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Specific Strategies for Teaching Students Evaluation or Assessment Skills

Posted on December 10th, 2006 by Joyce Needham

In my last article, I discussed why students need to self-evaluate (Big6 – 6.0). In this article, I’ll discuss some easy-to-implement strategies to help students with the process of self-evaluation.

First things first: Students must understand why they need to evaluate.

Since most students’ exposure to evaluation is generally for the purpose of determining a grade, one of the first things we must do is help students understand that evaluation can also be a useful tool or strategy to increase learning.

Moving beyond evaluation for the sake of a grade means helping students understand that the product is not the only aspect of a project or assignment that must be evaluated – the process must be considered as well. Evaluation of both product and process helps us identify our strengths and weaknesses and determines what action to take to increase our learning. When students see this purpose of assessment or evaluation as a learning tool, they tend to evaluate more accurately.

My role as teacher: How can I teach students to evaluate?

Evaluation is a habit developed through repetition. An easy way to create an “evaluation environment” in your classroom is to make the process part of your communication. Model evaluation for your students so they know what it looks like. “Think aloud” as you evaluate your own work.

Guide students at the beginning stages of evaluation by asking the questions they need to answer as they evaluate. As they become effective evaluators, allow them (or require them) to ask themselves the questions. Some ideas for success follow – note that some of these are expansions of ideas from Mike and Bob’s books.

What are some concrete strategies I can use?

Have students evaluate their assignments before turning it in using an editing guide or checklist predetermined by the teacher. Give credit to students for finding their own errors in the form of bonus points or take off only half credit.
Have students complete a rubric before turning in the assignment, then give a grade based upon how accurate the student’s assessment is compared to the teacher’s assessment.
After giving an assignment share samples of both good and bad products. Allow students the opportunity to evaluate these products. Not only will students improve their evaluation skills by this activity, but students will also increase their understanding of their task.
Make overheads of student work (without names on papers) and evaluate as a class. Warning—Unless you have a strong culture of caring and support in your classroom, you might want to use the work of students in another class.
After returning papers that have been evaluated by the teacher, have students reflect and suggest in writing what they can do differently next time to prevent this error. For example “Next time I need to…check my spelling…read questions more carefully…know content better.” Award credit or points for this work to help students realize the importance of evaluation to future success.
Give an assignment. Have students identify the criteria that should be used to evaluate if the product is successful.
Use peer editing.

What will student evaluation or assessment look like in my classroom?

Student evaluation can take many forms in your classroom. It might be a quick oral assessment, a more time consuming written reflection, or even a student-teacher conference.

Example: Oral Evaluations

The power of these evaluations is that they require only a minute or two of valuable time. At the completion of any assignment or task, ask students to identify what the task was. Then evaluate — how did you do? For example, the student might identify the task as getting ready to go to lunch, turning in assignment, learning the capitals of all the states, writing a story, and so forth. Students might evaluate how successful they were in solving the task as a group or as an individual. A quick way to do this type of evaluation is to have students do thumbs up for successful completion, thumbs down for unsuccessful completion, and thumb sideways if they’re not sure or sort of completed. Take evaluation to the next level by having students verbalize answers to “What could we do differently next time?” Students might also evaluate by sharing with a “study buddy” or “shoulder partner” and then have the teacher randomly call on a few students to share their evaluation.

Written Evaluations

For longer tasks and assignments, it can be valuable to ask students to write their evaluation. This can be done with rubrics or even reflection sheets like the ones completed at the end of professional development workshops. Even younger students can respond to a written reflection sheet and insert a smiling or frowning face, then have the students circle the appropriate face. (Barbara Jansen suggested this great idea!)

Teacher-student Conferences

For longer or more intensive assignments, carve out some valuable time for evaluation through teacher-student conferences. Readers’ and writers’ workshops use this powerful evaluation or assessment strategy. Remember in a successful one-to-one conference the teacher will pose questions rather than telling, and the student will do most of the talking and a lot of thinking. Don’t forget to make the connection for students — a teacher - student conference is another way to evaluate or assess work and improve learning!