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. 

Math Manipulative Stations: Collaboration and Problem Solving with Fractions

Give them collaborative "play time"

Want to increase student engagement and cultivate a culture of collaborative learning in your INTERMEDIATE  classroom? Math stations are one way to differentiate the process and alter the learning environment. By providing your students with a different model for learning - through the use of manipulatives and open questions - you will allow them to explore, collaborate and take risks in their learning. Here’s what you can do:

• Divide your class into groups of 4-5 students. “Tiered” Groups that include students who are proficient, struggle and anywhere in between, are a great way to scaffold the learning for students of all abilities. This is also a great way to provide leadership opportunities for some of your stronger math students.
  
  
• Fractions are a great starting point for your students to explore math stations and improve their conceptual understanding of the big ideas – they lend themselves very well to the use of many different manipulatives.
• Create 4-5 math stations that each have a different manipulative (e.g., pattern blocks, tangrams, fraction circles, relational rods).

*TECHNOLOGY CONNECTION* If you have access to some computers, try creating a math station that uses online math games as the activity. Just do an online search for “fraction games” and choose 3-4 that have a range of difficulty levels. This is also a great way to support your struggling students with a “break” from conventional math questions.

• Create a schedule that outlines when each student group will be at each station. Use 15-20 minutes as a guide for time. These stations could represent a week’s worth of math to cycle all groups through 4-5 stations.
• When students arrive at their assigned station to begin, provide 5 minutes (timed) as a chance to build and “play” with the manipulates there. Challenge your students to build their most creative structure as a group collaboration. Tell them you will photograph and display the most interesting ones.
• Each group should have activities to be completed using the manipulatives provided. Check out the MATHGAINS website for terrific open questions with a variety of manipulatives to build confidence and risk-taking. Marian Small’s website and books are another great resource for these types of questions.
• Emphasize the importance of students talking about the questions, planning how to solve them and supporting each other when they get stuck.
• Each math station lesson should end with a 15 minute consolidation time. Invite a student from each group to the front to explain the process of HOW their group solved one of the questions from their math station.

*TECHNOLOGY CONNECTION*

A document camera is a great way to visually show the class the question and work done to solve a problem. It also provides the student who is communicating their learning with a prompt to structure their sharing.

Have you used math stations before in your intermediate classroom? How did it go? What surprised you about the student learning?