Assessment For Learning

Michelle RathorManchester LA

Advanced Skills Teacher – EnglishFunctional Skills Champion for Manchester

Authority

Objectives of this “Information Session”

To know what AFL is but, more importantly, what it isn’t.

To recognise how important AFL is in helping pupils to develop.

To share ideas for good practice.

How will you know that you have reached these objectives today?

Dylan William’s research into improving teaching and learning:

Talk to the person next to you and be prepared to come back with an

answer to this question:

• What is Assessment for learning?

• This is our starting point!

The QCDA definition:

• Assessment for learning involves using assessment in the classroom to raise pupils’ achievement. It is based on the idea that pupils will improve most if they understand the aim of their learning, where they are in relation to this aim and how they can achieve the aim (or close the gap in their knowledge).

» http://www.qcda.gov.uk/4334.aspx

The Ofsted Question….

When Ofsted arrive, what will they look for, to JUDGE that

learning is taking place?

When OFSTED arrive, Learning is judged by:

Pupils’ intellectual physical and creative effort

Productivity and pace of learning

Pupils’ interest, concentration and independence

Pupils’ own knowledge of their learning

How pupils with SEN learn

How pupils with EAL learn

According to Ofsted, when good learning is happening you should expect to see pupils:

Interested and enthusiastic – enjoying the work

Engaged

Working hard and being challenged to think

Being able to explain what they are doing, why they are doing it, what they are going to do next and, above all, how well they are doing.

You must be able to answer the question – What have the pupils learned in this lesson that they didn’t know before?

Afl is at the core of this.

What does Assessment For Learning look like in

the classroom?

Talk to the person next to you and be prepared to come back with an

answer to this question:

Write 1-10 on a piece of paper

• As you look at the following images, I’d like you to consider what part of AFL strategy you are seeing here.

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5

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I’d like you to hold on to those answers for now:

An AFL activity:

Draw a picture of the school that you want to work in when you are

qualified

You have 3 minutes

1

Peer marking

• This is an essential tool in AFL;• Swap pictures with a partner• Look at the picture and give it a mark out of

10.• Give it back to your partner and tell them

what score you have given them.• Who scored over 5?• How do you know?

• School sign = 1 point• Door knob = 1 point• Path to school = 1 point• Tree = 2 point• Swimming pool = 2 points• Car park = 2 points• A pupil wearing a blazer and tie (tied up to the neck) = 1 point

Total = 10 points

Peer marking

Mark Scheme

You are about to see a vital part of AFL –

Why is it?

Provide Pupils with the mark scheme2

Remind them of it all the time!

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Have steps displayed, to remind pupils how progress is made.

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Allow Pupils to make their own targets…. Give them their assessment grade, explain how it hits that grade and then they make their own learning path.

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Data• If you want to use AFL successfully, you have to have a

starting point and an aim;• More importantly, your pupils must have a starting point

and an aim.• Tracking data is essential to AFL.• Not just for parents, H.O.Ds, Ofsted, but for you and your

pupils

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8Make book Marking an

assessment FOR learning; not just

OF learning

Book marking:

• The AFL sandwich:• A positive comment• The word “Target”• Target written• AF based!

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Review Learning at Regular

Intervals….

Mini Plenaries!

Why do teachers need to write learning / lesson objectives in their planning and in their

room?

By making clear your learning objectives, you are:

• Describing to the students what you value and expect them to be able do

• Specifying the desired outcomes that can be tested (developing an assessment strategy)

•Assessing the student’s performance / understanding and, for you, if the lesson is effective (improving your own evaluation & ongoing delivery)

Lesson Objectives:• They get pupils into the habit of knowing what

they are learning and how it fits into their own day to day lives – the big picture!

• You should train pupils to regularly refer to them throughout the lesson – what progress are they making?

AFL strategies that relate to Lesson Objectives:

• Colour code, when reviewed!• When you share lesson objectives, ask pupils to define

how they will know that they can meet them. At the end of the lesson, return to their statement and assess their own progress.

• Continually refer to lesson objectives throughout the lesson – mini plenaries.

• Cross skills – What skill have you used today? (assessment) – In what other subjects could you use this skill and how?

• Ask pupils to analyse lesson objectives as the last thing they do.

Exit cards10

Links between Bloom’s taxonomy and learning objectives – words to shape your objectives:

• Knowledge – Define, label, list, name, order, recognize, recall, label, memorize, reproduce, repeat

• Comprehension – Classify, describe, discuss, explain, identify, indicate, locate, recognize, report, review, select, translate

• Application – Apply, choose, demonstrate, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use

• Analysis – Analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast, diagram, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, test, question

• Synthesis – Arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, create, design, formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, write

• Evaluation – Argue, assess, choose, defend, estimate, judge, predict, rate, score, select, support, value, evaluate

All …

Most …

Some…

13584% of lessons62% of questions15% of pupils

How classroom questioning supports AFL:

• Answers:• 135 is the average number of questions

in a 1 hour lesson• 84% of lessons start with a question• 62% of questions are closed• 15% of pupils never answer a question

• Hands down: teacher selects pupil(s) to answer• Wait time: all pupils have the opportunity to think before answering• Pupils encouraged to consult in their group/with a partner in order to formulate an answer• Teacher involves a number of pupils in the answer to a single question, creating the opportunity for discussion, eg “What do you think?” “Do you agree with that answer?”• Use of wrong answers to develop understanding• Appropriateness of questions; fit for purpose• Quality of questions – good question stems, eg “Why does…?” “What if…?” “How would you..?” “Could you explain….?• Opportunities for pupils to formulate questions

Personalised Questioning to support your lessons’ AFL

• Extend thinking time after you have asked a question and after a first response

• Adopt a rule of ‘No hands up’• Avoid the temptation to prompt, provide the answer

or move on to someone else• Ask questions randomly and return to the same pupils on two or three occasions• If pupils cannot answer a question, leave it with

them and say you will come back to them after they have thought about it. Don’t forget to go back!

• Ask pupils to work in pairs on your questions (KAGAN) – discussion encourages collaboration and clarification

of thought

Personalised QuestioningTips for asking questions

EvaluationGenerating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things. Designing, constructing,

planning, producing, inventing

SynthesisJustifying a decision or course of action. Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting,

judging

AnalysisBreaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships. Comparing,

organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding

ApplicationUsing information in another familiar situation. Implementing, carrying out, using,

executing

ComprehensionExplaining ideas or concepts. Interpreting, summarising, paraphrasing, classifying,

explaining

KnowledgeRecalling information. Recognising, listing, describing, retrieving, naming.

QUESTIONING FOR LEARNING: BLOOM’S TAXONOMYAll of these come into effect when you offer pupils’ the assessment grids

Results for English:• 2009 Key Stage 3 results:

• Level 5 and above 50%; • Level 6 and above 10%; • 2 Levels of progress at 15%• GCSE C+ 50% (38% the year before)

• 2010 Key Stage 3 Results:• Level 5 and above – 74%; • Level 6 and above – 26%; • Pupils making 2 levels of progress in key stage 3 – 23% - • GCSE C + 61%

• 2011 Current Projections based on accurate Data taken last term:

• Level 5 and above 80%• Level 6 and above 30%• Pupils making 2 levels of progress in key stage 3 – 29% - all significantly

higher than previous years.• GCSE C and above 70%

Aims of this “Information Session”

To know what AFL is, but more importantly, what it isn’t.

To recognise how important AFL is in helping pupil’s to develop.

To share ideas for good practice.