1) Deeper thinking: Usually when we formally assess students, they receive feedback with a grade which tells them how well they have done. There is a time and place for this of course, but really we want to go a step further and encourage our students to think more deeply about their learning. By doing this, they also learn the qualities of "good" work and how to judge their work against these qualities. They also learn to look at their own performance and assess their efforts and accomplishments so they can set goals to improve in the future.
2) Structure your next lesson: This is also a great opportunity for you to find out what common problems students are having so you can go over it next lesson or offer small group training. You can even differentiate your self assessment activities to target different groups of students / learning styles. Check out these Social Media Exit Tickets below as an example - some of these are targeted at visual learners, others are just focusing on keywords and others are asking for more depth in creating questions and answers based on their understanding of the lesson.
4) Engage them: self assessment doesn't have to be boring and tedious. There are plenty of ways to capture their interest and engagement - simply tap into what they are already tuned into! I have created an array of exciting exit tickets that are based on popular trending themes that students love, e.g.: emojis, social media, cell phones, comics etc! Click on any of the images below to find out more!
How do you currently self assess in your classroom? Let's chat in the comments below - I respond to every comment :)