Peer- and Self-assessment (PASA) can provide huge
benefits in helping students achieve! Peer-assessment
is when students to provide each other with valuable feedback so they can learn
from and support each other (Swain, 2010). It provides the opportunity to
discuss, listen, explain, and challenge each other. Self-assessment is when students form judgments about their own
work. It promotes independent learning and helps students take responsibility
for their learning progress.Here is a great video of self-assessment implemented in a Grade 2 classroom:
ExemplarsK12. (2011, Nov 11). Exemplars, Grade 2 - Self-Assessing [video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0BrgA7zX10
These types of assessments cannot be used for grades and
Ontario actually prohibits it! The assessment
information is used by students to improve their learning (Drake, Reid, &
Kolohon, 2014). For PASA to be effective, students need to be explicitly taught
about assessment. Like teachers, students need to become assessment literate! Students must have a clear understanding of the
expectations and criteria of assessments. This can be done by breaking down
rubrics into language that is easy to understand or even creating rubrics together
with students! I remember receiving rubrics in elementary school for many assignments and projects. However, I often did not understand what the terms meant or how to use it, making it meaningless for me!
 |
| Retrieved from http://www.allstudentscanshine.com/2012/06/ice-cream-craftivity-and-smiley.html |
In addition, students need to know the characteristics of
different levels of quality work and know what it looks like. One way to
demonstrate this to students is by applying rubrics to examples of different
levels of work. In my Grade 1 classroom at my placement, there was a visual
with ice-cream sundaes that had various amounts of scoops of ice cream and
toppings (similar to the "Smiley Sentences" picture) to demonstrate
the characteristics of level 1 to 4 work, such as using grammar, capital
letters to begin sentences, finger spaces, and punctuation. It was great to see the student refer back to it when working on their writing tasks.
 |
| Retrieved from:
|
Teachers must also teach students how to give appropriate
feedback to their peers, such as teaching them sentence starters like “I was
confused when…” and “I liked it when you…”. For PASA to be successful, students need to view
mistakes as an opportunity for learning (aka have a growth mindset) and be
encouraged to engage in honest reflection. Teach Primary provides some great sentence starters!
 |
| Retrieved from http://educationtothecore.com/2013/04/anchor-charts/ |
- Evaluation skills: developing the capacity to assessing one’s own work and achievement
- Reflection skills: reflecting on achievements and connecting work to learning outcomes and criteria
- Meta-cognition skills: Monitoring their learning, thinking about how I learn best, see where they are in their learning process, and what strategies should be used to improve learning
- Goal setting skills: deciding what they need to do to become successful
- Develop independence, accountability, and self-regulation by become effective assessors of their own learning
- Improvement: Gaining a better understanding of criteria and is useful for teachers to improve instruction by having students communicating their understandings to teachers
- Social interaction between peers and encourages communication with teachers and parents about their learning
PASA prepare students for the future because they learn
skills that can be applied to a variety of contexts. Swain (2010) mentioned
that PASA prepares students for learning environments like college and
university because it teaches students to value their own evaluations or
opinions of their work and learn how to improve.
There are several benefits of PASA and it promotes many
21st century skills. However there are some challenges involved that
Harris & Brown (2013) mentioned:
- Concerns about cheating and inaccuracy
- Parents and the community may not see the value of peer and self-evaluations since it is the responsibility of the teacher to assess students
- May not be possible in all classrooms because positive classroom relations between the teacher, students, and their peers are required
I think a big issue for peer-assessment would be the social
relations between students. Some students may not feel comfortable to respond
honestly because they may want to please others and maintain friendships, which
may lead to accuracy issues. When I was in Grade 4, we would often edit our classmates' writing. When I edited my friend's work, I would be afraid of hurting her feelings if I pointed out her mistakes! In addition, some assessments may be difficult to
assess due to creative aspects of assignments. What other challenges do you think may occur with implementing PASA?
Drake et al. (2014) provided some self-assessment activities,
such as journal or learning log, blogs, student-teacher or peer conferences or
interviews, rubrics, and checklists. Below are additional ways to implement
self-assessment and peer-assessment. Also, Teach Primary provides explanations
for some of the strategies as well as other great strategies.
How would you implement PASA? Do you remember any
experiences of self-evaluation or peer evaluation that has contributed to your
learning? How early can PASA be implemented (i.e. do you think it could be
implemented beginning in Kindergarten)?
 |
| Retrieved from http://www.helloliteracy.com/2012/06/halls-and-walls-of-lake-myra-first.html |
 |
| Two Stars and a Wish. Retrieved from http://www.communication4all.co.uk/http/Thinking.htm |
 |
| The Sandwich Method. Retrieved from http://coonleyschoolartstudio.blogspot.ca/2012/03/reflecting-on-our-work.html |
 |
| Post-It Note Critque. Retrieved from: http://ibartstudio.blogspot.ca/2011/09/post-it-note-critique.html |
References
Harris, L. R., & Brown, G. T. (2013). Opportunities
and obstacles to consider when using peer- and self-assessment to improve
student learning: Case studies into teachers' implementation. Teaching And
Teacher Education, 36101-111. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2013.07.008
Swain, B. (2010, September 17). The importance of peer
and self assessment . Scholastic.
Retrieved from: http://education.scholastic.co.uk/content/13153
Hey Breanna,
ReplyDeleteI really liked the way you always bring in so many examples into your blogs. It makes it easier to understand how you can actually apply these strategies into your classroom! Your use of videos and pictures is absolutely impeccable! How do you feel about adding a variety of hyperlinks so that your readers had more options if they wanted to read further about PASA?
Obviously, this right here is a perfect example of peer-assessment! If you noticed, I even used some of the great sentence starters you suggested!! I really liked the smiley sentence idea. I think that it will be a lot more affective, especially in younger grades, than a simple checklist. In my most recent blog post I wrote about the incredible benefits of using checklists in your classroom. However, now I wish I read your blog first, so that I could have added a link to your blog in mine!
I do agree with you about the concern of cheating and inaccuracy with PASA. I remember in elementary school when we marked each others spelling tests, most people would help their classmate out and change their answer to the right one. Obviously, grading each other’s work, not just giving feedback, is very different, and comes with a LOT of problems as well. However, even with just simple feedback, similar to you, I was simply afraid to hurt my friend’s feelings. Do you think there is anyway to avoid this? How can we make these problems with cheating and inaccuracy absolute?
- Nicole
Dear Breanna,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your use of visual examples that demonstrated PASA in your blog post this week. I think the examples you provided are great ways to creatively incorporate peer-assessment in the classroom. In one of my elementary classrooms I actually remember my teacher having the visual ‘ice-cream sundae’ example that you discussed in your personal experience. The higher the level (1-4) the more ice-cream scoops and toppings the sundae had. I remember constantly referring back to this posted on the front of our classroom while I was completing work because it was a constant reminder of how to achieve a level 4.
I like the point you raised that PASA prepares students for the future because of the types of transferable skills they acquire. I definitely agree with this because it teaches them to value their own work, the opinions of others and self-improvement. As well, I agree that in order for PASA to work teachers need to provide students with sentence starters. This encourages students to give appropriate feedback to peers. My question to you is, as future teachers how can we ensure the anonymity of students when work is peer assessed to avoid cheating and inaccuracy?
Overall great final blog! It really highlights the importance of your topic in a clear and concise manner.
- Jennifer L
Dear Miss Breanna,
ReplyDeletePeer-and Self-assessment (PASA) is something I have never really considered as a future educator. You bring up many crucial and interesting points on this topic! Looking back into my personal experiences as a child, I remember when we would have the opportunity to sometimes mark each other’s tests and help edit our written work. I feel like this experience was a benefit to my learning in the long run but also a bit of an inaccuracy at the time. Just as you experienced, cheating and feeling bad for my peers was something that came up. I would feel bad if my classmate got the answer wrong, so I would erase their answer and mark it correctly, as they would do the same back. As future educators, it is vital that we watch our students and guide them in ways that they do not take this learning experience for granted. I believe right as you’re introducing the idea of constructive feedback and working together collaboratively in groups, it’s important to inform your students on how they will benefit from the feedback positively and that any feedback presented will help them in the long run. Constructive feedback is meant to build things up and not break things down. I think PASA is a great way for students to engage in serious thought about what they are learning and how they are learning it. With this type of reflection, students have a chance to lean back from the learning process to think about their learning strategies and their academic progress. This self-assessment can lead to students in becoming more independent learners that can increase their motivation especially when they use their knowledge in assisting others, which leads to peer assessment! Students can learn and adopt the characteristics of quality work by evaluating the work of their classmates. I think this is a wonderful way for students to learn how to work together as a team in expanding their knowledge. I love how you provided us with images of checklists and rubrics that are more student centered in which the student can best understand. It is important to have criteria based on the child’s understanding as it makes it easier for students to comply with instruction and comprehend with what they are learning. Although for peer evaluation to work effectively, the classroom environment must be supportive and positive. My question I have for you is how can we as future educators promote a comfortable and trustworthy environment in order to provide honest and constructive feedback to each other? Excellent final blog post! You have really opened my eyes on the benefits of including peer assessment into the classroom.
Miss Le Pera