Teacher Talk Blog | Assessment for Learning

Assessment for Learning – Two Stars and a Wish, Self-Assessment Strategy

The Reasoning for Self-Assessment in the Classroom

The purpose of self-assessment is to encourage children to take greater responsibility for their learning and in doing so alter their perception of learning from being a passive process where they simply listen and (hopefully) absorb, to one where they more fully engage with their learning.

As well as self-assessment, the Two Stars and a Wish Strategy also promotes peer assessment and in Reception and Year One this is key as the children are unable to write their comments and so feedback is done verbally. Learning objectives / targets at this age are often per class as oppose to individual.
I use the strategy for writing in my Reception class. Using class and individual discussion we talk about the class target and the criteria we will use to assess a piece of work.

During show and tell time, we look at some of the work done and I ask the children 'What do you think is good about this piece of work?' then 'How can we improve this piece of work?'. As an example an individual discussion, a child may state that their two stars would be that they have noticed that they can now write with strokes when they couldn't in the past and that their letters are more uniform in size. Their wish will be based on where they feel they can improve to meet the class target.

In Summary

I think this is a great strategy and far from encouraging negativity, its easy to ensure that the positives always outweigh the negatives – hence the 2 stars and 1 wish. The children are therefore promoted to talk first about what is good about about the piece of work and then how it can be improved. It is a great way for teachers to make their marking accessible to their children and is a simple way to give positive feedback and constructive comments for improvements.

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