Did Students Get It? Self-Assessment as Key to Learning

Hall, Dawn

CA - Assessment Strategies

Louis, P., & Harada, V. H. (2012, December). Did students get it? Self-assessment as key to learning. School Library Monthly, 29(3), 13-16.

This article describes how to move from teacher-focused assessment models of instruction to more student-centered instructional models. The authors acknowledge that this change “requires a dramatic paradigm shift in what is taught and how it is taught”. However, the use of formative assessments has shown to help "students in making direct connections" between how well they are working and how much they are learning. Essential to this new method is that lesson planning begin with the goals rather than the activites. Once goals have been defined, assessment criteria must be developed in a way that students can participate in their own assessment. The article also provides two examples clearly outlining the process of transforming old lesson plans from teacher focused to student focused.