Unlocked. Katie While

creativity stays in our students’ hands. Withholding feedback until our students have done some personal reflection can inform what we say and how we respond to their needs. For example, we can then structure our feedback around the student’s reflection if a student examines her work and says, “I like what I have done on this half but the last half still doesn’t say what I want it to say.” We may follow up with, “What do you think needs to be in your second half in order for it to have the impact you are hoping for?” Alternatively, we may ask, “Why do you think you were able to get the results you hoped for in your first half? How did you approach it? Was your approach different from the one you used later?” These kinds of questions lead students back to their goals and the criteria they use to define those goals. We are simply helping them solve their own problems. We can give suggestions (resources and strategies), but students remain in control of the creative endeavor.

      In this way, self-assessment is not about assigning the product a value. Nor is it about sitting with a checklist in hand, sorting the list into present in my work or absent from my work. Self-assessment is about reflecting on the degree to which students are solving their own problems and answering their own questions creatively. It is about taking personal responsibility for their outcomes, and connecting their thinking, planning, and exploration to their goals. Self-assessment is about making decisions and taking action, and without it, the students’ efforts and the ensuing results will be less creative and, likely, less satisfactory to the students themselves. See the reproducible “Applying Assessment Within the Stages of the Creative Process” (pages 45–46) for information on how self-assessment and other types of assessment apply within each stage of the creative process.

       Explicit Instruction for Developing Feedback and Self-Assessment

      In order for students to be strong self-assessors and engage in effective feedback processes, they will need us to teach them how to engage in these processes. John A. Ross (2006) echoes this need: “There is persuasive evidence, across several grades and subjects, that self-assessment contributes to student learning and that the effects grow larger with direct instruction on self-assessment procedures” (p. 9). Self-assessment and feedback do not come naturally to many learners. Without explicit teaching, these assessment processes can end up with students who focus on stagnant practices of looking to the teacher to identify their mistakes and tell them how to correct those mistakes to get a higher grade. Students need to develop trust in the true benefits of these practices, and they need explicit instruction about how self-assessment and feedback should look and sound while they are in the midst of innovating, imagining, and creating. Table 1.3 and table 1.4 (pages 38–39) offer critical components of feedback and self-assessment, respectively, and explore examples for ways to approach feedback and self-assessment during a creative endeavor.

Table 1.3: Identifying Components of Feedback Within the Classroom