Give me five!

Part of my professional development plan last year and this year has included improving assessment strategies in my room, including giving students the opportunity to self-assess and peer assess more often. To that end I've started having students self-assess how they felt about each lesson as they leave the room. How? I have five different "hands" they can high five, each with a different statement including "I was an AMAZING listener today," "I tried my best today," "I learned something new today," "I'm still a little confused," and "I'm going to do better next time." Maybe as the year progresses I will add "I spoke all Spanish today."

I'll admit I directly stole this idea from Lisa Prichard's blog My Adventures in Elementary Spanish. My students absolutely love it and besides me stealing it from Lisa, I've already had a middle school teacher, a fifth grade teacher, and a fourth grade teacher tell me they were stealing it for their classroom. I should really stop saying stealing and go with inspired. The only downside to this quick self-assessment is that you do need to remind students that there is a brick wall behind the hands. I tell them I will not feel at all sorry for them if they tell me their hand hurts...because they just punched a brick wall. And because I model everything, I modeled the "right" way to high five.

How do you do self-assessments in your class? Share in the comments below!