1. Main strand session 17 Session Seventeen
Measuring Learning 2:
Assessment evidence
Jim Rogers

2. NB for this session you will need a copy of the National Curriculum, and the level descriptors.2

3. Aims to establish the nature and purpose of assessment
to be aware of different ways of assessing
to gain some experience of using the Level Descriptors for KS3

4. Objectives using summative assessment
know what types of evidence can be of value, and ways of constructing an assessment
the use of teacher, peer, and self assessment strategies
know how to ‘level’ KS3 work

5. Task 1: 5 mins
If you were to divide assessment into 4 main purposes what would they be? Discuss

6. The 4 main purposes of assessment:
To provide feedback – to teachers and students about progress.
To measure achievement.
To certificate achievement – recognising a common standard
To evaluate effectiveness – of the education system operated in schools.
Discuss ideas

7. Summative assessment
Recording a summary of learning, assessing the level and development of a pupil at a particular time.
make judgments about progress or attainment in relation to levels or grades
inform other teachers about students’ achievements
inform parents about students’ progress help teachers and schools to address accountability
inform evaluation and development planning
A reminder

8. Formative and summative assessment
Formative and summative assessment should work alongside each other
The national curriculum places a statutory requirement on schools to report a level in geography for each student at the end of the three years of key stage 3; the level must be reported to parents and to the Department for Education and Skills.
Assessment for Learning (AfL).

9. Planning: 4 principals of learning
Start where the student is; learning occurs when students can connect to their personal experiences.
Students to take an active part in the dialogue – when doing the learning.
Students must know the target they are trying to achieve. Transparent assessment criteria.
Give students and opportunity to talk about geographical ideas – the vocabulary and grammar.
A reminder

11. Task 2: Evaluating and improving an assessment
Have a look at the Plate Tectonics assessment. Evaluate this as an assessment, and redesign it with your improvements.
It is for a mixed ability year 8 class designing a poster based on an earthquake or volcanic eruption if their choice.
Evaluate it. Does it reflect the principals of learning? Improve it. How would you use the NC level descriptors?
You will all then mark an assessment.
Refer to assessment on desk and mark examples

13. NC levels Take your copy of the national curriculum levels
Your task is to simplify each level for pupils to understand – you should try to use less than 20 words for each level!

15. Now to use the levels to design an assessment!

16. A year 8 class have just completed a unit of work called Moving Stories
Design an assessment activity (< 1 lesson) for this class –they are mixed ability
Design a guidance sheet for pupils to break the activity into manageable pieces
Design a feedback for the teacher to use with the pupils once they have completed the assessment; the work needs to be level assessed.

17. The key areas of the Moving Stories SOW are;
Who are the British?
Britain the rainbow nation...multi ethnic britain, cultural champions
Why do people migrate to/from UK? – economic migrants, illegal migrants, environmental migrants? Refugees and asylum seekers
What are the common perceptions of migrants and immigrants?- media, public, government.

18. APP by QCA Assessing Pupil progress by Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency !
AF 1 – Understanding Places
AF 2 – Exploring Interconnections and change
AF3 – Enquiring and communicating

19. The challenge of ‘leveling’ student’s work:
The wide-ranging content of the PoS and assessment criteria (level descriptions);
the importance of geographical enquiry, which was emphasised in the revised national curriculum and which cannot easily be assessed under timed conditions;
the danger of assessment overload for students at the end of key stage 3.

20. Level 4 represents expectations for the average 11-year-old
Level 5-6 represents the expectations for the average 14-year-old.
Therefore with KS3 usually 3 years long, students can expect to progress 2 levels in 3 years. How do you record progress?
it is better to assess attainment over a long period of time rather than in a short ‘spot’ assessment that may be externally marked with no allowance for an ‘off day’.
The temptation is to subdivide levels into 3, and this is what most schools do. But the levels are so broad it is often difficult to show progression between the levels in their entirety – you maybe assessing only a part of a level within a s.o.w. for example map skills. So what is the answer? Making more effort in improving the day-to-day process of formative assessment to to provide a more rounded picture of the learner. AfL

21. AfL
What is it? Discuss with your partner-have you seen it in action? Do you have examples of good practice you can share? (4 mins)
One answer is AfL. It is a way of incorporating assessment within your teaching – formative assessment to build a picture of student progress

22. Teachers TV clip AfL
assessment-for-learning-geography

23. AfL is… Classroom questioning and dialogue Feedback through marking
Peer and self assessment
The formative use of summative tests
Use this to shape the rest of the slides p23 for Bloom’s taxonomy: high order thinking

24. Questioning and dialogue
What does this mean? What makes a good question? What is dialogue?
Refer to worksheet Bloom’s Taxonomy

25. Hierarchy of questioning
Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Synthesis
Evaluation

26. Questioning based on Bloom’s taxonomy
KNOWLEDGE who, what, when, where, how ...?
COMPREHENSION describing in yourown words... retell...
APPLICATION how is ... an example of ...? how is ... related to ...? why is ... significant?

27. ANALYSIS what are the parts or features of. classify. according to
ANALYSIS what are the parts or features of ...? classify ... according to ... outline/diagram ... how does ... compare/contrast with ...? what evidence can you list for ...?
SYNTHESIS what would you predict/infer from ...? what ideas can you add to ...? how would you create/design a new ...? what might happen if you combined ...? what solutions would you suggest for ...?

28. EVALUATION do you agree that. what do you think about
EVALUATION do you agree that ...? what do you think about ...? what is the most important ...? place the following in order of priority ... how would you decide about ...? what criteria would you use to assess .

29. Teachers TV clip
a-z-of-effective-questioning

30. Framework for feedback:
Assess student’s work, provide a formative comment without a grade.
Return assessed work as soon as possible.
Planned verbal summary to class
Time for student reflection
Why are these important?
P24 notes

31. Managing peer assessment TASK 15 mins
What do you understand about peer assessment?
How would you go about setting up an assessment that is peer assessed?
Consider what the key elements of a peer assessment should be.
Refer to example of PEER assessment on desk on desk

32. Formative use of summative assessment
Refer to the sheet on your desk:
Development of revision
Generating and answering questions
Use of test outcomes for further work

33. Peer assessment sheet 1 3 5 Group Suitability of scheme
Use of maps and diagrams
Quity of description
Quity of explanation
Presentation
TOTAL
1 unsuitable 2
3 fairly suitable 4
5 an excellent scheme
1 no maps or diagrams maps and diagrams have some labels and are fairly neat
5 excellent maps and diagrams
1 scheme is not described
3 some description
5 very clear and detailed description referring to geographic factors
1 scheme is not explained
3 some explanation
5 very clear and detailed explanation referring to geographic factors
1 poor presentation
3 fair presentation
5 very neat and tidy 1 3 5

34. Next time? What can he/she improve on?
Peer assessment sheet
Feedback on individual performances
Name of presenter
A strength
A weakness
Next time? What can he/she improve on?
To help you decide on the strengths and weaknesses, consider the following aspects of an oral performance:
Volume
Pitch
Eye-contact Content (Interesting? Accurate?)
Posture
Facial expression
Use of notes as a prompt
(You might like to add other aspects of a performance to assess.)

35. Good practice: celebrating what students can do:
Teacher assessment is a continuous process that has assessment for learning embedded in it
makes use of a range of assessment techniques throughout the key stage.
provide opportunities for individual student enquiry to be assessed
manageable for teachers and students in the context of their overall workload;
understood clearly by students;
allows for inclusion so that all students can show what they have learned;
improves learning; does not dominate the curriculum and stifle new approaches to learning such as thinking skills
See summative assessment handout

36. Collecting evidence
It is important to collect evidence of students’ experiences and achievements in key stage 3 geography to support Teacher Assessed levels, in order to:
monitor progress and set targets for improvement
provide a basis for writing annual reports and for discussing progress with individual students and their parents;
support end-of-key-stage judgments;
maintain fair and consistent assessment standards among teachers through time
Retainable evidence may be categorised as direct evidence, indirect evidence and ephemeral evidence.

37. Direct evidence
This category would include exercise books and individual student enquiries containing written and visual material, possibly produced with the aid of ICT. Direct evidence should also include individual responses to timed assessments such as end-of-unit tests. It is also possible to retain responses by pairs and groups of students.

38. Indirect evidence
Indirect evidence might include students’ self-evaluation sheets and/or teacher observations and notes.

39. Ephemeral evidence
This may or may not be physically recorded but includes important teacher knowledge of individual students.
This may include observations on students
who make frequent, perceptive oral
contributions to lessons but do not match the level of these in their written work, or it may be discussions with students.

40. Portfolios
A portfolio is a collection of evidence that exemplifies students’ standards of work. Portfolios may be divided into two broad categories:
1. The school or departmental portfolio that exemplifies standards of attainment at each end-of-key-stage 3 level including borderlines between levels.
2. The individual student portfolio that builds up samples of work through key stage 3, providing a basis for considerations of progress and, ultimately, evidence to support teacher assessment of the student’s key stage 3 level and teacher observations about individual students.

41. Useful links: Assessment Reform Group: www.assessment-reform-group.org
GTC:
NC in action:
The Association for Achievement and Improvement through Assessment:
Butt, G., & Weedon, P. (eds): ‘Assessing progress in your Key Stage 3 Geography Curriculum (2009). GA.