I’m going to be going to a workshop with other teachers on self-assessment, reflection and the Core Competencies tomorrow, and I was wondering if you would give me some feedback about our use of these things in our classroom (think the learning map and your portfolios; self-assessing your work; our Friday reflections; the Core Competency self-assessment you did with your block D teacher; etc.).
Thanks in advance for your help!
I think it is a good idea to use the learning maps it gives me the better understanding of how Iam doing in school also it is fun to make all the different learning maps I think it’s great and we should use it this year.!!
I think the learning maps are a great idea because it helps me see where i am in the class better and how i need to improve to get a better grade
In this Humanities class, we have been doing a lot of self assessment. Overall, in my opinion I think it’s an ok thing because it gets to show the teacher where the student thinks he/she is at. But what I dislike about doing the self assessments are that some kids sometimes “over assess” themselves meaning that they say that they think they did an amazing job when in reality, they did not meet the requirements for that assignment. I guess they think that if they mark themselves at an A for doing bad work, then the teacher would just look at the assessment and not the actual work. Then again when doing reflections and self-assessments I find it to be very helpful for the teacher and also the student to see how they have grown over a period of time. (Andrea)
I think that the self assessments are a great thing to do. I have never done them before my grade 8 humanities class and I like them because it allows me to think about what I’m doing more. Usually I would just hand in an assignment mindlessly without thinking. When I have to actually self assess it makes me look back on my work and think about all the details of it and how its all put together into one piece. I love critical thinking and I believe that sometimes we don’t do it eneoigh in school. Most of the time teachers tell us what to do and then we do it, end of story. But with self assessment, especially the learning maps, I can clearly think about what I did well and what areas I can improve in! For example, I had a writers workshop assignment in which I had to write a story. So I wrote it and before handing it in, I self assessed the assessment. I realized that there was a lot of different parts of the story that I didn’t think about. I thought about the characters, settings and plot but I didn’t think about how if the end clearly and efficiently resolves the piece, having some complex grammar, keeping the audience and purpose in mind or if the actions, descriptions and dialogue are relevant to the story. Of course it makes sense that this would be in the story but I didn’t realize that until I used a learning map to self assess. I was then able to improve my next story because I was paying attention to my mistakes. I believe that self assesssment has helped me become a much better learner! (Emilia)
In my oppion port folios are great I love it when I see that the teacher marks higher than I did it feels really good. Yea maybe the teacher marks lower but then that tells you where you need to improve on that you thought you did not need to. It also makes you see how much effort you are putting into your work and how much more you can. Reflections are a mini port folios just shows you really where you need to improve on that one place or subject. With your port folios it shows a big thing. And reflections a small thing. Portfolios are great for getting your grade because you know more of what your best work is rather than the teacher does. Some people might say it is because the teacher is lazy but no there trying to teach you how to evaluated yourself. And look at your weeknesses and strengthens. (Josh)
In this class we have been doing a lot of self assessment. With every project we get marked on we also have to mark our selves. Also at the end of every term we do a portfolio of our best work and self assess our selfs. I think self assessments are really good, and they really help us to see where we are.
By marking your self you see where you are on the “scale”. You see where you need to improve in and you see where you are doing well in. I feel like if a teacher just gives you a mark, you don’t really know where you are- so you don’t know where to improve!
In this class we also do a reflection on what we learned about every week. I think this is a good method to use because it allows you to see if you really understand the lesson we learned about by explaining it and if you don’t understand they you can right what you don’t get! (Lena)
The problem with self-assessment is that many students are hoping for a better grade than they probably will get, and when the learning maps are being used as the teachers reference for what mark we should get, we tend to mark ourselves higher than we deserve. Learning maps were used in Writing 10 as our only way of assessment, in our eyes. So couple it with some other form of assessment and it should be a lot better.
In whole assignments that we did seen September I like about the Inquiry Question project, and Genius Hour, because for Inquiry project I learned numerous facts about the Franks mostly than Christianity because I known numerous about Christianity, but for I didn’t what Franks were but I know vikings even I didn’t did a project for vikings, and Franks. I like to learn new things from the world like Franks and vikings that we did or civilization. I like Genius Hour even we really didn’t start the project, because I did a Genius Hour when I was in elementry school in grade 4, 5 I think or grade 6, and grade 7.
I like Genius Hour, because than I can learn things that I really passion about the topics. For example, I am going to teach grade 7 and 8 how to draw a animals, hands, and humans to get ready for grade 9 and for grade 8 in high school. I am doing a art, because I am really good at drawing and teach them easier way by doing a basics to chellenge or hard part.