OER4Schools/Peer and self-assessment

Title: Introduction to OER4Schools
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The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource

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Table of contents.

Introduction to OER4Schools >>>

Facilitator's version, Participants' version

Review of Classwork and Homework activities

Individual Work (11 min). Update the assessment inventory that you started in session 4.1 (use the template File:My assessment inventory.doc). Add the date in the fourth row and describe your current understanding of assessment by identifying different kinds or elements of assessment. Then record the assessment measures that you have used. Please take care that you mention only the measures that you have used yourself and not the measures that you know of but have not tried.

Educator note

As this activity is repeated every week, avoid spending more than 4-5 minutes on it. Ask participants to start filling up the inventory as soon as they arrive for the workshop if there is any waiting time for everybody to get together.

Individual work (11 min). Working on your own, fill out the table below to indicate quickly what kind of formative feedback you have given to your students in your lessons in the past week. First, record whether you gave this feedback by answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’. If your answer is ‘yes’ then write the topic of the lesson. After that answer ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘not sure’ for whether it was easy to do and whether it was helpful for your students’ learning.

Type of Formative Feedback	Did you give this feedback?	Topic?	Easy to do?	Helpful for learning?
1.Provide whole-class oral formative feedback.
2. Provide different formative feedback to two students (one performing well and the other struggling).
3. Provide written formative feedback to students or individual student.

Whole group discussion (11 min). As a group, discuss the following questions:

• Which type of formative feedback did you find most challenging to give to your students? Why do you think so?
• How did the two students (one performing well and the other struggling) respond to your formative feedback? Why?
• Which type of formative feedback was most helpful for your students? In what way(s) has it been helpful for your students?

Educator note

Highlight to the teachers that for formative feedback to work, they must first believe that success in learning is dependent on students’ effort in trying to get better at what they are doing. That is the whole point of formative feedback. After this, it is important to practise formative feedback using appropriate words to encourage the students.

The teachers may come to realise that the words that they use in their feedback may sometimes be very discouraging for the students (especially if they have previously been labelled as slow learners). The teachers should be sensitive to how well the students are responding to their feedbacks.Teachers need to believe that given time and using formative feedback regularly, ALL students are capable of learning much better.

• Did you make use of the Open Office Impress application to order images for any of your lessons last week? For which topic did you use it? Did you find it useful for AfL i.e. were you able to identify students who need less/more support for the sequencing topic? Describe the support that you provided especially in relation to formative feedback.
• Did you face any issues with technology, with finding appropriate pictures or with carrying out the activity, while using OpenOffice Impress. How did you resolve them? Discuss any unresolved issues issues with your peers.

Objectives for this session

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

Activity One: 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 Two: 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 others 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 Three: 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 Four: 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 Five: Sequencing - Use of ICT for AfL

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?