Session 2

Assessment for learning and pupil progression.

Reflection Activity

Rate yourself from 0 (not at all) to 5 (I do this consistently)

Do you have confidence that every student in your class can improve?

How well do you:

Create a learning environment in all of your lessons?
Share achievement with students and co-construct clear learning goals with them?
Use assessments to feedback into teaching?
Clarify learning outcomes with students?
Involve students in self – peer assessment?
Provide timely & meaningful feedback?

An effective school is full of effective classrooms

“It matters much less which school a child attends than which classrooms they are in at school.” (Wiliam 2007)

Children fortunate enough to be in the most effective classrooms will learn in six months what students in an average classroom learn in a year

In the least effective classrooms it will take two years

What matters is the quality of the teaching

Key Messages about Assessment

Removal of ‘levels’
Prescription does not fit with freedoms
Introduce own approaches to formative assessment
Report as to whether on track to meet expectations at the end of a key stage
Curriculum and assessment systems must meet the needs of your pupils
Work with Subject Associations (and others) to produce a range of approaches

Assessment for Learning

Headline 1

Re-emphasise the learning function of assessment
De-emphasise the grading function

Assessment to improve learning or Assessment to prove learning?

What are summative and formative assessment?

The Garden analogy

Think of your students as flowers.

Summative assessment is to simply measure them. This might provide interesting data to be analysed and compared, but it does not effect how well they grow and develop.

Formative assessment is the process of watering and feeding the plants according to their needs – directly affecting their growth

Assessment is the insight we gather

Reflection Activity

Come up with a list of the MOST accurate and RELIABLE types of evidence that you might use to assess students in PE.

What assessment methods do you currently use to provide evidence of attainment?

You have 16 example of assessments in the table

Please decide which are formative assessment and which are summative assessment

Giving 5/10 for an end of topic test	Completing your GCSE practical Assessment	Watching a student complete a forward roll and giving them a tip for improving
Observing a student's hurdling technique	Awarding class members an end of KS3 level	Deciding which theory set to put a student in
*Gaining an A for the overall GCSE exam**	Using Year 8 end of year PE results to decide which pupils do GCSE and which B Tech	Giving a PE merit certificate for achievement in a unit of work
Testing whether pupils can swim a length for their 25m badge	Telling student that they are level 5b for dance	Timing and measuring for athletics badges
Counting how many passes you can do in a minute to decide if you are ready to move on	Seeing the score you can get in a sit and reach test	Using a reciprocal task sheet to help another student learn a set shot
Using thumbs up to see whether students have contributed to a problem solving task in OAA	Judging how accurately John can hit his forehand drive	Counting how many times weaker students hit the ball when batting

Can you think of any other ways that you assess children’s progress in PE.. Is it summative or formative?

Assessment for Learning

Headline 2:

Explore the relationship between curriculum and assessment for inclusive & progressive delivery

Reflection Activity

The assessment practice for PE in your school.

What is good, what not so good

Is there clear progression of learning across the curriculum?
How is pupils’ progress recorded?
Are recording systems in place easily understood and meaningful (for staff, pupils and parents)?

Assessment for Learning

Headline 3:

Use Assessment information to evolve your pedagogy. The better you communicate with learners the better their progress will be

Reflection Activity

You are about to teach PE to a Yr2 class of 30 children ( 16 girls,14 boys). At the end of Yr1 only 8 pupils could consistently catch a ball when thrown to them, the others could only catch when bounced to them. Very few could throw competently most tending to throw from a forward facing position. 2 pupils lacked the confidence to throw or catch any type of ball.

Set appropriate objectives for your lesson with this class

Assessment for Learning

Headline 4:

The Attainment target statutory has no level descriptors.

What and how we measure progress MUST change. Assessment HAS to be fit for purpose

The issues with levels

Learning is not a linear process, so having a linear assessment protocol does not inform learning
Level descriptors undermine learning
The emphasis is on the grade rather than the learner
Information about pupil attainment is misleading
Parents have no clarity about how their children are performing in PE

Implications

Measure what we treasure / measure what we value

Rather than....

Attach a value to the measure

Types of Action

There are four types of action associated with assessment for learning and these are the communication tools that teachers need to constantly be seeking to improve:

Eliciting information through questioning and dialogue.
Providing feedback with emphasis on how to improve.
Helping learners understand quality criteria.
Peer- and self-assessment (which incorporates 1-3).

The Process of AfL

Establish a starting point

based on what they have observed teachers will quickly come to a judgement about the ability of the pupils performing.

Negotiate a gap by setting targets

Teachers will make decisions about what they want to improve in relation to the current performance of pupils and what they want to see pupils demonstrating.

Set strategies to improve

Teachers will intervene and suggest ways of improving

Reflection

Scenarios

Consider the following scenarios that could happen in schools

Consider how you might intervene to get the best outcomes for the pupils discussed. What AfL strategies could be deployed?

Problem	AfL strategies
Max, Year 4, finds it difficult to stay on task in PE. He starts well but then loses focus mid- way through a task. He quickly loses heart and gives up. Then he mucks about.
Josh, Year 6, District / Pro-club academy player, is keen to impress and do well, but his teacher’s feedback is usually along the lines of “Well done” or “Brilliant work, Josh. Keep it up!”
Lisa, a year 5 pupil is approached by a visitor and is asked if she can tell them what she is learning in the lesson. Lisa is unsure and unable to answer.
Janine, year 3, feels she never gets a chance to share her ideas or contribute within PE lessons.
John, comes out of a PE lesson, he is heard overheard saying to a friend we have already done that in a science lesson.

Reflection Activity

AFL in Action – What I am looking for… (WILF)

Reflection Activity

Using the PE SOW assessment grids, identify and discuss ‘can-do’ or ‘WILF’ statements for each of the four domains.

For the activities across one year of your Curriculum, tweak them to become ‘can-do’ statements for each unit.

You must identify 2 statements for each domain for each block (8 in total)

Ie .. 2 Thinking, 2 doing and 2 social, 2 Health.

Summary

The process of AfL relies on recognising a start point, detailing a target point and developing strategies with pupils to close the gap.
The important thing to remember is that teachers are intervening, as a result of assessment information, to improve all pupils' performances.
Assessment is at the heart of learning and teaching.

AfL is great but…

it is of no use if students do not act upon it.

Feedback is the teacher identifying the next steps for progression or improvement.

Feedforward is the action taken by the learners

Reflection Activity

Do I make use of an appropriate variety of assessment activities?
Do I make use of the various purposes for assessment? (formative/summative etc.)
Is each assessment activity well tailored to the purpose for which it is intended?
Is my marking of assessment tasks and feedback to pupils sufficiently speedy, thorough, constructive and helpful?
Are the assessment activities fair?
Are there opportunities for pupils to evaluate their own progress through self assessment?
Are my records of pupils’ progress based on a variety of assessment activities?
Are the reports to parents, and others, fair and informative?

Reflection Activity

Watch the lesson and identify where you see Assessment for Learning in action

Eliciting information through questioning and dialogue.
Providing feedback with emphasis on how to improve.
Helping learners understand quality criteria.
Peer- and self-assessment (which incorporates 1-3).

Identify where you see children being engaged

Head
Heart
Hands