Professional Learning for Busy Educators

Helping students learn to evaluate their own work is a crucial skill that taps into their metacognitive abilities. Franklin High School teacher John Leighton has come to see self-assessment as a crucial skill for his history students, one that he intentionally cultivates with three simple strategies.

“If the kids know what they’re working towards, and they know where they stand on the route to get there, they are more likely to get there,” Leighton said at the Building Learning Communities conference held in Boston. He has found that the students who are reflective about their work are generally his best students, so he tries to cultivate that reflex in all students.