Self- and Peer-Assessment in the Formative Assessment Process

Michigan School Testing Conference—February 2017

Table 1: FAME Components and Elements

Guiding Questions / FAME Components and Elements
Where are we (teacher and students) going? / Planning
  • 1.1—Instructional Planning: planning based on knowledge of the content, standards, pedagogy, FA process, and students.

Learning Target Use
  • 2.1—Embedding Learning Targets in Instruction: the use and communication of daily instructional aims with the students
  • 2.2—Learning Progressions: connection of the learning target to past and future learning
  • 2.3—Models of Proficient Learning: examples of successful work for students to use as a guide.

What does the student understand now? / Eliciting Evidence of Student Understanding
  • 3.1—Activating Prior Knowledge: the opportunity for students to self-assess or connect new ideas to their prior knowledge
  • 3.2—Eliciting Evidence of Student Understanding: use of a variety of tools and strategies to check for understanding of the learning targets from all students
  • 3.3—Teacher Questioning Strategies: the intentional use of questions for students to explain their thinking or to connect their idea to another student’s response
  • 3.4—Skillful Use of Questions, a focus on the purpose, timing, and audience for questions to deliver content and to check students’ understanding

How do we (teacher and students) get to the learning target? / Formative Feedback
  • 4.1—Feedback from the Teacher: verbal or written feedback to a student to improve his or her achievement of the learning target
  • 4.2—Feedback from Peers: feedback from one student to another student about his or her learning in relation to a learning target
  • 4.3—Student self-assessment: the process in which students gather information and reflect on their own learning in relation to the learning goal.

Instructional and Learning Decisions
  • 5.1—Adjustments to Teaching, where teachers daily decide about changes to instruction
  • 5.2—Adjustments to Learning, in which students use feedback for improvement.

-FAME Learning Guide, 2017

Table 2: Formative Feedback—Teachers provide verbal or written feedback to students to help them adjust their learning. Students monitor their own learning and make adjustments as needed. The feedback (teacher, peers, or self) allows the student to make changes on the current assignment or task, or to improve understanding of the learning target/s.

Elements / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
4.2
Feedback from Peers / Students grade each other’s work and only provide a score or the correct answer. / Students do peer assessment, but are not provided with supports, such as rubrics or other criteria. Students provide a mix of evaluative and descriptive feedback on each other’s work. / Students do peer assessment and are provided with supports such as rubrics or other criteria. Feedback is both descriptive and actionable. / Students do peer assessment and are provided with supports such as rubrics or other criteria. Students are engaged in this process and accept and use feedback from each other.
4.3
Student Self-Assessment / While students don't grade their own work, they may keep track of their grades. They don’t reflect on what they did to earn their grades or make plans to improve their learning. / Students rate their understanding of a learning target (e.g., by using a scale of 1-4). / Students use a rubric, model or other criteria to assess their own work. It is unclear whether they plan revisions in their work based on their self-assessments. / Students use a rubric, model or other criteria to assess their own work. They plan revisions in their work and set goals for their learning based on their self-assessment.

-FAME Formative Assessment Self-Reflection Guide, 2016

Table 3: Classroom Applications—Implementing Self- and Peer-Assessment

Self-Assessment / Peer-Assessment
Prepare students to engage in self-assessment / •Create a class culture where reflection and growth is valued.
•Define self-assessment in student friendly language and explain why it may be helpful for their learning.
•Ensure the learning target and success criteria are presented/co-created and discussed so that students have a clear understanding of the expectations for performance that they will use to assess their work. / •Cultivate a supportive learning culture, an environment of trust in the classroom, and provide opportunities for collaboration in learning.
•Explain the expectations for students and the change in their role as a learner to being a resource for one another.
•Ensure the learning target and success criteria for any peer assessment are clear and discussed with students.
Provide rubrics, guidelines, or other criteria to guide students as they assess their own work / •Provide rubrics, checklists, or visual anchor charts and clearly defined tasks to guide self-assessment. / •Provide rubrics, checklists, or visual anchor charts and clearly defined tasks to guide their feedback to peers.
Model and explicitly teach the process of self-assessment with students / •Model self-evaluation and metacognition by doing a “think-aloud” in which the teacher demonstrates the internal thinking involved in self-assessment using a particular learning target and performance or work sample.
•Model and teach the process and skills of self-assessment. / •Provide descriptive and actionable feedback to students through comments on their work and performance in relation to the learning target and success criteria.
•Model and teach the process and skills of giving and receiving feedback.
Facilitate opportunities for students topractice, engage in self-assessment, and receive feedback on the process / •Scaffold student learning by allowing them to practice one step at a time and provide feedback so students are aware of what went well and what may need to be improved. / •Scaffold student learning by allowing them to practice one step at a time and provide feedback so students are aware of what went well and what may need to be improved.
Ensure students have time to reflect on their self-assessment and use it to improve their skills and/or work / •Provide opportunities for students to revise their work and set goals for future learning based on their self-assessment. / •Integrate peer assessment into students’ work toward a learning target.
•Provide opportunities for students to review feedback from a peer and improve their skills and/or work accordingly.

Table 4: Tools and Strategies to Promote Student Self- and Peer-Assessment

Instructional Practice / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Checklists / Start by using checklists with students. / Teacher provides and models the use of a checklist with a product that can be broken down into components. / Teacher provides opportunity for students to practice with a checklist that is closely aligned to task. / Students use checklists to provide feedback to one another.
Rubrics / Provide a rubric to students with samples of student work or exemplars. / Model the use of the rubric and the self-assessment and peer-assessment dialogue. / Create rubrics with students about a familiar topic using student friendly language. / Students use rubrics to provide feedback to a peer about their current level of performance.
Feedback / Some feedback is provided by the teacher. / Comprehensive feedback is provided by the teacher. / Comprehensive feedback is clearly linked to criteria/learning target. / Timely, consistent, and comprehensive feedback is provided to students that is clearly linked to criteria/learning target.

— (Adapted from Rolheiser, 2006)