Self-Assessment and Goal Setting (Knowing What Counts)

In the foreword to Self-Assessment and Goal Setting, Heidi Andrade explains that self-assessment is a key element in formative assessment because it involves students in thinking about the quality of their own work rather than relying on their teacher as the sole source of evaluative judgments. Throughout this second book in the Knowing What Counts series, authors Kathleen Gregory, Caren Cameron, and Anne Davies describe ways for teachers to create more involved students by including them in the assessment of their own work. The first section in this book provides ten self-assessment activities for students and details how to: (1) introduce the purpose of the activities to students, (2) implement the activities, and (3) provide different opportunities for practice. The authors encourage the reader to adapt the examples they provide as needed to best fit their specific needs and circumstances. In the second section, the authors describe how to make goal setting a logical extension of self-assessment. Guidelines are provided for short-term and long-term goals. The third section contains common questions teachers may have about the concepts presented in the first two sections of the book as well as questions parents and students may bring to educators in response to the activities described in these sections. The authors respond to these questions in detail, giving educators the knowledge they need to properly implement these strategies and respond to others concerns.