Professional Learning Day 4
Assessment for Learning
Objectives for the day:
 Develop knowledge and understanding of
Assessment for Learning and why it is the key to
effective learning
 Identify the key principles underpinning AfL
 Critically evaluate current practice and share
ideas on how to improve AfL strategies in
teaching, that impact on learning
1
What is the purpose of
assessment?
Discuss
2
Formative Assessment…
Some definitions
“… undertaken by teachers and their students,
which provides information to be used as feedback
to modify the teaching and learning activities in
which they are engaged…the evidence is actually
used to adapt the teaching work to meet the
needs.” Black and Wiliam, (1998)
“… provides feedback which leads to students
recognising the (learning) gap and closing it … it
is forward looking …” Harlen, (1998)
3
Summative Assessment…
Some definitions
“… assessment (that) has increasingly
been used to sum up learning” Black
and Wiliam, (1998)
“… is carried out at intervals when
achievement has to be summarised and
reported.” Harlen, (1998)
4
formative
assessment
Provides information which can aid
further progress, diagnose reasons for
both good and poor performance, and
target particular learning needs
summative
assessment
Measures and reports on pupils’
progress, as a ‘verdict’ on what has been
achieved; it summarises achievement
and occurs near the end of a piece of
work
5
Formative Assessment
Summative Assessment
6
1) What key principles
of AfL have I
ignored?
2) Discuss your
feelings with those
on your table
3) What impact does
the score have on
your learning?
7
There are 10 key elements of AfL
What is
AFL?
Sort the cards & discuss implications for classroom practice:
 Categorise them into which are important for the
teacher
 Which important for the learner
 Rank
8
Does this surprise you?
Research presented by Dylan Wiliam – SSAT Academies Conference (2009)
9
The history and theory behind AfL: The research
Inside the Black Box
 1998 research paper
 “Raising standards
 Through classroom assessment”
 Black & Wiliam
 “formative assessment raises standards of achievement
and equips children for lifelong learning”
10
Research informed Practice
The research indicates that improving learning
through assessment depends on five key factors
o The provision of effective feedback to pupils
o The active involvement of pupils in their own learning
o Adjusting teaching to take account of the results of
assessment
o A recognition of the profound influence assessment has on
the motivation and self esteem of pupils, both of which are
crucial influences on learning
o The need for pupils to be able to assess themselves and
understand how to improve
Black and Wiliam (1998: 5)
What factors might inhibit this process? Discuss
11
Characteristics of assessment that
promotes learning
o Assessment is embedded in a view of teaching and learning,
of which it is an essential part
o It involves pupils sharing learning goals with pupils
o It aims to help pupils to know and to recognise the
standards they are aiming for
o It involves pupils in self assessment
o It provides feedback which leads to pupils recognising their
next steps and how to undertake them
o It is underpinned by the confidence that every pupil can
improve
o It involves both teacher and pupils reviewing and reflecting
on assessment data
Black and Wiliam (1998:7)
12
From research … 5 “key strategies”
 Feedback: Give feedback that moves learners forward
 Sharing learning Expectations: Clarifying and sharing learning
goals. Engineering effective classroom discussions,
 Questioning: questions, tasks and activities that elicit evidence of
learning
 Self Assessment: Activating students as owners of their own
learning
 Peer Assessment: Activating students as learning resources for one
another
(Wiliam & Thompson, 2007)
13
Context within lesson
Form / nature of the evidence
Whole Class Intro e.g. Mental /
Oral Starter in Maths
Questioning, verbal discussion eliciting
strategies children used to reach a solution.
Whiteboard/show me visual tools.
Talk partners
Practical activity
Observations of play
Observations and discussions with children
(particularly where children are using
practical equipment)
Written outcomes
Exercise books, test scripts.
Group work (similar to practical
activity but may include some
written outcomes)
Observations of learning and interactions,
discussions,
Extended conversations with
individual children
Discussions, questioning
Plenary feedback
Verbal feedback, children referring to their
written work, marking
Children’s self assessment
Written feedback, traffic lights system,
children’s comments on learning objectives,
verbal responses, thumbs up/down signals
Marking and teacher’s written
feedback
Written comments in workbooks and on
worksheets
Strengths
Weaknesses
How might we approach
this during our school
placement?
14
So where are we now??
• Still an over emphasis on summative assessment, but with a
view of to pupils make good or better progress
• Assessment Reform 2014
– “as part of our reforms to the national Curriculum, the current system of
‘levels’ to report children’s attainment and progress will be removed from
September 2014 and will not be replaced. By removing levels we will allow
teachers greater flexibility in the way that they plan and assess pupil’s
learning…..The curriculum must include an assessment system which
enables schools to check what pupils have learned and whether they are on
track to meet expectations at the end of each key stage, and to report
regularly to parents
15
So what are schools doing?
When teaching and learning are visible –
that is when it is clear what teachers are
teaching and what students are learning,
student achievement increases. As feature
in Visible Learning for Teachers (Hattie,
2012)
16
Emerging → Developing → Secure → Exceeding
17
Revised Blooms Taxonomy
(Krathwohl, 2002)
• Learning Ladders
• Stepping Stones
• Command words
18
Curriculum progression objectives
A wide range of feedback methods
19
Reforming assessment and accountability for primary schools
• From the academic year 2015/16, we will move from
an absolute measure of progress (ie two levels of
progress required between KS1 and KS2) to a
relative measure. Key Stage 2 outcomes will be
reported as a scaled score, where the expected score
is 100. Pupil progress will be determined in relation
to average progress made by pupils with same
baseline.
• New performance indicators will be published by
September 2015
• Details of revised GCSE examinations are still
unknown, some schools decided that using highest
level expectations of success at GCSE should be
used to form expectations from Y7 upwards.
20
Proposed performance descriptors KS2
• Working towards national standard
• Working at national standard
• Working above national standard
• Consultation
https://www.gov.uk/government/consulta
tions/performance-descriptors-keystages-1-and-2
Closes 18/12/2014
21
Dfe Guidance
 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?key
words=assessment&publication_filter_option=gu
idance&topics%5B%5D=all&departments%5B%5
D=department-foreducation&official_document_status=all&world_l
ocations%5B%5D=all&from_date=&to_date=
 Beyond levels…..
22
23
What AfL strategies have you used and seen in your schools
and classes to date: Foundation to KS2 & KS3-5?
 What form did the AfL take?
 How were pupils involved in their own
learning
 How did you adjust your teaching to
Put you
take account of assessment results best
ideas
on a Post
(informal or formal)
–it with
 How were pupils motivated by your the Key
Stage
assessment practice?
 What form did the feed back to pupils
take?
24
 Primary to feed back on Secondary
practice & vice versa
 Primary from one school feed back
on another Primary school practice
What could you/will you borrow across
phase?
Marking for
improvement
25
Marking for Improvement
Marking focuses on what the learning intention for the piece
of work was and provides constructive feedback in both
written and oral form. The teacher makes constructive use
of their marking to amend their future planning.
Feedback in written form refers to the learning intention and
details what the child did successfully and is specific in
identifying what could be improved. There is opportunity
given to pupils to respond to this feedback by making
small but significant improvements.
Pupils are aware, either in written or oral form, and are able
to improve upon their previous best.
26
Recording Assessments
for a Focus Group: Poor
Learning Intention: To know how to write and
represent 2-digit numbers using knowledge of place
value
Date:
Name
Assessment Comments
Target
Child A
Didn’t concentrate very well. Took a
long time to get started. Could write
some numbers well.
Work on
concentration and
doing more work.
Child B
Worked hard. Achieved the learning
intention for smaller numbers but not
for bigger ones.
Work on bigger
numbers
Child C
Tried hard. Got most of the answers
right with support. Wasn’t sure about
the last 3 questions.
Practice some more
in next lesson
Date
27
Separate activities for Primary and Secondary
28
Recording Assessments: Improved
Learning Intention: To know how to write and represent 2digit numbers using knowledge of place value
Date:
Name
Assessment Comments
Target
Child A Can accurately write two-digit numbers
up to 30 for a provided representation
but in own representations does not
recognise the base 10 structure used in
place value.
Understanding the need
to group in tens plus
remaining ones for 2
digit numbers
Child B Succeeds with writing teen numbers but
creates incorrect additional columns for
writing numbers with more than 1 ten
Understanding that all
the tens need to be
combined and written in
tens column
Child C Can accurately write most two digit
numbers up to 30 for a provided
representation but does not understand
the need to use zero as a place holder for
empty columns.
Understanding of zero as
a place holder in 2-digit
numbers
Date
29
Feedback Matrix
Specific
Negative
Positive
Non-Specific
30
Types of prompt
Reminder Prompt: is simply a re-iteration
of the learning intention
Scaffold Prompt: involves the teacher
deciding what she would like the child to
write, then finding a way to hand it back
to the child
Example Prompt: models a choice of
possible improvements, but asks if the
child has an idea of his/her own
31
Examples
LO: To be able to introduce a character for
a story (written or oral)
Child writes “This person is a good friend”
Reminder Prompt:
Say more about how you feel about this
person
32
Scaffold Prompts:
Can you describe how this person is a good
friend?
Describe something that has happened that
showed you what a good friend this person
is
He showed me he was a good friend when ...
33
Example Prompt:
Choose one of these statements to tell me
more about your friend:
He is a good friend because he never says
unkind things to me
Or
My friend helps me with do things when I
am having trouble
34
Discussion
• How do children respond to marking in
your school / class?
• Do you need to correct EVERY mistake
in pupils’ books?
• Do you re-mark tasks which pupils have
marked under your instruction in class?
• Must you really correct all the mistakes
in a task with more than one focus?
35
Subject: Mathematics
Name
(ALPHABETICAL
BY SURNAME)
You could list
children by
group
LO/Date
10/10/2014
To be able
to count on
or back in
steps of 5
AS
AC
AV
BG
CC
CT
GE
GT
HE
KT
KE
ML
MM
NN
OP
OD
OF
RF
RB
RE
ST
SN
SB
TY
TT
TS
LO/Date
11/10/2014
To be able
to prove
why a
number is
in the five x
table


























LO/Date
12/10/2014
To use my
knowledge
of the %x
and 10X
table to
solve
problems
LO/Date
Comment
Next steps
/
•
/ Surprised
/
•
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
•
•
/
/
/
•
•
I have illustrated three different ways of recording whole class assessment
Mastered

Achieved

/
Working towards

•
What does this data tell you about the learning in mathematics? What would you do next?
36
Name: BS
Start/end date: Wb. 13th October
Subject
Writing:
vocabulary,
grammar, and
punctuation
LO/Activity
Use expanded
noun phrases to
describe and
specify; for
example, the blue
butterfly
Observations
Bwas able to describe nouns
using simple adjectives, e.g.;
big, small, colours, round
before the noun e.g. the red
ball
Next steps
Use the adjective after the noun e.g.
the ball was red
To know how to
write and
represent
2-digit numbers
using knowledge
of place value
Succeeds with
writing teen
numbers but
creates incorrect
additional
columns for
writing numbers
with more than 1
ten
B was able to show me 36 with
the base ten material however
when writing the number she
wrote 306
Understanding that all the tens need to
be combined and written in tens
column
Science Living
Things
To explore and
compare the
differences
between things
that are living, and
things that have
never been alive
B was able to tell me that the
rock was not a living thing
because it did not move and
could not grow. However she
was less clear about a tree
because it did not move like
people or animals
Enable B to understand that there are
other factors that constitute a living
thing other than movement e.g.,
respiration, needing nutrition,
excretion, and growing: We will cover
this in the next series of lesson in which
we grow a sunflower
Implemented
15th November; we have completed a
series of lessons on plants and B can
now tell me that plants and animals
are living things because they grow,
move, breathe
37
Grade Descriptors
 Read the grade descriptors for Standard 6:
Assessment.
 Discuss in pairs anything you do not understand.
 We are all aiming for a High grade by the end of
the training.
 What evidence will your mentor need to see to
support this grade?
 What does ‘High’ grade practice look like?
 Brainstorm responses to these two questions in
pairs / small groups
38
Made by Mike Gershon –
mikegershon@hotmail.com
Assessment For Learning Tools
AfL is successful when embedded in teaching
and learning.
This toolkit aims to help by presenting
different facets, activities and tools for
teachers to use in order to achieve this.
I hope you find it useful!
Sources
http://www.aaia.org.uk/pdf/Publications/AAIA%20Pupils%20Learning%20from%20Teachers'%20Responses.pdf
http://www.aaia.org.uk/pdf/Publications/AAIAformat4.pdf
http://www.aaia.org.uk/pdf/asst_learning_practice.pdf
http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/t/300200.aspx
http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t7669.html
www.harford.edu/irc/assessment/FormativeAssessmentActivities.doc
Paul Black et al, Assessment for Learning, (Open University Press, Maidenhead, 2003)
Paul Black et al, “Working inside the black box”, (nferNelson, London, 2002)
Paul Black and Dylan William, Inside the Black Box, (nferNelson, London, 1998)
Assessment Reform Group, Testing, Motivation and Learning, (The Assessment Reform Group, Cambridge, 2002)
Assessment Reform Group, Assessment for Learning, (The Assessment Reform Group, Cambridge, 1999)
My head
Other people’s heads
39
Sources:
http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/18700
http://www.ukcle.ac.uk/resources/assessment/group.html
http://www.sedl.org/pubs/tl05/images/icons.gif
www.nsead.org/downloads/Art_Peer_Assessment_example.doc
40
Wider Reading & Resources:
Seminal work by UK academics Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall and Wiliam
1998
2002
2003
Booklet
Booklet
Book
Synthesis 250
other studies
Implementation
‘How to..’
41
Moving Forward:
 Based on the last activity and all the
information you have learnt today set
yourself two personal targets for things you
will endeavour to use / change in your
practice from now on.
 You could add these to your journal if it is
helpful.
42
Link to Professional Learning Day 5--- Linking AfL to
Levels of Progress Data and Ipsative Assessment
 Q&A:
43