Primary Assessment for Learning A resource for school CPD leaders

This presentation is for school CPD leaders. It’s a resource for structuring a 45-minute CPD session on AfL. It contains six clips from programmes shot in primary schools, and each clip is 3-4 minutes long. To accompany the clips there are short programme summaries and discussion starters. Clips do not need to be watched in any particular order, and the presentation can be adapted to suit the priorities of individual schools. The discussion starters are included as suggestions only. Click on the weblinks to view the full programmes and additional resources. (All programmes covered by the Creative Archive Licence can be viewed on the Teachers TV website and downloaded by registered users of the site.)

Overview These six clips, with their accompanying discussion starters, look at different Assessment for Learning strategies from Year 1 to Year 6: Year 1 – AfL and story-writing (clip 1) Year 2 – AfL in a writing context (clip 2) Year 2 – AfL in an EAL context (clip 3) Year 3 – Assessing children’s understanding of objectives in maths (clip 4) Year 6 – AfL in a science context (clip 5) Year 6 – AfL in a poetry context (clip 6)

1 Formative Assessment and Personalised Learning – Primary A Year 1 teacher uses animals to help children to become aware of stages in the story-writing process.

How important is it to use familiar things, such as toys, to help children to develop an understanding of themselves as learners? Are these children the right age for this approach?

2 Managing SATs – Primary Testing Times: Adding Value at Manor Primary Children at Manor Primary are below the national average in baseline assessment on entry to school. Despite this, the school topped the national value-added tables in 2005 with 100% of its pupils reaching level 4 in maths and science at the end of Key Stage

Does the clip offer any clues as to why this school has been so successful in the value-added ratings?

3 Primary AfL – Speaking and Listening: Year 2 A learning support assistant assesses the speaking and listening skills of a girl who has English as an additional language. Next, a Year 2 teacher plans to increase her pupils’ use of technical vocabulary.

What strategies could be used to develop children’s grasp of more sophisticated vocabulary? It is the expectation at this school that all staff will get involved in Assessment for Learning. What steps can be taken to embed a common understanding of AfL among staff? Are there things that the assessment of speaking and listening can reveal about pupils’ progress that the assessment of reading and writing does not?

4 Primary AfL – A Whole School Approach A Year 3 teacher experiments by not writing the learning objective on the whiteboard. She wants the children to predict what the objective might be. The headteacher observes the lesson to monitor the effectiveness of this approach.

How accurate is the ‘hit, miss, maybe’ exercise as a means to gauge children’s understanding? What can a teacher learn by inviting children to define the learning objective for a lesson?

5 Primary Assessment – Formative Assessment 1 A teacher uses formative assessment in a Year 6 revision lesson on light. Following a practical investigation of how light travels, pupils consolidate their learning by designing posters. Professor Paul Black comments.

Pupils share knowledge using learning partners, peer assessment and SMART cards. To what extent can these devices enable children to take responsibility for their own learning? Professor Paul Black says that pupils criticise each other’s work more rigorously than teachers would. Do you agree?

6 Primary AfL – Collaborative Learning Staff at Park Lane Primary try out a range of learning styles to raise pupils’ self-esteem and to accelerate progress. In this clip Year 6 pupils use jigsaw learning to investigate different forms of poetry.

Do you agree with this headteacher that Assessment for Learning requires children to “learn a lot harder”? What aspects of this jigsaw exercise could encourage pupils to become more independent and confident learners? The teacher sets out to relinquish some control of the learning to children. Does she succeed?