How can self-assessment impact the learning environment in a Secondary Social Studies Classroom?

Seminar Title

How can self-assessment impact the learning environment in a Secondary Social Studies Classroom?

Self-Assessment

10th Grade

High School

Social Studies

All Disciplines

“I am done!” is a common response educators receive when an assignment or task is turned in by students. Once turned in, students give little thought or reflection to the work and process they just completed. Teachers spend hours and hours in order to give quality feedback that many students do not utilize to change or improve the quality of their work. The students’ fixation on the completion of a task, instead of focusing on the process of learning can be frustrating to teachers trying to develop students with the skills and motivation to become lifelong learners that will perform to their highest potential.

The question guiding my research is as follows: Will self-assessment reduce stress on the instructor and students in order to create a classroom learning environment where students and teacher work together in assessing writing assignment? A review of the literature suggests that students grade themselves at a very close levels to that of the teacher. Literature puts a lot of emphasis on the quality of the rubric and scrpit for the writing assignment and prompt. As a result of my literature review, areas I targeted for change in my practice included using self-assessment on responses to writing prompts in my secondary social studies classroom: 1) creating a quality rubric for writing assessment 2) decreasing grading time and providing timely feedback to students and 3) reducing stress levels in the classroom. As a social studies department we have used a format of writing responses we call C-S-E format. The development of a rubric was very difficult and I stayed consistant with our department by using the rubric we collectively use to provide feedback for student’s writing responses.. Through my research I have used self-assessment strategies to help prepare students to self-assess their writing. Student stress levels and the learning environment was assessed mainly through qualitative and quantitative surveys that were given through google forms. Students’ stress levels were very minimum and the feedback they gave themselves were most beneficial to the students that took the self-assessment seriously. As a result in my interest in seeing how self-assessment impacts the learning environment of a classroom, I will be utilizing writing prompts that students will in turn have to assess themselves on. I will be using our social studies department’s writing rubric in order for students to give their own personal feedback in a timily matter.