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  • Support for early career teachers
  • Teach First
  • Year 1: Second half-term: how can you use assessment and feedback to greatest effect?
    • Spring week 5

    Mentor materials

    Observation discussion - development of effective self-assessment

    Teaching techniques to focus feedback on

    Interaction:

    Discussion

    Outcome:

    To have planned for and practised the development of effective self-assessment.

    Stimulus

    Ahead of the mentor interaction, ask your teacher to bring with them an example of a self-assessment completed by a pupil in their class. In the online study material, teachers hear from Stuart Kime (from Evidence Based Education) explain what is needed to establish effective self-assessment in the classroom. He highlights five things:

    1. Modelled self-assessment deliberately with clear examples
    2. Share specific success criteria
    3. Scaffold pupils thinking
    4. Allow pupils time to use the success criteria independently
    5. Plan opportunities for pupils to work independently to make the desired improvements.

    Through discussion with the teacher, establish to what extent they have been able to establish effective self-assessment with their pupils. How do they model? How do they scaffold? Are they planning for pupils to act on the feedback from the self-assessment?

    Praise, probe and set precise actions

    The following practise should be focused around the outcomes of the probe and precise actions, so that it is specific to your teacher’s developmental needs. However, below are some practise ideas based on the online study content to support you if needed.

    Plan and practice ideas

    Ask the teacher to select an upcoming lesson in which the pupils will be asked to self-assess. Practise either:

    • Developing a success criteria that will be shared with pupils

    OR

    • Effectively modelling how the teacher would like pupils to self-assessment their work.

    Key questions and talking points

    1. What does self-assessment look like in your classroom?
    2. How do you model self-assessment?
    3. How do you scaffold self-assessment to ensure the feedback is effective?
    4. Have you included any metacognitive strategies into your practice?

    Additional resources:

    Education Endowment Foundation’s metacognition and self-regulated learning summary of recommendations