Assessment+and+Reporting+of+Student+Learning

Evidence of my professional accomplishments as they relate to:

Assessment and Reporting of Student Learning

Overview

Effectively assessing what students know and what they can do both formally and informally is essential for providing feedback. Providing quality feedback has been identified as a key element in good teaching practice. I have devised a number of strategies that I believe ensure that my students take advantage of opportunities to improve, based upon the work they do.

Assessment and reporting are incorporated into teaching programs and classroom assessment of learning. In my assessments I emphasise that assessment is about showing the way forward. In line with the research on teaching girls I make sure each student understands assessment, both formal and informal, in relation to their personal goals and as a means of doing their best.

I believe assessment and reporting should always motivate students towards improvement and these processes should be careful not to reinforce any negativity students may already have towards themselves as learners. Research has suggested that girls tend to blame ability rather than effort when reflecting on assessments. It is therefore important to ensure every student understands assessment as part of the learning process. One simple strategy I use is self-marking. Together as a class each student identifies, using a highlighter and pencil, actual phrases and examples of historical detail, linking statements, sentences containing argument, and the language of cause and effect. I have highlighted my use of the language of cause and effect in the section on pedagogy. This allows the student to affirm the strengths of the written work. I then ask the students to write down on the exam paper three specific steps they need to take to improve this result. I then read through these and make suggestions. In my classes assessments are referred to as ‘learning gold’. Please see the Appendix for a student explanation of the editing process. In order to effectively work with assessment and reporting there needs to be a supportive and cooperative learning environment. This is developed through the theme of ‘building our learning community’. Peer assessment is an important aspect of my teaching practice and I incorporate a range of peer and self-assessment strategies.

One aspect of assessment that I believe has transformed my teaching is bringing students work to a real audience. I have achieved this in a variety of ways. This lifts the level of accountability and therefore the standard of the work.

Using Wikis in Peer Assessment Tasks

Digital technologies are most effective in teaching when they solve an existing problem. Students need to see the finished product. They need to read and analyse examples of other student’s work that models the next step they need to take in developing a skill. Early on in my teaching I worked with exemplar packages from the BOS Standards packages. These were suitable for the more capable students in my classes but were not really in the Zone of Proximal Development (ZDP) of my core group. I then went about photocopying and distributing a range of student writing to the class and we worked together on these. When I first came across Wiki’s in 2008 I realised that they would solve this particular problem. Wiki’s provided students with a library of their work that they could each access anywhere and at anytime. This library allowed students to build their learning community together and model for each other the content and skills required. I used these Wikis to firstly set writing tasks, which would then be assessed by their peers in class. I set the criteria for the assessment of each other’s essays and planned the peer assessment in ability groups so that students would be reading and critiquing work at a similar or slightly superior level. Students would read through the essays and provide feedback with evidence from the text. I have included screen shots from these essays in my appendix. This was a highly effective form of peer assessment. With senior classes there was also the bonus that these essays would be live and accessible right up until their examinations.

Students have adopted these sites as their own and often upload essays for comment outside of set tasks in class. I featured this aspect of using Wikis for senior classes in my presentation at the CEO eLearning Showcase. This was then taken up by a number of other schools. I was asked by other schools to come and teach their staff how this might work for them. I have included an email from a teacher who saw my presentation, asking for me to come to her school and teach their teachers. I have included this in the Appendix.

I have outlined below three strategies I have used. I have presented these strategies to staff at my school, at curriculum meetings and at Domremy Effective Educators meetings.

Exam with Scaffolding

I believe all assessments are great learning opportunities. Even formal assessments that summarise what a student knows provide opportunities to reinforce previous skills. The following is an example of an examination scaffold I included for the Year 8 Final Examination. I included this scaffold to remind students to plan and to provide them with recognition of their attempts at structuring an effective response. I see this as a highly effective tool in assessing the skill of communicating about the past. It provides an accessible step in developing the difficult skill of sustaining an argument and elaboration of key factors. (See Appendix)

William The Conquer Task

The aim of this assessment for learning was to have a working benchmark of student’s extended writing skills (literacy) for the purpose of planning. The syllabus requires students to;

• explain the impact made by significant people and/or events on the society or period • select and use appropriate written forms, including ICT, to communicate effectively about the past

The unit was on Medieval History and the content specifically was William the Conquer and the Conquest of England.

The students firstly completed a short creative writing task as a pretest. Through this I identified students who had a good understanding of paragraphing, appropriate vocabulary and historical detail. Secondly I analysed the Naplan data to determine which students may need support with the structuring of their extended responses and which students had already demonstrated proficiency in this area. I created a grid of each student’s results in the key areas of structure, cohesion, paragraphing and spelling. I have included this grid in the appendices. The grid allowed me to identify possible learning gaps in student’s literacy skills. I felt that it was important to target these gaps specifically whilst allowing those that had mastered these skills to also access appropriate challenges. I discussed my allocation with these students English teacher and she highlighted the fact that some of the students had, in the time since Naplan, demonstrated mastery of some of these skills. I also spoke with each of the students and we negotiated which task they would attempt.

The task was uploaded to the class Wiki. (see Appendix)This allowed me to create distinct paths for each aspect of differentiation. This is a technique I use regularly and I believe using Wikis is a highly effective tool in differentiation. The task page was hyperlinked to the three tasks. The task page also included writing scaffolds that could be used online as well as resource links to relevant websites. The core and modified tasks had varying levels of scaffolding in creating the extended response task. The extension task required students to evaluate the factors and make judgments about the importance of these factors. The end product was posted on a class ‘essays page’. Student’s work was therefore collected for each student to read through and peer assess. I set specific criteria for students to assess each other’s work. I expect students to support each other in providing effective evidence based feedback specific to the criteria such as inclusion of historical detail, inclusion of topic sentences, and ability to sustain an argument using linking sentences in each paragraph.

The main aspects of writing I targeted were paragraphing, cohesion, fluency and structure. The assessment of the student’s essays was in line with the A-E standards supplied by the BOS. I have developed considerable knowledge on these standards as an important part of my ability to assess student’s work. I have done this in collaboration with a team of HSIE teachers and this has impacted on all aspects of my work. The marking criteria for the task are an effective tool in assessing student work (see Appendix) The inclusion of a working set of extension outcomes and criteria allowed me to assess students whose work was significantly beyond the A-E standards. This element of the task was developed in conjunction with the team of experts at CEO in the Differentiated Assessment working group.

I have included three examples at each level in the appendices of student work. (see Appendix) They demonstrate the effectiveness of the task in allowing students to demonstrate what they can do and what they know. From this task I was able to set specific goals for each student in developing their extended response writing skills.

I have been involved in a number of staff development activities based around assessment and reporting. These include the Differentiation Staff Development day, presentations at our DEEP meetings, working with staff on creating differentiated programs during exam periods and my participation in the CEO Differentiated Assessment policy paper. I have referenced these in other sections of this portfolio.

The school analysis of our HSC results consistently demonstrate that students in my classes do better than expected. I believe the achievements outlined below demonstrate that my teaching adds considerable value to the development of knowledge and skills. In my first year of teaching I achieved the first two Band 6 results for the subject of Ancient History. Students in my classes have twice placed in the top ten students in the state. In my time at Domremy I have achieved 100 per cent of students in the top three bands, a measure the CEO believes demonstrates effective teaching. I have included these statistics in my appendices.

Lastly I have included some of my report comments on individual students. Writing report comments allows me to more fully crystallise what I know about each student and what they need to do to improve. As a mother I value comments from teachers who have taken time to understand my child’s strengths and unique set of skills. With each comment I write, I challenge myself to ensure that my reports are valuable contributors in a students learning journey.