Assessment Professional Learning Module 3: Assessment FOR Learning

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Assessment Professional Learning Module 3
Assessment FOR Learning
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Assessment FOR learningoccurs when teachers use
inferences about student progress to inform
their teaching.

• Assessment OF learning
• occurs when teachers use evidence of student
  learning to make judgements on student
  achievement against goals and standards.

• Assessment AS learning
• occurs when students reflect on and monitor their
  progress
• to inform their future
• learning goals.

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• Assessment FOR learning
• occurs when teachers use inferences
• about student progress to inform
• their teaching.
• It is frequent, formal or informal (e.g. quality
  questioning, anecdotal notes, written comments),
  embedded in teaching and provides clear and
  timely feedback that helps students in their
  learning progression. It has a summative use,
  providing evidence that informs, or shapes, short
  term planning for learning.

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• Assessment FOR learning
• makes a significant difference to students
  progress - in their ability to be confident,
  critical learners, to achieve more than ever
  before and in raising their self-esteem. In a
  world of continuing pressure, it is good to know
  that we are making a real difference
• (Shirley Clarke 2001, p. 139)

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The most important purpose of classroom
assessment is to improve student learning.The
learner is at the centre.
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The teachers role is to

• make arrangements to gain evidence on students
  learning progression
• provide timely feedback
• modify the learning and teaching program in light
  of the assessment evidence.

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Gaining evidence FOR learning can happen in
these four ways
Informal Formal
Before new learning starts asking questions brainstorming (informal diagnostic) Torch test quick quiz (formal diagnostic)
During learning process observe class work and see where problems occur (informal formative) read and give feedback on homework (formal formative)
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Means of gaining evidence of students learning

• Ask quality questions that probe students
  understandings and help them think in different
  ways about their learning.
• Observe and record student actions and learning
  progression to modify teaching plans.
• Listen to what students have to say (and hear the
  message).
• Closely watch individual students who differ from
  the majority, who signal to you when it is time
  to try something different.

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Means of giving feedback to students

• Have a conversation (formal or informal) about
  the quality of the students work.
• Give written feedback - this can be detailed and
  focused on what the student can do to improve.
• Talk with students about your analysis of their
  individual learning progression against the
  Standards at an interim point (i.e. not at the
  end).

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Quality questions

• Wait time more than 3 seconds
• (Count if need be one thousand, two thousand,
  three thousand). Produces extended responses and
  students are less concerned with being right
  and more concerned with ideas.
• Ask, pause, use a name to direct
• Ensures all are attending to the question - and
  thinking
• Open-ended
• Where hypotheticals, possibilities and creative
  responses are encouraged
• Challenging
• Beyond remember and understand (in a
  simplistic way)
• Distributed evenly
• Around the room - no hands up (allows some to
  disengage)

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A checklist for good feedback

• 1. clear and unambiguous
• 2. specific
• 3. supportive, formative and developmental
• 4. timely
• 5. understood
• 6. delivered in an appropriate environment
• (Jonathan Tummons, 2005, p. 76).

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Annotations on student work.What do you write?

• Question mark
• Circling
• Underlining or sidebars
• Ticks and crosses
• caret (omission)
• Spelling or grammar corrections
• Written comments
• Are all of these helpful for students learning?

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Common types of written feedback

• Regulatory instructions
• e.g. use Australian spelling conventions
• Advisory comments
• e.g. you could elaborate the conditions here
• Descriptive observation
• e.g. you have used 3 web sources in this report
• Rhetorical questions
• e.g. how does this relate to Xs ideas?
• PLUS

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Common types of written feedback

• Direct criticism
• e.g. you needed to draw on other peoples ideas
  here
• Praise
• e.g. your introduction is clearly written and
  sets the tone well
• Correctness (it is right - or wrong)
• e.g. you have misunderstood the key idea here.
• (types from Catherine Haines 2004)

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Consider

• Legibility
• Can students read your feedback?
• Can they understand your meaning?
• Importance
• Are you giving feedback on the highest priority
  aspects of the work?
• Quality
• Are your comments constructive, written
  politely, and with suggestions to help students
  learning?

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Consider

• Quantity
• Is there a manageable amount for students to
  absorb and act upon?
• Timing
• How often?
• How timely?
• Style
• What types of comments are helpful for students
  learning and which are unhelpful (even
  destructive)?

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Comments without grades

• Giving grades or marks was found by the Black et
  al study (2003) to distract students from the
  formative feedback. One teacher in their study
  noted
• at no time during the first 15 months of
  comment-only marking did any students ask me why
  they no longer received grades I found this
  amazing (p. 45)
• The students were focused on improving their work
  through heeding the comments, and no longer
  needed the mark as a measure of their work
  quality.

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Using available evidence FOR learning?

• What evidence (data) is available to you about
  students learning?
• What is accessible and useable?
• How can you select the best evidence to use to
  prepare your teaching plans FOR the purpose of
  improving students learning?

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