Helping students to reflect on their learning

1. Helping students to reflect on their learning

2. Learning intentions • To understand the role of peer-assessment, self-assessment and self-evaluation in helping students to reflect on their learning • To consider some strategies for use in the classroom

3. Why promote student reflection? ‘When there is one teacher and thirty students and all the feedback comes from or through the teacher, there is no hope of providing sufficient good quality feedback.’ Ian Smith (2004)

4. Why promote student reflection? • Encourages independent learning • - (active | empowered | self-reliant) • Increases student self-esteem • Develops the capacity to recognise quality • Improves student understanding

5. Why promote student reflection? • Feedback is in language that the students use • Strengthens the student voice in the classroom • Can produce valuable feedback

6. The difference between assessment and evaluation • Assessment • describes activities that enable learners to reflect on WHAT has been • learnt and judge it against features of quality • Evaluation • describes the process learners use to gain an understanding of HOW • they are learning – it’s about understanding themselves as learners

7. The difference between correction and assessment ‘Engaging in peer- and self-assessment is much more than checking for errors or weaknesses. It involves making explicit what is normally implicit and thus requires the student to be more active in their learning. The students become more aware of when they are learning and when they are not.’ - Black & Wiliam: Working Inside the Black Box

8. Preparing students • Share learning intentions and features of quality • Model the assessment and feedback processes • - Try group assessment activities • - Use the feedback process to demonstrate how-to • - Use effective questioning • Build the right climate • - Encourage openness about learning • - Set expectations for group work.

9. The Gray Day The day hung over us like a wet blanket. The cars shot past on the motorway like marbles thrown across a floor. The leaves hung from the trees like soggy bits of toast. The leaves shone red and gold like a burning fire. The wet ground looked like a slippery, black ice rink. The clouds overhead hung very low. The rain tapped the window like a quiet drum. Learning Intention: To use similes to create atmosphere • Features of quality: • Compare each object to something else • ‘like’……‘like a’ • ‘as’……..‘as a’ • ‘as though’ Third Write a short prompt telling the learner exactly what to do to this part of their work. Second Find the part of the work which provides most scope for a ‘jump’ (not simply the worst part). First Find 2 successes with ref to the features of quality Can you think of a simile to describe the way the clouds were hanging or moving?

10. The Gray Day The day hung over us like a wet blanket. The cars shot past on the motorway like marbles thrown across a floor. The leaves hung from the trees like soggy bits of toast. The leaves shone red and gold like a burning fire. The wet ground looked like a slippery, black ice rink. The clouds overhead hung very low. The rain tapped the window like a quiet drum. Learning Intention: To use similes to create atmosphere • Features of quality: • Compare each object to something else • ‘like’……‘like a’ • ‘as’……..‘as a’ • ‘as though’ Fourth… provide time to read, process and respond. Can you think of a simile to describe the way the clouds were hanging or moving? ‘The clouds moved overhead like the ferry crossing the sea.’

12. Other Ideas • Traffic Lights • Thumbs Up • Scale 1 – 5 • Graphic organisers

13. Self-evaluation Self-Assessment students reflect about what they have learnt Self-Evaluation students reflect about how they have learnt Early opportunities for development Self-Assessment students use features of quality to assess their own work prior to the teacher marking it Self-Evaluation students use self-evaluation questions to prompt reflection during short plenary sessions

14. Possible prompts for self-evaluation • The most important thing I learned was… • The way I learned was… • What I found difficult was… • What I enjoyed most was… • What I want to find out more about is… • What I need more help with is… • What still puzzles me is…

15. Possible prompts for self-evaluation… • What surprised me was… • What I have learned that is new is… • What helped me when something got tricky was… • What really made me think was… • I might have learned better if… • What I would change about this activity to help another class learn is…

16. Self-evaluation prompts What did you find easy about learning to …? What do you need more help with? What can you do now that you couldn’t do before? What really made you think? What are you most pleased with? The most important thing you learned was …

17. Suggested strategies to help make it work • Make it routine • Give learners the information they need • Keep it varied • Build it in • Focus on strengths • Make it lead somewhere • Explain it to parents