Assessment Strategies for English

Authentic Assessment Strategies for English Your Task: Draw a three way Venn diagram and complete it during this session

Assessment FOR Learning

Assessment AS Learning

Assessment OF Learning

Assessment and Reporting

Assessment

Assessment for Learning

Assessment as Learning

Assessment of Learning

http://syllabus.bos.nsw.edu.au/english/english-k10/syllabus-assessment/

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Differentiated assessment informs differentiated instruction Differentiated assessment provides information about each student’s readiness, strengths and needs in relation to particular outcomes or activities. This information shapes your planning.

Differentiated instruction leads to differentiated assessment In a differentiated classroom, students work toward learning outcomes at different paces and in different ways. As a result, you will need assessment tools and strategies that accommodate diversity while still usefully measuring learning outcomes.

• Differentiated assessment means selecting tools and strategies to provide each student with the best opportunity to demonstrate his or her learning.

• Assessment and instruction continue to support and inform each other.

LEARNING INTENTIONS and SUCCESS CRITERIA

Success criteria are directly related to the learning intention

Teaching and learning activities are designed to provide students with opportunities to meet the learning intention

Feedback is based on the learning intention and the success criteria

Students self-assess in light of the learning intention and success criteria

The assessment task/activity matches the learning intention

Teacher questioning always keeps the learning intention in focus

Key Feedback Questions

Hattie suggests effective feedback answers three questions: • Where am I going? • How am I going? • Where to next?

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1.0 REVERSE

ZONE OF DESIRED EFFECTS

Why is it important?

Student Achievement

Dinham CC 19/6/08 16

Influence Effect Size Feedback .72 Teacher-student relationships .72 Prior achievement .73 Reciprocal teaching .74 Quality of teaching .77 Classroom behaviour .80 Absence of disruptive students .86 Self-report grades 1.44

Lorna Earl “Rethinking Classroom Assessment with purpose in mind” 2006

Assessment As Learning “We must constantly remind ourselves that the ultimate purpose of evaluation is to enable students to evaluate themselves. Educators may have been practicing this skill to the exclusion of the learners. We need to shift part of this responsibility to students. Fostering students’ ability to direct and redirect themselves must be a major goal—or what is education for? Costa (1989)

Assessment AS Learning in practice: How do we encourage students to be active participants in their own learning, to THINK about and REFLECT upon their learning? Some examples from the readings: - Scaffold students’ understanding by providing exemplars and models of quality

work that reflects curriculum outcomes - Work with students to develop clear criteria of good practice – RUBRICS - Guide students in developing self monitoring mechanisms to validate and question their own thinking – monitoring metacognition - Help students take control of their own learning by defining their learning goals and monitoring their own progress in achieving them

- Encourage learning logs or journals where students reflect on what and how they learn, what worked for them and where to next

- Create opportunities for students to share their self assessments

with peers. Assist them to develop the language to talk about their learning

- Teach constructive peer assessment procedures and protocols and

allow multiple opportunities for students to practice this powerful form of feedback

- Collaborative digital discussions eg: Edmodo, blogs

There are many other strategies for assessment AS learning

Assessment of/for Learning Knowing where your kids are at is important.

Self-Assessment - Purpose

Self-assessment allows students to:

– identify their successes

– Identify areas of weakness

– set future goals

– take responsibility for their own learning

– understand themselves as learners

– develop life-long learning skills

Some Strategies for self-reflection

• WOWs and Wonders

• Plus, minus and what's next?

• Warm and cool feedback

• Traffic lights

• Using models or exemplars

• Using rubrics created with the students

Peer-Assessment - Some Strategies

• Students mark each others’ work according to rubric

criteria.

• This encourages reflection and thought about the learning as well as allowing students to see others’ work

• Allow opportunities to do this throughout individual lessons and programs of work.

• Student-led and three-way conferences

‘Might’

When questioning, insert the word ‘might’ to give students Greater opportunity to think and explore possible answers. e.g. What is the meaning of

democracy? becomes: What might the meaning of

democracy be? The first infers a single answer known by the teacher whereas the second is inherently More open.

What might the Great Depression look like today?

Some simple strategies for formative assessment

Tell your neighbour Students ‘tell their neighbour’ as a means of articulating their thoughts. - Ask a question, give thinking

time and then ask students to tell their neighbour their thoughts.

- Tell students what the new topic is and then ask them to tell their neighbour everything they know about it.

Traffic Lights Use traffic lights as a visual means of showing understanding. e.g. Students have red, amber and green

cards which they show on their desks or in the air. (red = don’t understand, green = totally get it etc.)

• Students self-assess using traffic lights. The teacher could then record these visually in their mark book.

• Peer assess presentations etc. with traffic lights

WOWS and Wonders

For peer assessment, ask students to give two Wows and a Wonder Two Wows = 2 things that are good about the piece of work A Wonder = something they can improve to make it even better Eg: “I wonder if there’s a different

word you could have used for…”

Learning Journal Create a learning journal in which students can reflect on and review their learning. It could include question stems to use in peer/self reflection, a target setting chart, simple rubrics to guide learning goals etc.

Wait-time

Wait time allows students time to think and therefore to produce answers. Also, not everyone in the class thinks at the same speed or in the same way – waiting allows students to build their thoughts and explore what has been asked. 2 types of wait time • Teacher speaks and then waits before taking

student responses. • Student response ends and then teacher waits

before responding. This gives the student space to elaborate or continue – or for another student to respond.

Hands Down

•HANDS DOWN strategy allows less confident students time to think and formulate a reply. •All students need to be prepared as they know the teacher may ask anyone. Tell pupils they should only raise their hand to ask a question, not to answer one. The teacher then chooses pupils to answer, therefore gaining information on whether everyone is learning.

Thumbs Check class understanding of what you are teaching by asking them to show their thumbs. Thumbs up = I get it Thumbs half way = sort of Thumbs down = I don’t get it

All you know Students write down everything they know about ________ at the start of the unit. The teacher can then teach the unit accordingly, using existing knowledge and avoiding repetition.

Corrections

Reinforce the focus on redrafting and comment-only marking by Insisting on seeing evidence that students have had feedback from 2-3 peers and made corrections on their own work before showing it to you.

Graphic Organisers Use graphic organisers to help pupils self-assess.

http://www.aaia.org.uk/pdf/Publication

s/AAIAformat4.pdf

KWL At the beginning of a topic pupils create a grid with three columns – What They Know; What They Want To Know; What They Have Learnt They begin by brainstorming and filling in the first two columns and then return to the third at the end of the unit (or refer throughout) . Variation – extra column ‘How Will I Learn’

Talk Partners As a summary or a starter referring to the last lesson, pupils share with a partner: • 3 new things they have learnt • What they found easy • What they found difficult • Something they would like to learn in

the future

Why is it best? Ask students to find their best piece of work and then to tell you why it is their best. This explanation could refer to success criteria, rubrics they helped create, what they learned from the work, how it was peer-assessed, targets etc.

Post-It Use post-it notes to evaluate learning. Groups, pairs or individuals can answer: • What have I learnt? • What have I found easy? • What have I found difficult? • What do I want to know now?

Exit Slip One thing I learned today....

Rate your understanding of today’s topic on a scale of 1-10 (10=Understanding it all). What can you do to improve your understanding?

One thing I didn’t understand today was:

Discuss one way today’s lesson could be used in the real world.

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EDMODO CODE – FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT