Formative Assessment

1
Formative Assessment

• Assessment for Learning
• Based on 20 years of research
• Work smarter not harder
• Pupil centred
• Practical classroom strategies

2
Assessment for Learning

• Is about
• Pupil teacher interaction
• Clearer and better assessment
• Seeking and Interpreting evidence for pupils and
  teachers TO
• Decide where learners are in their learning
• Decide where they need to go next
• Decide how to get there

3
Assessment for Learning

• Is not
• About targets and certification
• About measurements
• Test driven

4
Assessment for Learning

• 10 Key principles
• Recognises all achievement
• Develops capacity for self assessment
• Helps learners know how to improve
• Promotes understanding of goals and criteria
• Fosters motivation
• Is sensitive and constructive
• Is a key professional skill
• Is central to classroom practice
• Focuses on how students learn
• Is part of effective planning

5
Peer Assessment

• Peer Assessment
• Pupils must be trained in and understand
  assessment process
• This is best for lower achieving pupils
• Pupils show significant gains
• Pupils play important/active role
• Teachers must have high expectations

6
Peer Assessment

• Pupils work best when they understand the goal
• Peer assessment tends to be understood and
  accepted because it is pupil friendly they
  understand the language
• Their learning is in their own hands
• They are more likely to interrupt their peers for
  clarification and discussion

7
Classroom Techniques to aid Understanding

• Traffic lights
• Green means I understand
• Amber means I have some problems
• Red means I dont understand this
• Pupils must be taught habits and skills
• Pupils must always have the aims of the work in
  mind

8
Testing

• Traffic light tests
• Get pupils to mark answers and then redraft
• Pupils must know
• What is being assessed
• How it will be assessed

9
Work Smarter

• Questioning
• Listen to answers where is pupil learning?
• How can I take learning forward?
• How should I teach this?
• How are pupils going to learn?
• What are pupils going to do?
• Emphasis on pupils those who understand can
  explain to others

10
Classroom Strategies

• Questioning
• Introduce the 5 Second Rule
• Plan structured questions
• Introduce higher/lower order questions
• Use closed/open questions where appropriate
• Thinking time
• Pair share
• Post box for answers
• Create an environment where pupils can take risks

11
Classroom Strategies

• Think, Pair, Share
• Teacher sets question/questions
• Pupils discuss answer in pairs
• Pupils feed back thoughts to class/group
• Teacher collates answers on board and encourages
  discussion of interesting answers

12
Classroom Strategies

• Post Box
• Teacher poses question/questions
• Pupils post their answers in a box
• Teacher reads a selection at random promoting
  further discussion

13
Classroom Strategies

• Project work
• Pupils asked to break down the topic and
  assessment criteria into sub-topics
• Teacher sets questions which address what they
  need to find out and how they will go about this
• Teacher collates topics and questions from each
  group using a mind map on the board

14
Classroom Strategies

• Contradictory viewpoints
• Teacher splits materials into contradictory sets
• Pupils set in groups of 4 with each pair dealing
  with pro or con viewpoint
• Each pair learns its position and supporting
  arguments
• Each pair presents its argument to the other pair
• Group of 4 discuss the issue from all sides
  comparing strengths and weakness of arguments
• Group prepares a report covering both views and
  all supporting evidence

15
Classroom Strategies

• Jigsawing
• Each group gets a set of materials
• Each member of the group gets one part of the
  materials
• Each member must become expert on their part and
  must prepare to teach it to the group
• Each member then paired with a member from
  another group who has been using the same
  materials they share ideas on how to teach it
  to their groups
• Pupils teach the others in their group what they
  have learned and must learn the material taught
  to them by others
• Assess mastery of materials through quiz, self
  evaluation or peer evaluation

16
Classroom Strategies

• Jigsawing 2
• Teacher allocates subtopics to pupils
• Pupils have to find materials in reference base
  or library to research their own subtopic
• Each pupil must master their own material and
  prepare to teach it to the group
• Pairs with someone from another group working on
  the same topic share ideas
• Teach their group about their topic
• Assess using quiz, self evaluation, peer
  evaluation

17
Classroom Strategies

• Jigsawing 3
• As previous slides but in this case the group has
  to prepare a written presentation covering all of
  the subtopics

18
Assessment for Learning

• A major Scottish research project
• Led by LTScotland
• Participants from all levels of education
• Comes from HMI review of assessment
• Based of world-wide and long established research
• Aims to
• Improve feedback for pupil and teacher
• Target support
• Simplify assessment processes
• Help teachers find time for teaching

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Assessment for Learning

• Projects
• 1 Professional practice in the classroom
• 2 Personal Learning Plans
• 3 Moderation sharing and understanding
  standards
• 4 Confident use of assessment judgements
• 5 Collection of evidence
• 6 Local moderation
• 7 Electronic assessment bank starting autumn
  03
• 8 AAP
• 9 Reporting to parents
• 10 SEN throughout the other projects

20
Research Evidence

• Feedback important
• See Inside the Black Box
• Israeli Research on feedback
• Comments only Best
• Grade and no comment Decline in performance
  of pupils
• Comment plus Grade Initial gain and then
  decline in performance
• High achievers maintained scores in all 3 regimes

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Work Smarter

• Feedback
• Comments should focus on improvements feed
  forward
• What has been done well?
• What needs to be improved?
• What follow up?
• Dont give marks
• Allow redraft after feedback
• Peer assessment very powerful
• Good feedback allows deeper understanding