Diocese of Derby Seminar: Planning and integrating assessment in the primary school Lat Blaylock, Editor, RE Today This workshop will demonstrate five

Diocese of DerbySeminar: Planning and integrating

assessment in the primary school Lat Blaylock, Editor, RE Today

This workshop will demonstrate five examples of how to gather evidence of

achievement from pupils aged 5-11, with an emphasis on learning from Christians,

Jews and HindusCopyright: Use only in your own school

Achievement and Assessment in RE Examples of Tasks for L1-L5

• This presentation supports the teacher of RE by offering tasks to use to elicit work at levels 1-5 from the RE syllabus.

I’ll answer these questions:• What can teachers do to use assessment well?• What kind of task shows what each pupil can achieve?• The levels are a good tool for assessing RE. What do they

mean in practice?• How can I develop my assessment practice to be fair,

manageable, thoughtful, creative – and not leave me dead?

Copyright 2013 www.retoday.org.uk


A “Level 1” Task ExampleVisual learning ~

the story of Holy Week in the Christian tradition

Simple learning structures for 5-7sLevel 1: Sequencing the pictures shows a pupils can recall the outline of the story, talk about it in pairs.Extending the work – Year TwoLevel 2: The feelings graph + word-choice task can show a sensitive response, suggesting meanings in the story


As the teacher tells the story of Jesus’ last days, pupils in pairs make a feelings graph for a disciple of Jesus – what in the story made them feel better, or feel worse?

Feeling better

Feeling worse

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


SEAL: Emotional literacy and the Holy Week story Pupils can use words from this ‘word bank’ to talk about what happens in the story

The seven pictures each have their own emotional mood. Ask pupils to select two words from the word bank to say how Jesus’ disciples could have felt at each moment pictured

happy / sad / glad / worried / cross / crazy / upset / angry / gloomy / scared / amazed /

nervous / excited / wonderful / calm / peaceful / thrilled / bored / pleased / thankful

great / joyful / puzzled









Copyright 2013 www.retoday.org.ukWhat is the right order for the pictures?

Can pupils draw their own ‘Eighth picture’ from the Bible text?

The women came to the tomb on Sunday. The stone was rolled away. A bright figure said to them ‘Jesus is not here. He is risen.’

My picture

from Sunday morning of the story.


This felt picture of ‘Jesus back from the dead meeting two friends’ is a great 8th picture from 8 year old Daisy. She says: I shoed Jesus on one side and the disciples on the other side. They are surprised and a bit scared about seeing Jesus alive again” Can she respond sensitively to meanings in the story? If so, level 2

SEAL: Emotional literacy and the Holy Week story

Remind children of the seven pictures each having their own emotional mood. Ask pupils to select two words from the word bank to say how Jesus’ disciples could have felt at each moment pictured

happy / sad / glad / worried / cross / crazy / upset / angry / gloomy / scared / amazed / nervous / excited / wonderful / calm / peaceful / thrilled / bored / pleased / thankful / joyful / puzzled


Example: Make a feelings graph for the disciples of Jesus – what in the story made them feel better, or feel worse?

Feeling better

Feeling worse

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Excited,

pleased

Proud,

worried

Puzzled,

thrilled


Level 2 – A Christmas story assessment (works for many faith stories)

• After encountering the story in well told versions

• Use an outline picture and some thought bubbles

• Speech bubbles are less useful – too literal. This makes space for engaged suggestions of meaning (L2 AT2)




Extending the task to L3 and L4 – an example from the Palm Sunday story

• Here we want to see if the pupil can describe what is happening through thought bubbles, using key words. Can she make links between key words and ideas for herself?

• Look at Christopher Gosey’s picture first, in traditional Ethiopian Orthodox style, but modern, 1996.



Daisy, 9, heard the story and related it particularly to the thoughts of the three small children up the tree. Does she use religious terminology to show she understands beliefs and ideas in the text? If so, she is working at Level 4 here.


Lakshmi, Hanuman, Rama and Sita4 key people in the divali story, at the end of the story. What are they thinking?

Memory...What i will always remember from this story is...

Thankfulness“I am so glad that...”

EmotionsI have felt three things...

Story...

Learning from Judaism: Making links to Pesach(“not the seder plate”)

RE needs to enable pupils to make links between their own experiences and the beliefs and

customs of different faith communities. Here is a simple approach to learning from the Jewish festival of Pesach, also called Passover. What

connections can pupils find between the symbolic food and drink on the Seder plate and their own

experiences and ideas?


What foods are found on the Seder plate?

These foods are all reminders of part of

the Jewish story of rescue from the

slavery of Pharaoh. The story is told,

and the food and drink is shared, as a

reminder of how the Almighty used

Moses to rescue the Hebrew people

from 400 years of slavery.


What foods are shared at Pesach, and why?

Salt waterThe slaves in Egypt cried many tears. Salt water is a reminder of the tears of slavery

Bitter herbsThese are a reminder of the bitter experiences of being a slave – hard taskmaster drove the Hebrews fiercely

HarosethThis sweet paste, made of nuts, apples, raisins and wine, looks like cement! It’s a reminder of the building work the slaves had to do for Pharaoh. It tastes sweet – like freedom.

Lamb boneOn the last day before they escaped, the Hebrews killed a lamb and protected their houses from the ‘Angel of Death’. Roast lamb bones remind them of this dreadful plague

Roasted EggFrom an egg comes new life. The Hebrews escaped from slavery to seek the promised land – it was a new beginning.

Green Vegetable

In spring, green vegetables grow from what looks like dead ground. This is a reminder of growth.

WineHumans take joy in wine. The cups of wine are drunk to celebrate sweet freedom.


This is not a Seder plate – instead, it is a plate design for you to think about your own experiences, and make some links to the Jewish story


Here is an example of Jodie’s experiences: she is not Jewish, but she is learning from the Jewish festival. Does she make links between the festival and her own experiences? That’s level 3 work.


David is only 7 years old, but he has made some links between his own experiences and the foods Jewish people share at Pesach. Level 3 in writing. David’s teacher used the idea of ‘caring’ as a simpler word than ‘sacrifice’


Writing about your ‘not the seder’ plateReasons and examples How does this link to the Jewish

celebration?

What ties me down...

What sets me free...

What makes me laugh...

What makes me cry...

What gives me hope for the future...

A sign of new life to me is...

Someone who’s made sacrifices for me is...


Level 4 Understanding Ideas about God CreativelySkills: Using key concepts to understand a range of ideas.

Applying ideas for myself.

The context of this task could be a study of worship in any religion or a study of beliefs about god and humanity. This task uses four different expressions of ideas about God as a stimulus to pupils’ own thinking. The ideas come from a Muslim, a Christian, an Atheist and an Agnostic. Three are works of art, and the fourth is a poem.

Copy the following page for pupils as a stimulus sheet. Ask pupils to respond to these questions:1. If you were selecting a ‘winner’ from these competition entries, which would you go for and

why?2. What does a Christian, a Muslim, an Atheist and an Agnostic believe about God?3. What do two of these pieces of work have in common? What do the painters and poets agree

about?Use the words: believer / doubt / evidence / opinion / faith in a 75 word account of your own

views about whether God is real and what God is like. Level 4 work is characterised by understanding and ideas in action (application of ideas) Answers

to these questions that are merely descriptive will be at L3. To extend achievement to L5, pupils will need to explain their own views of similarities and differences in how people express beliefs about God.


Put god in the skipCopyright 2013 www.retoday.org.uk

Agnostic Acrostic (An agnostic is someone who is not sure about God) Calvin is12.

Am not sure about God.Go and find him in heaven.Never seen him before.Only find out when I’m dead.Some believe, some don’t.Time to find out if he’s real!Is he real or is he not?Calvin doesn’t know


• Becca is a 15 year old Christian. “Where is God? Seek and you will find him. I depict a girl looking at her shadow. Newspaper cuttings in the shadow speak about the everyday: terror, murder, death. Jesus stands behind her, surrounded by light and colour. I put cuttings from newspapers in the shadow, to do with what you see and hear about on the news every day: terror, murder, death, tension, crisis. It's easy to focus on the shadow in life, as it's presented so frequently. If you think of God, it's in the situations when good things happen. But in the shadow, God is there. In war torn areas people's lives can be transformed because of him. The image of Jesus behind the girl and the colour that surrounds them both illustrates that even where things look dark, God is working there. There is light even in the shadow.”


• Inayah is a 15 year old Muslim. “People who do not see the evidence of God's work in creation and design of the world need to open their eyes wider to see the sheer beauty of the world and the plain evidence that God does exist. Stars and the sky, nature, our own nervous, circulatory and digestive systems show God's remarkable skill. The painting shows that there is evidence of God in absolutely everything. All we need to do to see it is to open our eyes wider.”



What does level 5 RE require?

• Express your own views of 4 religious issues, giving reasons

• Consider different ideas and factors in your answer.

• Explain why...• Explain similar and different ideas• Explain your own views thoughtfully


Divali: Should Hindu children have a day off school?

Anna, 8, made this Divali Spiral

Agenda setting

• What is the issue or problem?• Who does it affect? (several groups?)• Where does it happen• Why is this a sensitive issue? (2 sides?)• How could it be tackled (3 or 4 ideas)• What is the best way forward?• Who will take action?• What if nothing is done?

So should Hindu people have a day off at Divali?

Yes, because• Everyone needs time to

celebrate because...• Christians get a day off

for...• It would be more fair to

everyone because...• ...• ...

No, because...• They could celebrate at

another time like...• There are so many religions

that there would be children missing too often...

• School matters, so...• It’s good for the whole

country to have shared holidays because...

• ...• ...

Documents

Diocese of Derby Seminar: Planning and integrating assessment in the primary school Lat Blaylock, Editor, RE Today This workshop will demonstrate five