How Do We Model Self-Assessment?

At our Manitoulin IGNITEd session on gradeless classrooms today, there was a lot of great discussion on the role of assessment in our courses. Jonathan So (@MrSoClassroom) posed some probing questions on our past experiences with assessment (both previously as students and now as teachers), as well as what the point of assessment in school should be.

One of the topics that a couple of participants delved into after Jonathan's presentation was on how students could better self-assess. How can we encourage (and eventually come to expect) students to reflect on their achievement? And how can they use the knowledge they glean from that reflection to help guide their future learning?

From Jonathan's Manitoulin IGNITEd slide deck

A question we kept circling back to, though, was how do students know how to self-assess? Can they be good judges of their strengths and weaknesses? Can they take that self-assessment and use it to guide how they approach learning in the future?

Do Teachers Self-Assess?

As teachers, this can be something we model. We do self-assess informally - talk with our PLN about strategies, evaluate how a lesson went, replay scenarios in our heads... and then use that reflection to plan our next lessons and units. We do this on a regular (daily?) basis, and we can argue that we've gotten pretty good at it. 

But our students rarely see it. If we want students to be able to reflect and self-evaluate - and see why it is an important process - we need to demonstrate how it is critical to our practice. 

So how can we make our reflections more public? Some ideas...

• Blog, blog, and blog some more. Get your thoughts down on virtual paper and reflect publicly on what went right, and what went wrong. 
• Seek input on said blog, and respond to comments. Show an evolution in thinking when in discussion with someone from your PLN.
• Do a post-mortem on projects or big lessons with your students. What worked? What didn't work? Seek out student feedback and allow them to see you take it in to consideration in the next project or lesson.
• Apologize when a lesson doesn't go well. Learn from your mistakes and start over. We preach that failure is okay, let's model it too.
• Ask for feedback from your students and your colleagues. Have your students write a report card comment for you. What are your strengths? What are your next steps?

Assuming we are reflecting enough on our practice (reflection was my #oneword2016 this year, recognizing that I needed to actively practice it more...), what else can we do to model our reflection practices?