Estrategias para integrar a los equipos de la comunidad educativa en los

Middle school student readers must self-assess (Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995; Snow, 2002), yet reading is rarely an instructional focus in middle school curric- ula. Reading instruction that focuses on self-assessment is rarer still, in spite of the fact that the reading challenges faced in middle school are continual. These students are faced with an increasing volume of reading and reading-related coursework. Texts increase in length and their structures become more complex. Vocabulary and the concepts they represent diversify and multiply. Middle school readers must assess themselves as they read, using metacognitive knowl- edge to optimize their reading experiences. Metacognitive ability, realized in self- assessment strategies, allows student readers to deal successfully with the increas- ing challenge of middle school work.

Self-assessment must be emphasized in the middle school curriculum. Yet, this is a difficult challenge because there is an over-focus on a single type of assessment, high-stakes testing, in almost all middle school classrooms. The devotion of school time and resources to prepare students to take tests in the hope that they will score high warps the curriculum. Test-like items and tasks offer little opportunity for stu- dents to learn self-assessment routines that are valuable in the daily conduct of the classroom. The prevalence of high stakes testing helps to maintain the idea that as- sessment is essentially external to the student and only indirectly associated with learning. It prevents the application of the very school resources that are needed to promote sustained and effective self-assessment instruction. The emphasis on test- ing produces students who remain outsiders to the culture of classroom assessment. This creates a dependency for students; if they want to know how they are doing in reading, they must rely on someone else to do the assessment. In contrast, self- assessment represents insights into one’s own work and the rendering of judgments, and the appraisal of progress and ongoing challenge, each dependent on a shift of assessment responsibility and ability to the student.

To help students meet the increased work demands of middle school, to help them envision themselves as agents in their work, and to help them develop strong, positive attributions for their performance, strategy instruction should fo- cus on self-assessment. We are optimistic that such strategy instruction will have positive impact on student reading. Based on previous efforts to teach compre- hension strategies (e.g., Palincsar & Brown, 1984; Block & Pressley, 2002), we believe carefully modeled self-assessment strategies, detailed explanations of strategy use and demonstrations of assessment routines using think-aloud proce- dures should help students develop self-assessment ability. We suggest that meta- cognitive, self-assessment instruction concentrate on three types of knowledge. This knowledge relates to the self-assessment strategies themselves, the purposes of the strategies and the contexts in which the strategies prove most fruitful.

Although instruction is advocated in self-assessment strategies, knowledge of how to apply a strategy does not, by itself, guarantee student success. Knowing the mechanical steps of strategy use does not equate with successful self-assess- ment. A second and related type of knowledge focuses on why individuals use dif- ferent strategies. Self-assessment strategies serve the purpose of making learning more efficient. These strategies may direct middle school students to regular suc- cesses in the classroom. They may help learners understand that the task at hand is quite manageable, or that a seemingly distant goal is attainable through careful work and good effort. Knowledge of the purpose and uses of strategies helps stu- dents select the strategies that are most useful to the task at hand. For instance, the strategies students use when evaluating their comprehension of science labo- ratory directions (in preparation of working with potentially volatile chemicals) may well differ from those used to evaluate the construction of meaning of a poem.

A third and closely related knowledge set is that which helps the student ac- curately identify the manner in which the learning context influences their use of particular strategies. Middle school curricula present students with diverse tasks that demand particular levels of attention and metacognition. For example, suc- cessful students reading a series of paragraphs and answering related comprehen- sion questions will gauge the use of self-assessment strategies to the task at hand. A consistent question might be, “Am I reading with sufficient comprehension to answer the questions?” Later, the same students will bring to bear metacognitive strategies that help them gather and organize information about history in a man- ner that suits the overall goal of developing a historical sketch, complete with di- alog and setting, for their classmates and teacher. With the different task and context, students monitor and self-assess accordingly. In each case, what students must do in relation to learning processes and products influences the choice of self-assessment strategies.

We advocate for middle school students needing to know how specific strate- gies work, the purposes of the strategies and the contexts in which they are useful. Prior successes in strategy instruction have been provided as an example of how students can learn new and useful strategies. Yet, the concern is that middle school teachers will now have the added burden of self-assessment strategy in- struction. Such suggestions to teach self-assessment strategies within an already full middle school content area curriculum will most likely be met with a notable lack of enthusiasm. As an alternative, instruction could focus on building stu- dents’ self-assessment strategies through the use of existing classroom assess- ments. The idea here is that existing classroom assessments provide opportunities for teachers to both carry on the work of classroom assessment for their evalua- tion needs and to teach students how to do assessment themselves. Existing class- room assessments, including performance assessments, portfolio assessments, self- assessment strategy inventories, teacher questioning, and content area tests can serve as models for students. Repeated experiences with the materials, proce-

dures, and purposes of particular assessments can promote student development in self-assessment. This use of assessment is contextualized in the meaningful work of classroom lessons and other learning opportunities. Thus, learning self- assessment emanates from existing classroom learning and assessment practice. Teachers’ assessment practices in the classroom can serve as a means of helping students learn the work of self-assessment.

Teaching Students Self-Assessment in the Classroom: