When it comes to classroom assessment many things came to mind for me, especially since i am a student as well as being in the process of becoming a teacher. I have seen both sides of the assessment in a classroom up to this point. With that being said, I feel William Brozo and Michele Simpson look at assessment as more than just what a teacher does for a student's work. They talk about the process of assessment and how it is important to relate it to your classroom as well as to the students. For instances, in their article they talk about about how learning can occur if assessments are “rooted in activities that have genuine purpose” ( Brozo & Simpson 88). When I read this I thought about all the past worksheets I had to complete as busy work for some classes and how I never really took away from them. We shouldn't give students work just to give them work to grade, these activities they do should always possess a learning opportunity for students.
One other thing in the Brozo & Simpson reading that I found very interesting is their idea of having students assess themselves. I thought this was very important because as teachers we assess students work and they usually take our assessment as a final word of their work and thought processes. With a continued assessment from both teachers and students it would help the students be more interested in how well they are doing/turning in their work. In Brozo & Simpson they mention how the involvement of students own assessment can lead the students to:
“(a) recommend possible assessment activities, (b) assist in the creation of rubrics and checklist,(c apply rubrics and checklists to their own work, and (d) participate in self-reflection and evaluation activities that encourage them to relate their performances to the strategies they have used” (Brozo & Simpson).
This would encourage students to be more active in their learning and more importantly how to really assess their own work. Assessment is a two people thing where students and teachers come together to try and improve and learn. We would want the students to always look at their own work as much as we would and to think deeply of what this work means to them. That should be the purpose of assessment. Brozo & Simpson, throughout their article, provide various kinds of self assessment charts and surveys that I feel should be more commonly used in classrooms.Providing students the opportunity to evaluate their own work lets them know that we care what they think and that their own opinions on their work matters just as much as ours do.
Fabiola:
ReplyDeleteYou make good points and the Brozo & Simpson article about incorporating students into the assessment process is very important. However, such a process requires that a student be trained into giving genuine and honest self-assessment, and such a process must begin first in the grade schools. It is all too easy for students to take advantage for one reason or another to “grade” themselves higher than we think. The higher the stakes (such as competition for selective colleges, valedictorian standing, academic awards or scholarships, etc.) could lead students to inflate their self-assessments. I’ll provide an example. My last two evaluations allowed me to provide a self-assessment of my teaching abilities. While I was honest in most regards, I stretched my interpretations of certain key areas used in assessing me to achieve a high proficient/excellent score. Because of the politics of my school and how the new system of teacher evaluation can be easily used to get rid of any teacher based on one person’s observation (usually the department chair) no matter how good of a reputation the teacher has among colleagues and students alike, I had to find ways of protecting my position. I’m too old with too many years of experience to easily find another teaching position in a public school should a future department chair wish to get rid of me. I’ve seen my own current department chair use the system to get rid of teachers who were excellent but he just did not like them personally. In a corrupt system, one sometime resorts to corruption or at least bend the rules to protect oneself. We should not think students would not do the same. In fact, they are more likely to work the system to their advantage under a system of competition.
I do believe that including students within genuine assessments is necessary, but how do we get them to honestly assess themselves in a competitive system? I think training students in grade school is a start, but when they reach high school, we have to be more aware. What about peer review of students? I have found peer review amongst teachers to be wonderful in helping teachers, especially newer teachers, identify their strengths and understand their weaknesses when coming from multiple peer observations and feedback. Can the same method be applied to students? I truly believe that the more people involved in an assessment, the better it is for the person being assessed. So how can we make it work so that students truly benefit and help them enrich their education process and expeience?
Just an idea. ☺
Thank you for your post, Fabiola. I think you've sparked an interesting and important conversation about students' self-assessments.
DeleteI tend to agree with Chris with regard to self-assessment. I will admit that when I first read the statement about students being involved in their own assessment at the start of the Brozo & Simpson article, I was a little confused. I immediately thought of when I was in fifth grade and we had to pass our papers to the left and grad each other; several people would just pass their assignment to a friend who would give them 100% and fix their mistakes. Though such conduct was, in that case, totally inappropriate, I think the IMPULSE to critique and correct is the sort of response self-assessment is designed to elicit.
Both Brozo & Simpson and Gillis & Van Wig cite "metacognitive" thinking as a crucial component of assessment. In other words: getting students to think about how/what they are learning. Strategies like the autobiographies from the B&S reading and the self-reflective exercises after SSR+ from Schoenbach et al. are great ways to activate this method of self-assessment for students earlier in their academic careers. Such approaches might better prepare students for the more autonomous self-assessment necessary for success in secondary and post-secondary education e.g. revising a lab report or e.g.2 advancing multiple drafts of a literary research paper. If there were a way to institutionalize and systematize such methods THROUGHOUT students' academic careers, we might be able to provide a more consistent scaffolding to where we want students to be by the time they take the high-stakes tests that administrators tie themselves in knots over, thus sparing everyone - from students, to teachers, to parents, to superintendents - a great deal of anxiety and effort.
Hello Fabiola,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you and believe that assessments should be meaningful for both the teacher and the students. I personally dislike when teachers assess student's learning simply through testing. I specially dislike it when they use multiple choice test or truth and false test. This is due to the fact that I believe that this type of assessments fails to demonstrate students actual attain knowledge since students can easily guess the right answers when the test is written poorly.Thus, I believe that assessments should be differentiated and meaningful. To accomplish this we must gather information and data before, during, and after instruction to better facilitate the learning of our students. We must also give our students multiple opportunities for them to assess their own learning in order to encourage metacognition. If we ask our students to think about their thinking and provide room for self-reflection , they will be able to reflect on their learning and how to improve their thinking.
Hi Fabiola,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to comment on the student self-assessment. I have had self-assessment throughout my school years and I found positives and negatives. In terms of students assessing themselves, it was rather hard to tell when students actually believed they had done well and when they were simply grading themselves well just because they could. Student assessment brings a layer of temptation and laziness. For example, one class I had in middle school always used the self-assessment method when it came to daily homework. Although it was meant to keep students accountable for their work it instead became a reason for students to slack off because they no longer had to impress the teacher because they were the ones grading themselves. Personally I think that is important for self-assessment but on student's own time. If a student is also self-assessing then proof should be shown of why they gave themselves that grade or at least provide students with a rubric and have them highlight where they met the rubric expectations.
Fabiola, I really like the idea of allowing students to engage in the practice of self-assessment. Not only does it have the potential to be fairer and more efficient than our current means for assessment, but it could also allow for a more positive learning environment, in my opinion. I do struggle with the potential for complacency that comes with self-assessment, though. Could there be a middle ground somewhere in between what we do in the classroom now and this ideal?
ReplyDeleteFabiola,
ReplyDeleteI definitely like the idea of having students self assess themselves periodically. I think this provides students that they are invested in their work and can personally see how they grow over time. I do have to agree with Chris and Kevin however, that we have to be careful when allowing students to assess themselves. We need to first provide students with the tools necessary to know how to properly assess themselves. I think that instead of having students give themselves "grades" we can make it clear that the self assessment is for the students information only and will not count as a grade. This may get students to be more critical and really take a look at areas where they access and other areas where they need help. These types of assessments can also help teachers get an idea of where the student thinks they sit in relation to how the teacher views them.
I have read your comments and i should have made it clear that the self assessment would not be for a letter grade but more on how they feel they have done in their assignment. For instances, the rubrics we get for our own assignmets do not give us our grade but make sure that we have provided our best effeort on said assignment. Thats the kind of self assessment that I feel students need more of when it comes to their assignments and assessments. We, as teachers, would be the ones to provide the final letter grade but having the students in-put provides them the chance to defend the grade they feel they deserve. Obviously the work itself would also show the true grade of the assignment but providing students with the ability to explain thmselves, in my opinion, motivates them to be honest and more willing to make a bigger deal of an assignment. But maybe im just a little to optomistic.
ReplyDelete