T w o S t a r s a n d a W i s h
Formative Assessment Techniques
TO EMPLOY STUDENTS AS LEARNING RESOURCES FOR EACH OTHER
“Two Stars and a
Wish” is a structured
format for providing
students with feed-
back on their work.
Many teachers use
this technique. How-
ever, the procedure
also lends itself well
as a process for in-
troducing students to
peer feedback.
involves writing two
observations each
noting a positive qual-
ity of the work (the
two stars) and one
suggestion for im-
provement (the wish).
The work is returned
to its owner who then
decides if he finds the
feedback useful.
M a t e r i a l s
Students’
homework
or other
formative
assignment
Sticky notes
A d a p t e d
f r o m :
Embedded
Assessment
By Dylan Wiliam
© 2011
Solution Tree
Press
Developing Criteria for Quality Feedback
After the students have had their first experience with “Two Stars and a Wish,”
and they have used the peer comments to polish their work, use the sticky notes
to develop class criteria for providing quality feedback.
Collect all of the sticky notes and display them (anonymously) to the class. Have
the students vote on which comments would effectively help them to improve their
work.
Display the comments that receive the majority of student votes. Have the stu-
dents identify the important features that make these comments useful. These
features become the class criteria for providing quality feedback.
Post the criteria in the classroom for student reference.
Photograph provided by Microsoft
Procedure
Each student is provided
with another student’s
work to assess and a
sticky note for writing
comments. The assessment
