Involving the learner

NOTE:  This post is the fourth in a miniseries on Assessment and Evaluation in the classroom, aimed at providing support both to my teacher colleagues and to parents of school children. 

Part of good assessment involves making it clear to the student what the goals or expectations are for their learning, and then also involving them in thinking about their learning, reflecting on how they are doing, and encouraging them to identify what they do well and where they have room for improvement or further practice.



In this photo, we see a student-friendly visual rubric outlining the different achievement levels.

And here is an example of a rubric that can be used with students to assess their learning about a unit of study in math:

	I need some more teaching about this.	I need some help to practice this.	I can practice this on my own.	I am ready to help others with this.
Name each Canadian Coin and its value	I need a lot of reminders to help me with the names and values of the coins.	I need some reminders about the names and values of the coins.	I know the names and values of the coins, but I sometimes make a mistake	I know the names and values of the coins.  I am confident and I rarely make a mistake.
Find the value of a group of coins	With help, I can sometimes find the value of simple groupings of coins.	With help, I can usually find the correct value of some different groupings of coins.	On my own, I can usually find the correct value of some different groupings of coins.	On my own, I can almost always find the correct value of many different groupings of coins.
Given a group of coins, tell the value of the whole group	With help, I can sometimes tell the value with some accuracy.	With help, I can usually tell the value with good accuracy.	On my own, I can usually tell the value with good accuracy	On my own, I can almost always tell the value with great accuracy.
Given a value in cents, choose coins to represent that value	With help, I can show the value.  I can show it in one way.	I can sometimes show the value. I can show it in one or two ways.	I can usually show the value.  I can show the value in a few ways.	I can always show the value.  I can show the value in a few ways.