Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Teacher
Anna Garthwaite
Context
Class/School Description
Year 8 class: 28 pupils – 15 boys and 13 girls
Research Focus/Questions
To investigate using the tool of a classroom blog to track students
ability to self review and for them to identify next learning steps.
Through teaching self-review skills and using within classroom
practice students should increase their ability to self-review.
Rationale
“WHY BOTHER WITH SELF ASSESSMENT?”
(aaia – Association for Achievement and Improvement through
Assessment)
Project Outline
• To teach the skills of self assessment.
• To set up a class blog site.
• To set up a classroom display for students to refer back to.
• To give students a baseline questionnaire.
Preparation
Expected Outcomes
Students will be able to self assess their learning and identify their
next learning steps, demonstrating more awareness of their own
learning and having a greater understanding of their achievements
and learning.
Outline Plan
Preparation
• Students complete a survey – to provide baseline data on self
assessment.
o Questions include:
What are my strengths and weakness?
How am I doing in my school work?
Do I know how I am doing in my school work?
I know what my school targets/goals are?
How am I going to make this improvement?
How will I know if my work is good/improving?
What do I need to improve?
• Set up a class blog site – 21classes.com
I also reviewed the term goal sheet that is handed out each term.
In light of the students gaining a greater awareness of their learning
I redesigned the Term goal sheet to reflect their more specific goals.
I also had an individual conference with each student to discuss
their learning goals for the term and to discuss strategies to help
achieve these goals. I enjoyed this as it enabled for some
meaningful discussions and built a sense of partnership with the
students.
The baseline questionnaire was handed out again towards the end
of Term 3 for students to review their understanding of self
assessment.
The blog entries have not been developed as well as I had hoped
and still need more development and modelling. The students like
having their own weblog and individualising it but see it more like
an informal chat room. This is an area which I will need to develop
further and to clarify its use and purpose more. It has begun to be
developed as another avenue for parents’ information about the
events in Room 23 and as another avenue for me to post
information such as weekly homework and spelling lists.
Conclusion
In conclusion I have felt this is a valuable tool for the classroom and
offers the students far more direction and understanding of their
learning. It is tool which I will continue to use and to develop
further.
For the Term 4 inquiry I will give the students the opportunity to
select a skill or learning outcome they wish to achieve, thus
providing students with more control over their learning. I will
expect them to be able to justify why their chosen outcome was
selected and why it has been an area for improvement.
The class blog site will continue to evolve over Term 4 although its
original purpose has changed since starting it. I will continue to use
it as an information source for students and parents but I will also
introduce a weekly or fortnightly question which requires the
students to think and post some feedback.