1

Assessment Professional Learning

Module 3: Assessment FOR Learning

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 2

Assessment

FOR learning

Assessment AS Learning

Assessment OF learning

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 3

Assessment FOR learning:occurs 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.

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 4

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.

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 5

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)

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 6

The most important purpose of classroom assessment is to improve student learning.

The learner is at the centre.

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 7

The Teacher’s 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

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 8

Gaining evidence FOR learning can happen in these four ways:

Informal Formal

Before new learning starts

asking questionsbrainstorming(informal diagnostic)

“Torch” testquick quiz(formal diagnostic)

During learning process

observe class workand see where problems occur(informal formative)

read and give feedback on homework(formal formative)

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 9

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.

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 10

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).

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 11

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)

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 12

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).

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 13

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?

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 14

Common types of written feedback

• Regulatory instructionse.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 questionse.g. how does this relate to X’s ideas?

PLUS…

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 15

Common types of written feedback

• Direct criticism e.g. you needed to draw on other people’s 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)

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 16

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?

• QualityAre your comments constructive, written politely, and with suggestions to help students’ learning?

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 17

Consider

• QuantityIs there a manageable amount for students to absorb and act upon?

• TimingHow often? How timely?

• StyleWhat types of comments are helpful for students’ learning and which are unhelpful (even destructive)?

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 18

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.

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 19

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?

Module 3 - Assessment FOR Learning 20

Assessment AS Learning

Assessment OF learning

Gaining evidence to plan teaching & give feedback is Assessment FOR learning