The article I read by Gary Bingham, Teri Holbrook, and Laura Meyers really shed some light on the self assessment process for me. In 305, we use formative assessments fairly often, but I wanted to dive deeper into more than just our thumbs up/down assessment or number scale. In this article, the authors spoke about the self assessment process being used in elementary classrooms and the positives and negatives to this. One main point I feel they brought up was that self assessment must be more than asking students if they know what's being covered in class. Using higher order thinking skills and using self assessment to improve a child's education process is most important. They spoke of rubrics and how using these as more than just a checklist is important. When students are not using their thought potential and are simply producing something to get the most points from a rubric, this doesn't really assess how they are learning and thinking (Bingham, Holbrook, Meyers, 2010, p.61). Assessment must be more than this. The authors state that "Self assessment is about more than test scores; it's about self improvement" (p.60).
In my classroom (2 years from now) I want to be able to have my students have a positive and safe classroom experience, as well as a place they can grow into active thinkers. According to Bingham, Holbrook, and Meyers (2010) "Students become able to engage in self assessment as their metacognitive abilities - their awareness of their thought processes, strategies, and skills - develop" (p.59). Self assessment can play a role in how students think about their learning process (either negatively or positively impacting it) (2010, p.60). I feel that the ideas in this article show teachers that using self assessment is a more difficult process than it may seem. This formative assessment must be used properly and the data gathered from it must be used to further student learning.
Overall, I would love to use self assessment in my future classroom, but this article has taught me to be careful and use this assessment wisely. I need to look for ideas that challenge my students and have them work towards self improvement. Getting ideas from established teachers as well as learning on my own will be a benefit to my students and me. Pinterest is a great way for teachers to interact and share ideas. (I go on there often to check out future classroom setups, plans, bulletin boards, and assessments.) One of the best ideas I saw was a "What stuck with you today?" board using PostIt notes as an exit slip for students. They can easily share what they learned that day and the teacher can review them to check lesson comprehension. I think I want to include this in my two day instructional plan and I will definitely want to use this in my classroom!
PS - If you're into pinterest, you should check out this board: http://pinterest.com/hoffntex/formative-assessment/ as well as some others under the formative assessment search :)
