Making AfL work

Monday 18th July 2011

LAS Conference

Aims…

Share best practice amongst ourselves To consider ways of raising profile of AfL Discuss strategies for supporting marking

and feedback Consider possible QA systems

What is AfL?

Create a tweet with no ore than 140 characters on what AfL is and attempting to sell to pupils?

AfL Definition

Learners have responsibility Informs of how they are doing Guide subsequent efforts Much of this comes from feedback from the

teacher Encourages lifelong learning

Assessment for Learning: Beyond the black box

1999

Feedback central to learning

Raising profile of AfL in our schools

Currently works well

What are the gains of AfL?

For pupils, LSAs and teachers?

Ideas for engaging staff in AfL Staff meetings Top tips Paired observations SGP item on all

agendas Buddies/ triads CPL/ AfL Newsletter Professional library Blogspot Wizkids

We will

Help you to understand how you can improve by….

Help you to know how well you’re working by…

Help you to know how to improve by….

Displayingwhat you need to do to get great marksProviding regular assessment taskswith feedbackModelling answersTeaching explicitly what makes a good learnerMaking guidance electronically available to you and your parents through the College VLE and website

Planning & delivering eff ective lessonsAsking a range of questions to get you thinking about your learning and progressProviding a range of assessment tasks, including, quizzes, tests, pieces of writ ing etcSett ing pieces of work in class and regularly at home

Setting clear learning objectives and ensuring that you understand themMaking sure you know how well you are doingGiving verbal and written f eedbackMaking sure you know what you need to do to improve, using ‘even better if’Having a focussed plenary that lets us both know how well you’ve doneRecording your progress and keeping your tutor, Head of House and your parents informed

You must

Understand how you can improve by…..

Know how well you’re working by…

Know how to improve by….

Understanding that your role in assessment is vitalThinking about what cr iter ia you are being assessed against (this is called success criteria)Aiming to meet or exceed your target gradeAskingand AnsweringquestionsListening activelyPlanning your workDoing your best

Knowing how well you are performing, against cr iter ia by:Marking your own workMarking other peoples workComparing modelled answersGiving specific feedbackReceiving specific feedback

Asking if you are unclear about the objectives of a lesson or the tasks setLookingat your previous answers and targets before attempting a similar questionSett ing your own targets f or improvementHaving targets set for youUsing specific criteria f or improvementUsing ‘even better if’Knowing what the next level looks likeContributing honestly in the plenary

Assessing Learning at Swanmore College of Technology

Effective feedback

Purposeful feedback Success and improvement strategy – Shirley

Clarke Marking linked to the learning objective Give children time to act upon advice

Nile activity

Have a go..

Learning Objective: To understand the significance of the River Nile in Ancient Egypt.

Hello! My name is Miktancomen, and I live in Ancient Egypt. The part of Egypt in which I live is called “the black land”. We call it this because of the darkish/blackish silt that washes up every year after the Nile, our most precious life source*, floods. The black silt that comes from the huge river enables the crops to grow (that’s a lot of needed food).

Trade is also very important to us. When my father, Johnakten, lets me take a break from working in the field, I go down to the Nile back and watch the trade ships go in and out of Egypt. A few years before my birth our first female Pharaoh, Hatsheput, led her army into Africa and gained more trade routes for us. It has brought us great wealth.

*say why it’s a precious life source. What would happen if itdid not flood?

Summary of the Success and Improvement Strategy

Show success – highlight where the learning objective has been met

Indicate where an improvement could be made

Make an improvement suggestion Allow time for the improvement to be made

Self and peer assessment

Success criteria – generated by children, planned for by teachers

Smiley faces Traffic lights 2 stars and a wish Highlighting – e.g. yellow where LO has been

met, blue where an improvement can be made

Questioning

Research shows that teachers ask about 300- 400 questions per day; most are lower order

Increasing the number of higher order questions will raise attainment by 50%

Teachers should really plan questions- perfect examples of differentiation

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Knowledge (recall) Comprehension (understanding) Application (considering practical relevance) Analysis (investigating) Evaluation (making judgments) Synthesis (using information to move

forward)

To generalise….shockingly

Lower Who? What? Where? When?

Closed

Higher Why? How? Which? Explain?

Open

Gold rules of questioning

Wait time- ideal is 3-5 seconds Phrase questions carefully- give clear

feedback Beware ‘run –on questions’ but don’t be

afraid of ‘off piste’ questions Don’t always use hands down Have ‘question time’ from pupils Learning questions

Why are you not green?

You are not a plant You are not

decomposing You are not entirely

inexperienced You are not ill You envy no one

The QA of AfL

Agree what you are looking for Trialling it with all staff Agreeing what works with all staff Buddy up Not just booklooks… Have a system for when and how this is fed

back to relevant staff SBP…

Any questions?