INSET DAY
SEPTEMBER 2013
BACK TO THE
BEGINNING … ALMOST
Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom
Assessment. Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam (Kings College, 1998)
• A review of 250 research journals and publications from1988 to
1997
• All age groups 5-year-olds to university graduates
• All subjects
ASSESSMENT FOR
LEARNING
Formative assessment, like summative assessment, is about
gathering information relating to students’ learning but it is the
point at which this information is gathered that makes it
different.
Formative assessment focuses on how a young person is learning
as they undertake the task. The teacher is then more able to
tune into the learner’s progress, picking up on emerging
understandings and difficulties.
Formative assessment provides teachers with information with
which to modify or change the teaching and learning activities
in which students are engaged.
This is Assessment for Learning (AfL)
HOW AND WHY
I despair at the way AfL has been abused in classrooms. This is a classic
case of teachers concentrating on how to do something without considering
why they’re doing it.
I’ve seen all sorts of skilfully executed AfL practice which doesn’t have the
slightest impact on students’ progress. I’ve seen teachers brandishing lolly
sticks to ensure everyone participates in questioning; students assiduously
applying mark schemes to each other’s work; all manner of fancy methods for
getting students to articulate what they’ve just learned and blooms of post-it
notes appearing around rooms full of all sorts of evidence which confirms that
students have met the lesson’s objectives.
And none of it has made the slightest bit of difference to anyone. Why?
Because all too often none of this potentially wonderful stuff makes it in to
next lesson’s plan. Because the teacher (and therefore the students) have
only the vaguest notion of why they are doing these things. Oh, they know
that they’re supposed to do them because they’re mentioned on their
observers’ checklists.
But beyond that?
HOW AND WHY
I’m not blaming teachers for this – it’s an inevitable part of
education’s obsession with quick fixes. If some boffin publishes
research on a strategy that can potentially raise students’
attainment it’s a lot easier for someone to tell us what we should
be doing rather than worrying us with why we should be doing it.
Easier, but not better. Teacher training and INSET is all too often
about training teachers how rather than encouraging us to ask
why. Compliance is preferred.
David Didau: The Learning Spy
BELIEFS ABOUT
TEACHING
What is teaching?
Discussion:
How do children learn the stuff you teach?
How would you describe the process of teaching?
BELIEFS ABOUT
TEACHING
Knowledge is shared by the teacher for the children to learn.
The children take this learning away so they develop their
understanding.
How well the children learn this information depends on how
good the teacher is at delivering this knowledge.
This is good teaching.
In your experience is this true?
The wealth of evidence shows that this ‘transmission’ model
does not work.
BELIEFS ABOUT
TEACHING
Teaching is a process of interaction between the teacher and
the child to develop each pupil’s power to incorporate new facts
and ideas into his or her understanding.
BELIEFS ABOUT
LEARNING
Do you believe:
A. Everyone has the ability/intelligence they are born with which
means that some people can learn things easily and quickly and
that others have difficulty learning things.
B. Ability/intelligence is made up of skills that can be learnt.
Everyone can learn more effectively by clearing away, by
sensitive handling, any obstacles like undiagnosed learning
difficulties, lack of self confidence, personal circumstances etc…
BELIEFS ABOUT
LEARNING
• Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you
can't change very much.
• You can learn new things, but you can't really change how
intelligent you are.
• No matter how much intelligence you have, you can always
change it quite a bit.
• You can always substantially change how intelligent you are.
BELIEFS ABOUT
LEARNING
Professor Carol Dweck, Stanford University
Fixed mindset
① I struggle with failure. Failing is evidence that I am failure;
success is about being successful. I want to achieve without
making too much effort; if I find something hard it means that I
am not good enough. Successful people succeed without
making too much effort.
The growth mindset
② I enjoy learning new things and enjoy making effort. I am
really motivated to have a go and I don’t worry too much
about failing. I love experimenting, tinkering and trying out
new ideas.
BELIEFS ABOUT
LEARNING
We all know adults and children who fit into these two categories
and we may have a ‘fixed’ view of them.
Dweck argues that we can all cultivate a growth mindset.
Pupils, and teachers, can be taught to see failure as progress and
to be intrinsically motivated to learn. Dweck asserts that
anyone can succeed.
She cites a huge amount of evidence that anyone, with the right
attitude can succeed.
LEARNING
So keeping this all in mind, what does this mean in the
classroom?
Praise effort, not ability. If you say, “You’re really clever” you are
fixing their view of how intelligent they are. Saying, “You really
worked hard” reinforces the fact that the effort we make is the biggest
factor in our likely success. It also shows that you value
the process of learning over the end product
Have very high standards: don’t accept minimal effort and insist that
pupils produce work that they can take pride in. Don’t accept
excuses and don’t make any excuses for them.
Build a nurturing environment where it is safe to make mistakes
and above all, don’t give up on the difficult ones; that’s what they’re
expecting so prove them wrong. Know that they can achieve.
Use formative assessment to help students understand exactly
what they need to do to be successful.
LEARNING
Of course the reason why we should doing these things is so that
we (and therefore our students) have a clear understanding of
what was known before the lesson, what was learned during the
lesson and what needs to be learned next lesson.
If we are not able to turn these classroom activities into
information on which students can act in order to make progress
then what’s the point?
David Didau: The Learning Spy
LEARNING
We need to keep pupils (and us) focused on their learning and
not their ability. This is the fundamental basis of AfL and all of the
strategies it has spawned.
We will do this by reflecting on our practice to see if we can
answer these questions.
• Do we know what the pupils know before each lesson?
• Do we know what was learned during each lesson?
• How do we know what needs to be learned in the next
lesson?
WHAT THE PUPILS KNOW
BEFORE EACH LESSON?
Look at your planning for tomorrow’s lesson and make notes on
how you know what the pupils already know about this
particular aspect of learning.
If you don’t know the answer make a note of where you could find
this information?
WHAT THE PUPILS KNOW
BEFORE EACH LESSON?
MARKING IS AN ACT OF LOVE…
Let’s assume we all understand and agree that giving quality
feedback to students is the most important thing teachers can
do.
Here is an example of quality feedback
Let’s also agree that while other forms of feedback may be
equally valuable, marking books is one of the most important
and effective ways of ensuring that students are getting clear,
timely feedback on how well they are making progress.
WHAT THE PUPILS KNOW
BEFORE EACH LESSON?
DIFFERENTIATION
You could argue that marking pupils’ work is the only really
effective way of differentiating lessons.
In the ideal world – detailed marking of everything!
In the real world, every time you carry out detailed marking, you
should plan guided sessions for the children to act on this
feedback. This will ensure detailed differentiation for this lesson
without having to plan activities.
Action
Ensure that the learning for each ability group is highlighted. (This
ought to be related to the most recent marking/feedback/ APP
target)
WHAT IS LEARNED
DURING EACH LESSON?
FIRST TEN MINUTES OF A LESSON
Geoff Petty Evidence Based Teaching: A Practical Approach (2006)
John Hattie Visible Learning (2008)
Their research shows that the first 10 minutes of the lesson can have
a massive impact on learning and progress. Most important to:
•
Set learning intentions that are not outcome based but focus on
what will be learned
•
Use questioning to recall prior learning
Action:
•
Add two questions at start of tomorrows lesson that will require
children to recall prior learning on this particular area of learning.
WHAT IS LEARNED
DURING EACH LESSON?
THE LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Why do we have a learning objective? Discuss…
WHAT IS LEARNED
DURING EACH LESSON?
An integral part of AfL
Dylan Wiliam says that the learning objective opens up a
discourse about learning and that pupils need to know where
they’re supposed to be headed if they’re going to have a chance
of getting there.
Learning objectives are important for two reasons.
① They ensure that teachers are clear about the purpose of the
lesson before they begin thinking about all the fun activities
they want to fit in to the lesson.
② They provide a very useful signpost against which progress
can be checked.
WHAT IS LEARNED
DURING EACH LESSON?
Learning objectives. Finding ways to make the complexities of
learning concrete and clear to learners is a challenge. How do we
make these objectives purposeful and meaningful?
Activity
Rewrite tomorrow’s LI to include a SO THAT…
WHAT IS LEARNED
DURING EACH LESSON?
This discourse about learning is based on breaking the learning
objective down in smaller steps. Success criteria, WMAG, WIN…
Pupils need to be actively involved in breaking the learning
intention down into these smaller steps.
Discussion
How will you ensure that the LI for each lesson accurately
describes what the children will have learned by the end of the
lesson?
How will you record who has learned what?
How will this information be used to plan the next day’s lesson?
How will you record how the children will assess their own
learning against these criteria?
WHAT IS LEARNED
DURING EACH LESSON?
MODELLING
Name the skill "Today I am going to show you how to combine sentences to make more
interesting and complex statements."
State the purpose: "It's important as a writer to be able to construct sentences that aren't
repetitive or choppy. Sentence combining is one way to make sure your sentences read more
smoothly."
Explain when the strategy or skill is used. "After I have written a passage, I reread it to see
if I have choppy sentences or if I am repeating information unnecessarily. When I notice that's
occurred, I look for ways to combine sentences.”
Demonstrate how the skill, strategy, or task is completed. "I'm going to show you three
short, choppy sentences. Let's look first at information that we can cross out because it is
repetitive. Then I'm going to combine those three sentences into one longer and more
interesting sentence."
Alert learners about errors to avoid. "I have to be careful not to cut out too much
information, so that I don't lose the meaning. I also need to watch out for sentences that
become too long. A reader can lose the meaning of a sentence that's too long."
Access the use of the skill. "Now I'm going to reread my new sentence to see if it makes
sense."
WHAT IS LEARNED
DURING EACH LESSON?
ASKING QUESTIONS
Some children actively participate in lessons because they know
that they’ll learn more, there are those who don’t.
By allowing some students not to participate we’re making the
achievement gap bigger.
WHAT IS LEARNED
DURING EACH LESSON?
ASKING QUESTIONS
How do you choose? Use this?
How long do I have to wait?
What questions?
WHAT IS LEARNED
DURING EACH LESSON?
What questions?
An example: What is alliteration?
…. dreary game of guess what is in the teachers head.
WHAT IS LEARNED
DURING EACH LESSON?
Hinge Questions (Dylan Wiliam)
An interesting diagnostic tool which provides instant information on
pupils’ understanding and allows you to make on the spot decisions
about the direction of your teaching without wasting anybody’s time.
•
A hinge question is based on the important concept in a lesson
that requires an answer that demonstrates understanding not
just recall.
•
The question should come half way through the lesson.
•
Every pupil must respond to the question within 2 minutes.
•
You must be able to collect and interpret the responses from all
pupils in 30 seconds
•
You need to be clear on how many pupils you need to get the
right answer in advance. 20-80% depending on how important
the question is.
WHAT IS LEARNED
DURING EACH LESSON?
Hinge Questions
• No time to get children to explain their answers. The point here
is to check understanding so you can work out whether you
need to recap, change direction or just get a move on.
• Questions must be multiple choice
• Must have mini whiteboards.
WHAT IS LEARNED
DURING EACH LESSON?
Hinge Questions – examples
Action
Add a hinge question to Tuesday’s planning.
WHAT NEEDS TO BE
LEARNED IN THE NEXT
LESSON?
Look at your planning for tomorrow’s lesson and make notes on
how you will ensure that you use your knowledge of what the
pupils learned in this lesson so that you can plan the next
lesson.
CHECKLIST
Available on blog