The Impact of Self-Assessment to Enhance Writing Skills

Abstract

An innovation can help create more independent learners who feel motivated to get their desired results. This innovation implied using self-assessment to improve their writing skills in English, where students had to describe situations in the past in detail. This procedure is described in detail in a lesson plan (see Appendix A). Students had to learn to write short paragraphs describing different situations, trying to improve their grammatical skills in each activity with their self-assessment. It was part of a learning unit of four weeks with synchronous and asynchronous activities. At the beginning of the innovation, students learned how to evaluate themselves and identify potential mistakes with the help of a checklist (see Appendix B). Then, it was necessary to practice analyzing each checklist parameter with different paragraphs. Finally, in the following activities, students were able to assess themselves. Then, each week, students learned a specific topic necessary for their final task. In the first week, students also reviewed grammar rules related to simple past tense, regular and irregular verbs, and structures. After that, they observed some pictures, and they had to develop new ideas about them. In the second week, students continued practicing with the checklist, and they also focused on locations, identifying prepositions of place in different situations. The last two weeks were focused on the organization of a story. In the third week, they learned how to describe a text by using linking words both to connect their ideas and to present a coherent text. In the fourth week, they concentrated on learning how to structure a paragraph correctly, trying to determine a clear beginning, middle, and ending, as well as establishing both the main and supporting ideas. Finally, they applied self-assessment using the checklist which they consulted in every practice during this period.