up activities for this session (to be done at the start of the next session) is available here.

Educator note

There is no review of follow-up activities from last session available. You can go to the previous session () and.

Activity: Use of inventory and traffic lights for self-assessment

Use of traffic lights (11 min). Inventory and Traffic Lights are both self-assessment measures. You have learned the use of both these measures during the sessions in Unit 4. Using the traffic light cards that you have available at your school (or whatever equivalent you are using), show your comfort level with use of these two measures. For this exercise, the different colours of the traffic lights are as follows:

• RED means “I’m not confident about using the two measures for self-assessment.”
• ORANGE means “I’m not quite sure about using the two measures for self-assessment. I need a little more clarification.”
• GREEN means “I understand fully how to use the two measures for self-assessment.”

Whole group discussion (11 min). Discuss your experiences of using these measures by reflecting on the questions below:

• What are the advantages of using inventory as a self-assessment measure?
• Do you think it can be useful for your own students? Why/Why not?
• What could be some of the topics for which you could use inventory as a self-assessment measure?
• Why do you think that you are able to self-assess using the inventory and traffic lights?
• Do you think your students can self-assess themselves on a particular topic without giving them any help? Why is that so?
• Just as you have done in this activity, could you combine the use of inventory and Traffic Lights for self-assessment in your class?
• What could be the problems in carrying out any or both of the self-assessment measures? How will you resolve them?

Activity : Video watching on peer and self assessment

Background reading (11 min). Read the following text that is summarised from the Afl Guidance notes (here or see below):

Background Reading on Peer and Self-Assessment

Peer and self-assessment is another AfL strategy that ‘promotes independent learning, communication and support in the classroom.’ (Afl Guidance, p 26).

Evidence shows that students can learn to be skilled assessors whose feedback and grades are valid and reliable. Peer assessment and self-assessment are much more than learners simply marking their own or each other’s work. To improve learning, self-assessment must engage learners with the quality of their work and help them reflect on how to improve it. Peers can provide valuable feedback so that learners can learn from and support each other. (Assessment Reform Group, 2002)

Peer and self-assessment are useful for classes in which the student-teacher ratio is high. The practical constraints of the teacher’s time within these classes imply that it is difficult for the teachers to give quality feedback to each pupil. In such cases peer and self-assessment help to give every student indications about how their learning can progress.

Peer and self-assessment are also useful because they:

• help students develop valuable skills of making and defending judgments
• considerably increase the amount of feedback which students receive on their work, thus increasing motivation
• create a classroom environment in which students take responsibility for their own learning
• engage students in constructive work independently, thereby allowing teachers to help students who need more support
• can be less intimidating than a teacher’s critical comments (when not given using sensitive language)

Two popular means of peer and self-assessment are:

• encouraging students to give formative feedback based on success criteria. These are mainly qualitative in nature and involve looking for evidence for each success criteria in student’s work
• deciding a marking scheme on the basis of which students can give marks to each other. For example, every step of a mathematics problem can carry specific marks, which students can use to assess each other summatively

In this session we focus on the first method of qualitative assessment and feedback.

Assessment Reform Group, (2002), Assessment for learning: 10 principles (London, Assessment Reform Group).

You can print this content on a separate sheet here: OER4Schools/4.4 Peer and self-assessment/background reading.

Video watching (11 min). Now watch two clips on peer assessment:

VIDEO

Primary peer assessment from Teachers TV (play full)

Primary peer assessment from Teachers TV (play full)

Video/Primary peer assessment.mp4, https://oer.opendeved.net/wiki/Video/Primary_peer_assessment.mp4, Duration: 01:45 watch on YouTube, local play / download options / download from dropbox)

VIDEO

Secondary Peer Assessment (clip)

Secondary Peer Assessment (clip)

Video/Secondary Peer Assessment clip.mp4, https://oer.opendeved.net/wiki/Video/Secondary_Peer_Assessment_clip.mp4, Duration: 01:08 watch on YouTube, local play / download options / download from dropbox)

Whole group discussion (11 min). Suggested questions for reflection on both videos:

• What is your understanding of the usefulness of peer and self-assessment?
• In the videos you have seen both primary and secondary school students assessing each other's work. What preparation do you think the teacher has done before giving the peer assessment task to the students?
• How can you implement peer assessment in your classrooms?
• What issues do you think you will have to deal with implementing peer assessment? Discuss how you will resolve these issues? (some issues could be: student readiness for both giving and receiving feedback, availability of coloured pens (highlighters) etc)
• Does peer and self-assessment imply less teacher’s responsibility?
• What kind of problems can you anticipate if you try to introduce peer and self-assessment in your class?

Educator note

Draw teachers’ attention to the occurrences of peer and self assessment in the clips. They occur whenever students are given opportunity to offer one another feedback about their work or think about the quality of their own work. The feedback should incorporate reference to learning objective, success criteria and ways to improve.

It is likely that teachers will express some reservation about using peer and self-assessment in the class. The initial training of students in the use of peer/self assessment might seem to be time-consuming, but teachers report that in the long term the use of peer/self assessment in the classroom does help students to gain ownership of their learning. Most important of all, it may be able to engage the students to help one another.

The learning process for every students can hasten as students become more independent and supportive of each other’s work. Teaching and learning in fact can become more meaningful and efficient.

Activity: Strategies for peer and self-assessment

Individual task (11 min). Read: Teachers have developed several ways of introducing peer and self-assessment in their classrooms. Read the following examples and think about how useful they may be in your classrooms.

Strategy	Description
A Star (or two stars) and a Wish	Ask students to point out a positive aspect of the work of his/her friend and to express a wish about what their friend might do next time to improve on an aspect of the work.
De Bono’s Thinking Hats	Ask students to imagine wearing different coloured hats as a guide to give feedback to their friends or for themselves: Yellow Hat: List the good points of the work Black Hat: List the weaknesses in the work Green Hat: List other way(s) of doing the work.
Checklist	Checklist facilitate peer- and self-assessment by focusing student’s attention on specific success criteria that they need to consider when looking at their own their friend’s responses to questions. Here is a example below: Learning intentions: Recognise numerator/denominator and equivalent fractions. Success Criteria Yes/No Comments (or suggestions for improvement) I can recognise numerator and denominator. I can recognise and name equivalent fractions

Pair Work (11 min). You were asked to bring examples of your written Formative Feedback from the Homework in the last session. Exchange these examples with a peer participant. Assess their work by using any one or more of the above-mentioned strategies. Remember the success criteria mentioned for giving Formative Feedback were:

• identifying evidence where the student performed well and appreciating that performance
• identifying evidence where the student could improve and giving practical tips for improving
• suggesting a higher target for high achieving students

Give each other peer feedback about how your colleague can improve their Formative Feedback.

Some tips for written feedback to young learners:

• develop some routines for feedback such as: smilie faces and stars for appreciation, question mark where you think improvement is needed and exclamation mark for caution about incorrect understanding etc
• if available, use different coloured pens for feedback where learners understand the meaning of each colour

Educator note

Visit each group to make sure that the participants are using one of the strategies mentioned above for peer assessment.

Encourage the two members of a pair to choose different strategies as they assess each other’s work.

Activity: Making use of strategies of peer and self-assessment

Pair Work (11 min).

• This is a role-play activity. You and your partner will be role playing two students - one who is a ‘successful’ learner and the other a ‘slower’ learner. Decide on which student you want to role play.
• Imagine that you have both been taught a lesson on equivalent fractions with the following learning objective and success criteria:

Topic: Equivalent Fractions

Learning Objective	Success Criteria
To recognise and name equivalent fractions	Use objects or diagrams to show equivalent fractions. Show examples of equivalent fractions Write a story using equivalent fractions'

• Imagine that the teacher now poses these three questions that you must try to do on your mini boards:

1. Draw two diagrams to show an equivalent fraction to ¾.
2. List four examples of equivalent fractions to ¾.
3. Write or tell a short story that makes use of equivalent fractions.

• Take some time to answer the questions, while taking on the role of the ‘successful’ student or ‘slower’ student.
• Still taking on the role of the student, use the checklist below to do a self-assessment of your work. Share your work with your partner and do a peer assessment of each other’s work.

Success Criteria	Yes	No	Not Sure
I can draw two diagrams showing equivalent fractions.
I can list four examples of equivalent fractions.
I can write or tell a short story using equivalent fractions.

Educator note

Refer to the document displaying PowerPoint slides on fractions (either File:Fractions.odp for OpenOffice Impress or File:Fractions.ppt for MS PowerPoint). You can print the document for distribution to teachers OR show the PowerPoint during the session.

The slides are an example of how Impress / PowerPoint can be prepared to show exemplars of good solutions. Teachers can make use of such exemplars to guide students to do peer and self-assessment. The Impress / PowerPoint slides can help to engage students’ learning (e.g. colourful slides and able to click from one slide to another quickly).

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However, it is also possible to make use of a blackboard for the purpose of showing sample solutions.

Bring to the participants’ attention that the three questions in the above activity have been deliberately designed to cater to different students’ learning styles and pace of working. It is expected that for older basic school students or secondary students:

• most students should be able to write or draw examples of equivalent fractions.
• some students will be able to apply what they learn about equivalent fractions in daily life through telling or writing a story.

The peer and self-assessment process should help the students to discuss what is difficult or easy for them to do.

Whole group discussion (11 min). Questions for reflection:

• How did you find the whole process of self-assessment and peer assessment as students?
• Did you find that you (as a student) were able to assess others and themselves accurately and in a friendly and useful way?
• Did you respond well to your friend’s assessment of their work? Why do you think so?
• If you had been changing partner for the different pair activities, did you find that you were more comfortable pairing up with a particular person for peer assessment? Why do you think so and what implications can there be for setting up successful peer assessment?
• Now taking on the role of a teacher, what kind of preparation do you think you need to do to help your students to try out peer and self-assessment?
• What are some ways you can check that the students have given accurate and good peer and self- assessment?

Activity: Sequencing - Use of ICT for AfL

Educator note

Do this if you have time! Otherwise there'll be an opportunity next time!

This activity requires one of the following files

• File:Monarch Life Cycle.odp for OpenOffice Impress or
• File:Monarch Life Cycle.ppt for MS PowerPoint.
• Alternatively, you can view the pictures here: life cycle of a butterfly and use your own software for arranging them.

Pair work (10 min) to download the files. Start by downloading the presentation files above (or the pictures individually), and look at them. With a grade buddy, use presentation software to arrange and present them in the right sequence. If you have difficulty arranging the slides, read the background note below.

Whole class discussion and brainstorm (10 min) on topics for sequencing. Brainstorm some topics that you can assess using the activity ‘sequencing’. Note those topics down, so that you can find images later.

Then discuss:

• How many pupils should work together on this activity in the class for appropriate AfL?
• Is it feasible to carry out this activity in the class? Why?
• What steps can be taken to make this activity more feasible?
• What can be the formative feedback if

1. a student is quickly able to sequence accurately
2. a student is partially accurate in sequencing, and
3. a student gets them all wrong?

Background reading

Arranging slides in OpenOffice Impress

When you open a presentation, you see the first slide displayed in a larger window in the middle of the screen. To the left, you see small pictures of all of the slides in the presentation, like a "film strip". To rearrange the slides, you can simply click on a slide with the mouse, and (while holding down the mouse button), drag it to a different position.

As a follow up activity, chose a topic which you are teaching, and for which this activity is useful. Find some appropriate images, and make your own presentation for your students to re-order. You can find pictures that are open resources (Creative Commons licensed) at http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/.

Homework

• Update the electronic version of “File:My assessment inventory.doc”. Open your file from your ‘files area’ on your desktop. Fill it in and save it again. Remember to bring the paper inventory to every session and make an entry in the electronic inventory every week.
• For a topic that you teach this week, try to introduce at least one strategy of peer assessment and one for self-assessment. Record answers to the following questions on the dictaphone:
  • Which peer and self-assessment strategy did you try?
  • Did you find that it has worked well for you and for your students?
  • How will you make prepare yourself better to introduce peer and self-assessment in future lessons?

Educator note

In the next session, these follow-up activities will be reviewed. If you are using this session on its own, you can have a look at the review of follow-up activities here.

Acknowledgment

We thank Toni Glasson for allowing us to make use of sections (p. 77-110) of her book, Improving Student Achievement: A Practical guide to Assessment for Learning, Curriculum Corporation 2009 (ISBN: 9781742003078)

Educator note

At the end of each session, we provide an overview of the activities in this session, together with their suggested timings. Although this appears at the end of the session (for technical reasons), you should keep an eye on this throughout the session, to make sure that you are pacing the workshop session appropriately!

Total time: 119 (min)

Activities in this session:

• Use of traffic lights(11 min).
• Whole group discussion(11 min).
• Background reading(11 min).
• Video watching(11 min).
• Whole group discussion(11 min).
• Individual task(11 min).
• Pair Work(11 min).
• Pair Work(11 min).
• Whole group discussion(11 min).
• Pair work (10 min) to download the files.
• Whole class discussion and brainstorm (10 min) on topics for sequencing.

If you have printed this session for offline use, you may also need to download the following assets:

• Video/Primary peer assessment.mp4 (local play / download options / download from dropbox)
• Video/Secondary Peer Assessment clip.mp4 (local play / download options / download from dropbox)

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