OER4Schools/Peer and self-assessment
Review of Classwork and Homework activities
Individual Work (11 min).
- Update the assessment inventory that you started in session 4.1 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.
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 and Whole group discussion (11 min).
- Fill up the table 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 | Topic? | Did you give this feedback? | Easy to do? | Helpful for learning? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provide whole-class oral formative feedback. | ||||
| Provide different formative feedback to two students (one performing well and the other struggling). | ||||
| Provide written formative feedback to students or individual student. |
- 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?
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 feedback. Teachers need to believe that given time and using formative feedback regularly, ALL students are capable of learning much more.
- Did you make use of presentation software for showing images in 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 activity? 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 the presentation software. 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 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:
- Draw two diagrams to show an equivalent fraction to ¾.
- List four examples of equivalent fractions to ¾.
- 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 (tick at the appropriate boxes). 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. |
Refer to the document displaying PowerPoint slides on fractions (fractions.pdf) or the PowerPoint itself (fractions.ppt). You can print the document for distribution to teachers OR show the PowerPoint during the session.
The slides are an example of how 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 PowerPoint slides can help to engage students’ learning (e.g. colourful slides and able to click from one slide to another quickly). 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.
Homework
- Update the electronic version of “my assessment inventory”. 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?
