How do learners know if they are on the right track? Are the targets clear? Do we offer enough opportunities for formative self-assessment? What if we offer learners the opportunity to self-assess, peer-assess, and ask questions to calibrate their understanding with others?

Kato (@KatoNims) sent me the 4th Grade Team’s E. B. White Book Club evaluation.  Here are some of the children’s responses from the first round of the book club evaluation. (It is my understanding that they will complete this evaluation after each meeting of the book club. I believe they meet to discuss each chapter.)

From SK:

Level 3: I can read all of my assigned reading and complete all book club role requirements.

Level 3: I can have on topic conversations by sharing my role and listening to others share their roles.

Level 1: We can share our roles.

I wish that my group would listen more. Next time I would like my group to listen more.

From BB:

Level 1: I can read some of my assigned reading and complete some of my book club requirements.

Level 2: I can have on topic conversations while I share my role and sometimes fully listen to others share.

Level 3: We can share our roles, have on topic conversations, and listen to the comments of each other.

From AF:

Level 4: I can read all of my assigned reading and include more than what was required for my book club role requirements.

Level 4: I can have on topic conversations by sharing my role, listening to others, and furthering discussion by adding related comments and questions.

Level 2: We can share our roles and listen to each other.

I wish that [CB] didn’t just walk away and say “we are out of time” when I was still presenting, I never got to finish presenting.

From [CB]

Level 3: I can read all of my assigned reading and complete all book club role requirements.

Level 3: I can have on topic conversations by sharing my role and listening to others share their roles.

Level 4: We can share our roles while also having meaningful on topic conversations so we learn new things from each other.

I wish that [FA] would shorten his questions.

I want to share more of their feedback.  I have been underestimating what these young learners can do.

I wish we had a book club check-in to make sure we are on the way to completing what we need to.  Also so everyone is doing the right chapters because from experience it is very annoying when someone forget to do a chapter and then the rest of the book club does not get all the information about the book that they need.

Awesome. Feedback that is actionable.  Let’s check with our members. Are we all reading and studying the same chapter? Has everyone completed the chapter prior to the book club date?

I wish that we will have another great book club. I liked that [CB] aways listened to me. I wonder if next time when we all have different jobs if we will do better or worse. Next time I would like if [AF] listened a bit more to me.

I love that they are using “I wish…,” I liked…,”I wonder…,” and “Next time…,” as their prompts for feedback.

Will we see improvement in book club participation and structure? Kato says she’s already had the opportunity to talk with individual students about their participation, their feedback for others, and how the level needs to match the feedback.

Just completing the form will help learners think about their work and the work of others.  The face-to-face conversations to clarify expectations, ask questions, and encourage honest leveling offer additional layers to the formative feedback.

What if we help our learners understand group dynamics, working in a team, advocacy, persistence, meeting expectations and more? What if we practice self-assessment, peer-assessment, and feedback for learning?