Self and peer assessment

Students are invited to complete a simple self-assessment sheet, according to shared criteria, and submit it. To extend the benefits of the exercise, students can be asked to explain to the classmate seated beside them why they evaluated themselves in such ways. Students can be awarded a percentage for completing the assessment, or graded for the quality of their rationale for their self-assessment, which would transform it into a summative assessment. You can make a further step involving peers. Invite students, for example, to exchange lecture notes in the final segment of your class and to discuss perceived gaps and differences in understanding. This can be done on a regular basis. Another kind of peer assessment can be done by engaging students with a task like solving a problem and/or writing an essay. Ask students to exchange their draft versions and assess the draft versions of their fellow students, using the same criteria you will use when assessing the final versions for summative purposes. They are not supposed to mark, but only to establish their findings in the form of written comments to the assessed peer. At the end, the peer evaluators are invited to reflect on their judgement and make a selection of suggestions, by formulating at least three recommendations to their peer writer on how to improve the product. After peer assessment, students can rewrite their draft version. You might want to give comments only after peer feedback, in a complementary form.

Click on the image below to download the template of this activity. If you want to download examples of how these templates can be used, you can download: an example of the self-assessment activity template (ODT, download) and an example of the peer-assessment activity template (ODT, download).