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Bexley Assessment for Learning ConferenceFriday 6th March 2009Keynote speaker: Professor Dylan Wiliam Instituteof Education

Key recommendationsA KLT Teacher = A Keep Learning TeacherA pilot guides a plane or boat toward its destination by taking constantreadings and making careful adjustments in response to wind, currents,weather, etc.A KLT teacher does the same:

Plans a carefully chosen route ahead of time (in essence building thetrack)

Takes readings along the way Changes course as conditions dictate Drives learning by matching task challenge with competence:

High Challenge + Low Competence = AnxietyLow Challenge + Low Competence = ApathyHigh Challenge + High competence = FLOW (most desirable zone )(Csilkszentminalyi 1990)

THIS MAKES KIDS SMARTER

How do we subvert the national agenda to meet the needs of children in ourschools?Key processes

Establishing where the learners are in their learningEstablishing where they are going

Working out how to get there

Participants

Teachers

Peers

Learners

APP = part of the solution : acts like a GPS system to tell you You are here!.

What it wont tell you is when to turn left and what skills you need in order tobe able to fulfill that instruction when driving a car.

Research shows explicit evidence that the most successful AFL is not byteachers with beautiful data on every child in a markbook, but those oftenwith little or no records but whom assess every single lesson and refinelearning experience by making adjudustments in real time minute byminute

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Assessment for learning is any assessment for which the first priority in itsdesign and practice is to serve the purpose of promoting pupils learning. Itthus differs from assessment designed primarily to serve the purposes ofaccountability, or of ranking, or of certifying competence. An assessmentactivity can help learning if it provides information to be used as feedback, by

teachers, and by their pupils, in assessing themselves and each other, tomodify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged.Such assessment becomes formative assessment when the evidence isactually used to adapt the teaching work to meet learning needs.Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall & Wiliam, 2002

Techniques for success:

Traffic Light AFLEach student has 3 cups:1 Red = Stop I dont Understand1 Amber = I feel OK but not 100%1 Green = I fully understand

Students have 3 cups on their desk and alternate colours depending uponlevels of understanding at any given point in the lesson. Teacher has to beaware of the responses. Where there is a prevelance of Red cups, teacherasks a student with a green cup to come-up and share knowledge /teach. Inpeer/group work, teams can be structured with GREEN supporting RED

/AMBER.

This system can then be effectively interpreted into mark books so that AFL ismeaningful, focused and supports dynamic feedback. Instead of LEVELS/SUB-LEVELS AND A-G grades, assessment is mapped and knowledge of studentlearning and progress is informed by using the 2/1/0 system:

2 = student fully understands1 = OK but with room for improvement0 = Little or no understanding

AFL can be mapped in advance and then documented each lesson/end ofeach week with a focus that is linked to the specific subject assessmentobjectives. The learning maybe assessed via:

- outcome- peer assessment- plenary- student feedback

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- creative work- written work- standard

STUCK? Good. It was worth coming into this lesson today!

NEW DEFAULT SETTING FOR CLASS: ONLY PUT YOUR HAND UP IF YOU AREGOING TO ASK A QUESTION

MARKING

Instead of GRADE / SCORE / COMMENT

Move into - =+

When work is returned, students:1.Look at their grade

2. Their neibours grade

Students are not overly interested in critical commentary. Therefore giveweekly feedback in a more smple form of :

+ = Improved progress on week previous= = same as previous- = you have regressed

IMPRERATIVE THAT IN FEEDBACK YOU ARE ABLE TO IDENTIFY PROBLEM ANDOFFER SOLUTIONS.