Ways to Help Your Students Self-Assess Their Learning
Reflection. It is often over-looked when thinking about the learning process, however it plays a crucial part in student growth. Giving your learners a chance to self-assess helps them in many ways. Meta-cognition (thinking about their own thinking) helps students reach a higher level of understanding and critical thinking. It also helps kids take ownership over their own learning. As a lovely bonus, it can save the teacher time by shifting some of the assessment responsibility to the student. Win-win!
Here are some ways to help your students gain the important skill of self-assessment:
Goal Setting
Perhaps you have heard of the phrase: “begin with the end in mind.” Students will not know if they are getting closer to their goals if they don’t know what their goals are! Giving kids the chance to set goals for themselves increases motivation and satisfaction with learning.
Learning Preferences
Reflecting on what activities were enjoyable helps students understand what works for them. Rating how much they liked an activity can help them get to know themselves better. This is also helpful for instructors as they get a glimpse of what learning activities are enjoyable to their students.
Behavior Reflection
Sometimes students are not really aware of their own behavior until they take time to stop and think about what they were doing. Taking the time to think about it may help students change how they react to various situations in the future.
Observation Logs and Portfolios
Learners often don’t realize how much progress they have made over time. Keeping records as time goes on gives students a chance to see how small changes grow into big results.
Writing Rubrics
Rubrics give students a wonderful way of knowing expectations. These writing guidelines give learners something to focus on and goals for improvement as well. Rubrics also give teachers a more standard way to grade subjective pieces such as written stories or essays.
End of Year Reflection
The end of the school year is a natural time to reflect on all the learning and growth that has transpired. This review solidifies some of the new knowledge, as well as helps students feel a sense of closure to the year. Reflecting on the school year also cements some precious memories of that grade to look back on next year.
We are Happy to Help!
Take a look at our FREE self-assessment packet for elementary school students! It contains 15 pages of goal setting, responses, rubrics, and reflections.
