1. Support learning activities

2. The planning cycle
Plan
Teach
Observe
Assess
Record
Evaluate

3. Working with the teacher
If you attend planning meetings, you will have an opportunity to understand:
the reasons behind each lesson
the learning objectives of the lesson
what the teacher expects you to do
how to support pupils during activities that you have not done before.
How can your knowledge about the learners you work with support planning?

4. My role in planning, delivering learning and reviewing
1.1
Suggesting activity ideas for the group I work with when the teacher is planning
My role in planning, delivering learning and reviewing

5. Planning
The teacher may require you to plan an activity to implement with the pupils.
Think about:
objectives of the lesson
time constraints
resources
behavioural issues or SEN.
Discuss your plan with the teacher if possible.

6. Preparation
Before the start of each lesson, make sure you know:
the learning objectives for the lesson
your role within the lesson – will you be working with a group, are you to question the pupils, explain the work, or monitor progress and responses?
what the teacher expects the pupils to have produced or completed by the end of the lesson.

7. Resources
Good resources should:
match the requirements of the learning objectives
help pupils to increase their knowledge, skills and understanding
be easily accessible.
Make sure you know where resources are kept across the school.
Prepare all necessary resources well in advance.

8. Guidance
Get to know the pupils you are working with.
Make sure you understand the task and the teacher’s expectations.
Prepare ‘key questions’ to ask pupils during the activity.
Show the children that you are genuinely interested in their work.

9. Inclusivity
You can include all pupils by:
using individual whiteboards, flashcards or other personalised resources
allowing them time to think individually
using differentiated questions
ensuring children put their hands up (or use another signal to show that they are ready to answer)
incorporating a range of topics to motivate children with different interests.

10. Challenge and extension work
You can challenge pupils by:
encouraging them to solve problems independently
setting individual research projects or investigations
asking them to evaluate their own work
tailoring questions to suit different abilities.

11. 5.1 Explain why it is important to evaluate learning activities

12. 6.1 My personal strengths Impact on support
I am good at asking key questions to check children’s understanding
By asking relevant questions, I can find out a lot about children’s knowledge and understanding and feed this information back to the teacher
My personal areas for development
I am not very good at making sure I give sufficient time to every child in a group
Some learners may misunderstand the task, or may not develop their ideas as much as they could
6.1

13. Take part in a group discussion about why it is important to give feedback to learners on the progress they are making within the curriculum.
Discuss the language you may use which is relevant to the age and stage of the pupils you work with and how they can use this feedback to help them to improve their work. Consider how to give positive, constructive feedback that will motivate pupils.

14. Preparing to support learning activities is essential to ensure that you can make the most of the time available and maximise learning opportunities.
Consider the following case study and answer the questions below.
Case Study: Measuring for a maths activity
The Year 3 class that you support will be carrying out a task measuring length. The activity will be to measure the length of ten objects around the room and record their findings in their exercise book.
Task 6
In your group discuss how you could support the activity.
1 What resources could the children use in completing the activity?
2 What resources could you encourage children who are struggling to use?
Consider how you could extend the activity for more able children who complete the activity quickly?
Task 7
1 What might you discuss with the teacher before implementing the activity?
2 What suggestions might you make if you were carrying out the activity with the children in the class?

15. A key role in supporting pupils during learning activities includes being able to adapt learning activities and resources to meet the needs of the pupils.
Discuss with your group the ways in which you can adapt activities and resources to make them easier for less able pupils and more challenging for more able pupils.

16. It is important that you are aware of the health and safety of pupils you work with at all times.
Consider the following questions and complete your answers on a separate piece of paper.
1 How do you help to maintain the health and safety of the pupils in your classroom?
2 What checks do you do at the beginning of each school day or learning session?
3 How do you ensure that the equipment you are using is being used in line with manufacturers’ guidelines?
4 How can you encourage children to monitor health, safety and security concerns for themselves?

17. Learning support strategies
Match each of the learning support strategies in the first column with a phrase or definition from the second column.
Managing behaviour
Prompting shy or reticent learners to ask questions and check understanding
Translating or explaining words or phrases
Will help pupils to measure their own success against the learning objectives
Can be key to a bilingual pupil accessing the curriculum
Maintains a safe learning environment where children are able to focus on learning
Learning support strategies
Phrase/definition
Reminding pupils of teaching points made by the teacher
Modelling correct use of language and vocabulary
Ensuring pupils understand the learning tasks
Is vital to the achievement of the learning objectives for the lesson
Ensures that pupils feel challenged but not overwhelmed by their tasks
Can be done a little at a time to encourage gradual participation and confidence building
Modifying or adapting activities
Will help pupils to learn from your example in their speech and choice of words

18. Task 11
Consider the problems you may encounter in relation to the learning activity, resources, learning environment and pupils. Record each possible problem in the table below, with details of ways to prevent it. An example has been completed.
Issue with...
What types of problems may arise?
How can you prevent the problems arising as a Teaching Assistant?
The learning activity
Activity too difficult
Ensure the task leads on from a previous learning activity and learners are ready to move on to the next step.
The learning resources
The learning environment
The pupils

19. Assessment for Learning

20. Assessment Reform Group 2002
Assessment for Learning is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and teachers, to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go, and how best to get there.

21. Assessment

22. Forms of assessment
Formative: ongoing assessment, checking understanding
Can be included in every learning session
Summative: provides summary information of what a pupil has learned at the end of a topic, scheme of work, term, year, etc.

23. Teachers who have switched the emphasis away from marking and grading to give comments and feedback are finding that their pupils try much harder. Public exams like GCSEs and A- levels give pupils a final grade, known as summative assessment.
Recent research, however, has focused more on formative assessment which happens every day, not just in a single ritual. Formative assessment can range from a smile or a raised eyebrow to detailed feedback about how and what a child is learning. It's extremely effective in raising pupil's eventual achievement in tests and exams as well as capturing their interest and commitment

24. The information required to contribute to assessment for learning:
The learning objectives for the activities
The personalised learning goals for individual learners
The success criteria of the learning activities
The assessment opportunities and strategies (the occasions, approaches and techniques used for ongoing assessment during learning activities) relevant to own role in the learning activities

25. Assessment
How can current understanding be checked at the beginning of a new topic?
How can you support the teacher when assessing a learner’s knowledge?

26. Questioning
Effective questioning can be used to find out:
what pupils know
what pupils understand
what pupils can do already.
Use questions to identify any gaps in their knowledge and target teaching more effectively.

27. Questioning: Group activity
Consider an activity or lesson that you have recently supported:
What questions could you ask to check the pupils’ understanding?
How could you develop their answers further to ensure they have fully understood the activity or lesson?

28. What do the pupils need to know?
For assessment for learning to be effective, pupils will need to know what they are learning, why they are learning it and how assessment will take place
As well as the earning objectives, pupils may need to know their their own personalised learning goals, so that they can integrate them in their work.
For example:
What pupils are learning – where capital letters need to be applied
Success criteria – pupils able to use capital letters consistently
Why they are learning it – to enable them to use the correct form of written English
How assessment will take place – teacher and teaching assistant will check that pupils are using capital letters consistently in their written work

29. Feedback
How can you offer feedback during an activity or lesson?
Why is it useful to give regular feedback to pupils?

30. Feedback to the teacher
What can you do during lessons to provide good AfL feedback?
What information can you give the teacher at the end of the lesson?
What can the teacher do with this information?

31. In order to help you review pupils’ progress, it may be helpful for you to follow a checklist like this:
Ensure pupils understand the learning objectives and any individual learning targets so that they can assess their own progress to meeting these as they proceed
Talk to pupils about what they have to do and whether they need to hand in work
Inform pupils how they will be assessed and ensure they understand
Give examples of work produced by other learners, if possible, so that pupils can see how the assessment criteria are applied
Provide individual support and oral feedback as pupils are working, praising learners when they focus their comments on their personalised learning goals for the task
Ensure that their are opportunities for either peer or self-assessment
Encourage learners to review and comment on their work before handing it in or discussing it with the teacher
Provide written feedback

32. Constructive feedback
Gives information to a pupil which focuses on performance
Is delivered positively
Is not personal, but based on facts
Affirmation feedback – should be delivered as soon as possible: ‘Well done Heidi, you have remembered to include all the points we discussed.’ (motivates pupils)
Developmental feedback – will suggest what to do next time. ‘Nathan, try to remember to use finger spaces next time by using the equipment.’

33. Best practice checklist
Remain non-judgemental
Focus on strengths
Work through one thing at a time
Give constructive advice where needed and guidance on how a child can improve
Link feedback directly to what has been observed or written
End positively

34. Provide opportunities and encouragement for learners to improve upon their work
Children’s progress will be measured against their own previous achievements rather than being compared with those of others
Pupils’ learning should be set at a level which ensures that they are building on what they learn. Therefore, they should be starting from a point of previous understanding and then extend their learning to take in new information.
Pupils will benefit from discussing previous learning experiences to consolidate what they know and reinforce their understanding before moving on to take in new concepts and ideas
You may need to adapt or modify what they have been asked to do in order to help them

35. Help learners to review learning strategies and future needs and encourage them to communicate needs and ideas
The learning process is such that we should be reviewing learning with children throughout learning sessions
Where possible encourage the pupils to measure their achievements against the learning objectives and think about how they might approach their learning in the future based on this
They should consider their work at each stage against the final outcome to see whether it has met the objective. This could be from a whole class discussion or pupils may work in their groups or with partners on reviewing their learning during activities.

36. There my also be whole-school strategies which are used to check on pupil learning
Traffic lights/smiley faces/thumbs up – show how they are feeling about their learning at different points during the session. Good reviewing visual tools for younger children
Foggy bits – pupils are given the opportunity to write down or talk about the parts of the session which have not been clear
Write a sentence – key points of their learning
Talk partner review – children talk to their partner about their learning and parts that they enjoyed or found difficult
Post-it-notes/whiteboards – what they have learned, found easy/hard

37. Keep assessment criteria simple Be very clear on what pupils
are being assessed again.
If you have more than two
criteria, make them very specific
Clarify the purpose of the task
This is so that pupils
understand why they are doing it
Support pupils
with self
assessment techniques
Ask pupils to tell you what they
think they are doing and why
This enables you to check that
children have understood the
task and how their learning
will be measured
Encourage pupils to periodically
check learning against the criteria
This will keep them focused on
what they have been asked to do

38. Peer assessment
Purpose and outcomes need to be very clear
It’s not to compare work
Look at one another’s work and notice how it relates to the assessment criteria
They can discuss what they have been asked to do and how their work reflects this
This will bring their attention to what teachers are looking for when measuring achievement

39. As children reflect on their learning, they will start to identify what they need to do to improve
Children who have a fear of ‘getting it wrong’ may find the process challenging, so you may need to support them through it
You could use misconceptions or incorrect ideas as a discussion point so that pupils can talk about how they approached the task and what led them to their answer. This can lead to a more positive approach to learning from mistakes and seeing it as an opportunity rather than something to be feared.

40. Contribute to reviewing assessment for learning
You will need to work closely with the teacher so that you can discuss and review how you present learning activities to pupils and the kinds of opportunities which are available for AfL
Need to consider how pupils have responded to the process and which strategies you have found useful and thought provoking for pupils. In this way you will be able to develop the opportunities available for use in the future
The teacher needs to be aware of pupil engagement, difficulties they had and progress they have made

41. Use the outcomes of assessment to reflect on and improve own contribution
Following the activity you should be able to check that it has enabled pupils to take more responsibility for the learning experience and has influenced what they have learnt.
You will also need to be able to reflect on your own learning and experience when supporting pupil learning, so that you can adjust your approach if necessary. Think about
- how you questioned pupils and encouraged them to look closely at the assessment criteria
- how you gave feedback to pupils
- how you supported both peer and self assessment

42. Ten key principles: Assessment for Learning:
is part of effective planning of teaching and learning
should focus on how pupils learn
is central to classroom practice
is a key professional skill
must be sensitive and constructive
must take pupil motivation into account
must show commitment to learning goals
must provide pupils with constructive guidance
must develop pupils’ capacity for self-assessment
must recognise the full range of achievements of all pupils.

43. Over to you!
Why is Assessment for Learning important?
How can you include Assessment for Learning during everyday activities with the pupils you work with?
How can you work alongside the teacher in using Assessment for Learning?