How Student Self-Evaluation Makes All the Difference

"Here you go. I'm done and reading for you to mark it," the smiling grade 8 student says as they hold a completed assignment in front of me with a big smile.

"Ok," I reply. "Let's have a look first."

The student's smile changes to a grin and then slowly fades away. "For what?" they say, "It's done, right?"

Now the fun begins....time to find out the true value and merit of their work. 

My first question will frame the whole conversation. "What mark would you give it?"

Now, before you start thinking about all the students who would freeze up, shrug their shoulders and stand there looking puzzled without being able to articulate an answer - I can tell you that they are not just capable of marking their own work - they are highly accurate and reflective when given the right tools to do so. 

"I don't know......I'm not good at this...." the student tries to evade the question.

"Yes. You are. Who else - but you - knows how much effort you put into completing this assignment?"

"Now let's try it again. Think about what the expectations were for the task. Think about how hard you worked on it. Think about the strengths you've shown in the work. Now, think about the advice I might give you about how to improve what you've done. What next steps would other students in the class identify if we all looked at it together?"

The student now knows that the shoulder shrug and "I don't know" won't cut it today. I've already shown that this conversation demands an answer. Ok. Time to think...

"Ummm...a 3-???" the student offers and watches my reaction to gauge if that was an acceptable response."

You see - the student is not just evaluating their own work. They are being asked to somehow predict how their teacher will mark it. By the time, they have become intermediate students, they have been trained into thinking that teacher is the one who holds the magic red pen that 'brands' each student assignment with a grade, based on the careful calculation of the success criteria, and sometimes, secret-hidden things that only teachers know. 

This has to change. 

As the teacher, I have learned to accept the student-suggested mark and not try to raise or lower it initially. But, rather, to ask questions like, "Are you happy with a 3-?" "Does that mark reflect the effort you put into it and learning shown in your work?" 

My personal favourite has become, "Why not a 4+? What could you change or add to make it a 4+?"

And here's where the real reflection and purpose of assessment takes place...

It's a win-win. If the student knows that it is not their best effort or can identify things to improve their work, they have no choice but to take the assignment back and use my feedback (which is really their own self-reflective feedback) and make improvements. 

"The primary purpose of assessment is to improve student learning"

Before this school year I would have allowed the student to hand the assignment in and resolve myself to marking it as it was. Now, I use these student conferences as an opportunity to improve student work and make the assessment process more transparent and attainable. 

I don't really care about the leveled mark I write on a student piece of work. I care about the learning that is taking place and the ability of the student to develop the skills necessary to reach their full potential and grow as a self-directed learner. 

How many individual marks on assignments would you remember from your grade eight year? In fact, how many actual learning activities and assignments would you remember from grade eight as a whole?

Allow the students to mark their own work. Frame their reflective capacity with purposeful questions. Demand that they are accountable for both their first draft and the improvements that they already know could be made (as they try to hand it in).

Improve student learning at the core. It shouldn't be a magic trick to earn a 4+. It should be an attainable target when students have an awareness of what is required. 

How Neckties Prevent Disease

In university, I remember one of my professors sharing an anecdote about a trip to Sierra Leone. He explained that the villagers (from one local area he visited), believed that neckties protected people from disease. Strange - yes; but the conclusion that they had formed derived from the fact that all the agency workers, professionals and outside visitors (most of whom wore a tie) were never sick or impacted by the diseases to which they were often succumb. None of the local villagers wore neckties, and therefore, it must be the lack of neckties which caused there succeptability. In turn, ties were associated with health, prosperity and safety.

What I think we need to take away from this interesting anecdote, as educators, is the importance of drawing appropriate (and rational) conclusions. Especially, when it is those same beliefs that drive our programming, instruction and assessment decisions.

What the villagers had come to believe makes sense when you look at the surface evidence. Yet, when we add in the other factors and forces at play in this situation - there is certainly more to it than meets the eye.

In terms of the learning that occurs in your classroom - what assumptions are you making and how are using those assumptions to plan and assess for student learning going forward?

What "ties" are you focused on as indicators of student learning and appropriate assessment strategies?

Through what lenses can you observe, track, assess and provide feedback - in order to program for future learning opportunities?


Ultimately, what key issues do we need to shine a more critical eye on, in order to support student well-being and success?

"History Day"

One of the most challenging aspects of teaching today is covering the curriculum. To do this well requires a great deal of creativity and flexibility as a teacher. The growing trends of differentiated instruction and cross-curricular assignments provide a vehicle to deliver content in a new and efficient manner. Gone are the days when learning is compartmentalized as "Literacy," "Science," "Math," and "The Arts." Now we are becoming increasingly aware of the potential to capitalize on the centrality of literacy in all subjects (math too!). By incorporating literacy expectations into our social studies and other areas of the curriculum, not only are teachers able to cover more of the expectations underpinning their grade assignment; they are also able to assess students more readily in all facets of learning.

Students who were previously thought of as being weak in science or literacy, could have been weak in concentration at the part of the day that these subjects were being taught. Perhaps our 'social' students can benefit more from group work in math depending on the time it is delivered in many cases. Using a cross-curricular approach provides a path to learning that may seem unconventional in nature, but it resonates with many teachers as "learning environments" not unlike the 'common curriculum' days. One of the ways that a teacher can approach these 'environments' is to dedicate a whole school day to a theme that covers multiple curriculum areas. Instead of building formative tasks and assessments over a three-week period; try to build on these things over the course of one day and see what happens.

In my class, I have created a "History Day" before, during which students are given academic tasks for history that also touch on arts, math, literacy, gym and even social studies activities - all of which must be completed during the course of the day. It is incredible to observe how well students who struggle with transitions and separated lessons can excel during a day when you clearly state ALL of the learning expectations first thing in the morning and then give them the WHOLE DAY to complete them. The 'independent work' and 'self-regulation' themes emerge in students when they know the exact moment that work is due, and feel a sense of ownership for the product that is created by a fairness in the time-frame given. The work assigned can be worked on in any order that they prefer and some tasks that involve partners or groups have to be organized with the timeline in mind.

There are many things that 'learning environments' can offer you in meeting the demands of the curriculum - it is only a matter of plotting out your course and trying it. Only with new eyes can we recognize new solutions to old problems.