Journey of self assessments at Aarohi
Self assessment began with kids setting up their own goal in the second year of Aarohi. Initially the assessment was “I wrote a story”.
It was more of information or a report of what one did. There was no assessment of “how I did, what all I included in the story writing, what strengths I worked with, how many ways I worked on it, Am I doing the same stuff (my comfort) ?……………………..how much I was better than yesterday?
The various objectives and their detailing was new for kids, hence we brought a structure in the form of destination. 10 types of destination with mix of rubrics questions from the various objectives were introduced to kids. SAB at the end of the day gave a different perspective to look at learning, for example one of the SAB sheet had the question “what if, I would not have learnt today? What more I could have done and so on?”.
Soon kids were aware of these questions and it became a known vocabulary for them. It became easier for kids to take their own learning in their hands – while doing any task; they were able to relate various aspects. Some still prefer to use sheets – so we have sample sheets.
Initially children used to write “yes, no” in destination sheet……………..for long they wrote yes and no……………then, we started discussing one question in a day…………some enjoyed, some hated, some wrote in detail, some preferred to speak…………….kids also came with their own styles…………they started doing destination in various styles – write in the air, in the sand, make a song, share with the peer, discuss with faculty.
Now the assessment became ” I read few stories, I mixed them and made a new story, I was working on creativity. I worked on using new words”. The journey continues. Now some of the kids even have their own style…….and the objective of assessments is to know “how am I moving ahead with my goal?”
Currently kids reflect at the end of the day and assess self “what all I did and how it helped me to achieve, what I had planned?”. They interact with peers to get more perspective about the way they are working. Kids write their own observation, faculty writes own facilitation notes. At the end of the week child assess “how I have worked on my goal through various objectives?” They track their own progress through tracking.
At the end of one quarter, they collect all the data, take help of observations and assess “how they are doing, where they are working more, less, why how……….”. Now the assessment is ” I worked on story through word intelligence only, I did not work on scientific thinking or people intelligence in the story. I could have asked different people “what all stories they like to read? or I could have also listened to few musical stories,”.
The whole system is based on TRUST – trust in the child, trust in system. The observations are not a report from a faculty or child to parents, its a system, it is a belief that “child is capable”.