At the end of the first unit on Living Things, my students always carry out a culminating performance on Adaptations.
I separate my students into groups made of peers that, without my grouping arrangement, they would never work together. I assess their flexibility, cooperative attitude and ability to make agreements when carrying out this performance, since I believe that these are the skills that they are going to need the most in their future personal and professional lives.
At the end of the performance, which consists in a presentation after a webquest to their peers, I complete a group&individual work rubric and hand it to them together with their marks. This year, I decided to create a self-assessment rubric using Google Forms to answer some questions about how they felt through this performance.
What I enjoy about the Google Docs platform is that, together with my students, we can access it wherever we are. Instead of rushing them to do it at the end of the performance in written form, I embedded it into the FDS website and I encouraged them to do it whenever they found time to do so, because I wanted them to relax and actually reflect on their performance. It was a risky decision, since I knew that not many would do it since it was an optional activity, but I was surprised at how many did so, and the level of their answers.
I clarified that their answers would only be seen by me. I could have obviously given them a sheet of paper with this self-assessment activity and asked them to hand it in at the end of the lesson, but I think that my students, specially at their age, believe that technology gives them "anonymity" and allows them to pour out their thoughts in a sincere way, without their peers knowing their answers.
I will definitely use this application again for future surveys or assessments.
This activity is an example of autonomous use of ICT and critical thinking.