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

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 it did 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 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?