Self Assessment for Students

A self assessment can be an effective exit ticket to end a learning time.The purpose of self assessment for students is to allow time to reflect. This may be a reflection of work performance, participation or feelings. This healthy practice works on many skills, some of which include understanding self, advocacy and goal setting. When planning self assessment for kindergarten or 5th grade, here are some ideas to consider.

When using self assessments in the classroom, it’s important to have an assessment system in place to keep track of all the information gathered from these assessments! Student data can be overwhelming. Create a formative assessment system so that organization comes easy and planning is more effective and targeted for student needs. Use this FREE guide below to unlock the steps you need to create an effective assessment organization station in your classroom.

What is Self Assessment for Students?

The process of evaluating and analyzing self defines self assessment. Students often need support and modeling to learn this skill. It may be through a verbal response, written, filling in a rubric or even through other forms of self expression.

Types of Self Assessment

Here are a few of my favorite examples of student self assessments that I like to use in my classroom. Most of these are to evaluate work and participation but learning to evaluate emotions is extremely important for mental health and an important skill to teach children at a young age.

Work Samples

When unit planning, I always sprinkle at least 4 self assessments for work samples at different points in the unit to give students reflection time. Typically, 1-2 are work samples while the other 2-3 are used for group work and understanding of content.

A work sample may be a bigger project or something as simple as a jot on a sticky note. It depends on the needs of the class and my observations.

Group Work

Book clubs, group projects and team building activities are great times to use a self assessment for group work. These self assessments typically focus on communication and collaboration in my classroom. In years where students needed more support in this area, I used morning meeting small groups once a week to get more practice with group work in a more social and emotional way. This was a great opportunity to model self assessment and walk students through the evaluation process.

Open-Ended

Journal responses are another great way to allow students to have time to reflect. These can be private to the student or something shared with the teacher. Open ended self assessments are great to really let students get out their thoughts and move forward with goal setting since they aren’t so formulated. They give the student the opportunity to speak whatever is on their mind.

Self Assessment Rubric for Students

Many of the self assessments that I use in my classroom are in the form of a rubric. Students benefit from a scale to help them measure their thinking and understanding so rubrics make this process really easy. Creating a template that can be adapted is the easiest way to make self assessment rubrics easy to plan and reproduce.

Self Assessment Benefits

Are self assessments useful? The benefits of self assessment for students are endless. They teach reflection skills that can be applied to social, emotional, work ethic and so many other things that are valuable life skills. So plan and try one out in your classroom.

Let me know how it goes and don’t forget to download the free organization guide below to create an assessment system in your classroom!