Directing Young Learners Towards Effective Self-Assessment

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David DodgsonTED Ankara College (Turkey)/University of Manchester (UK)

What is assessment?

What primary school teachers think about assessment:

Assessment is NOT only about...

• testing

• grading

• reports

• passing/failing

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• Teaching is a lot more than assessing, and assessing is a lot more than testing.

Henrick Oprea,

hoprea.wordpress.com

‘About Teaching’Image by Henrick Oprea

• Assessment should be done all the time in class .... so that we can see our students progress and not only the final result. (@sabridv)

• Assessment should be a continuous process. (@Mtranslator)

• Assessment should ..... be continuous and measure the progress of the student - comparing the student with himself earlier in the course, not with others. (@cecilialcoelho)

Quotes from the Twitter community

...for learning

• formative

• reflective

• continuous

• personalised

• raises awareness

...of learning

• summative

• tests

• grades

• reports

• STRESS!

Assessment...

• At its best assessment is for showing students where they are, what they need to do next, and how to do that. At worst, it's just labelling. (@harrisonmike)

Quotes from the Twitter community

Self-assessment in language teaching

Image from Stardust 4, OUP

• They just give themselves top marks for everything (especially the troublemakers)!

• They don’t know how to do it properly!

The criticisms:

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• They can’t do it idependently (especially the shy ones)!

• They are too young to comprehend the concept!

The criticisms:

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• ...we tend to underestimate the potential for self-regulation in our children, seeing them too often as blank sheets to be written on, empty vessels to be filled, or wild and in need of taming. Young children can, within the limits of their cognitive development, be helped to organise their resources, both internal and material.

Cameron, L. (2001) Teaching Languages

To Young Learners

• [Self-assessment] is a teaching strategy as much as an assessment strategy.

McKay, P. (2006) Assessing Young

Language Learners

S.T.E.P.S. to effective self-assessment

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tudent involvementS

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• Students should be involved in the process ..... and they should be aware of what is expected from them. (@sabridv)

• Let your students set their own goals and monitor their own progress. It`s tangible. They feel in control. Nine times out of ten they will surpass their own expectations. A great motivator! (@miladakrajewska)

• Motivated students do much better. (@gret)

Quotes from the Twitter community

eacher modellingT

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• We watched everyone's movie and gave positive feedback and constructive criticism. I modelled the first few comments and then let them try it. What ensued was the most effective feedback session I've witnessed in a while, adults included.

Mary Beth Hertz

philly-teacher.blogspot.com

‘Effective Feedback’

eacher modellingTThinking

aloud

Reflective questions

Feedback & support

veryday self-assessmentE

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• I truly believe that putting more emphasis on self-assessment brings more benefits to the learner and the learning process than a pure progress or end-of the course test. (@erikasovath)

Quotes from the Twitter community

• ...you can easily gauge student understanding by having each student take 10 seconds to say one thing they learned at the end of class.

• In 2 minutes I had a snapshot of the actual learning that had happened during the 45 minute period.

Mary Beth Hertz

philly-teacher.blogspot.com

‘More Adventures in Checking for Understanding’

veryday self-assessmentE

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• What did you learn today?

• What did you like about today’s lesson?

• What didn’t you like?

• What do you think of your work?

eer evaluation & feedbackP

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upportive classroom environmentS

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And finally....

• What did you learn from today’s session?

• What did you like about it?

• What didn’t you like?

• Any questions?

And finally....