1. Assessment & Reporting using the Australian Curriculum 2012 Module 1
This PowerPoint provides an introduction to the professional learning modules for assessment and reporting followed by Module 1 of this set.
We recommend schools complete the modules early in Term 1. This familiarisation process will assist teachers with their planning, teaching and assessment using the Australian Curriculum (AC).
Module 4 is the Reporting Module and schools can determine the timing for the presentation of this information.
Duration for each module will of course vary depending on
- the size of your staff
- the time needed for each activity
- how many samples are analysed and
- to what depth they are examined and discussed.
Approximate times:
Module 1: 1 hour
Module 2: less than 1 hour
Module 3: 1½ hour
Module 4: ½ hour
Senior staff/Facilitators will need preparation time well before hand to
- familiarise themselves with the modules
- agree on the groupings they will use for their staff
- decide on the number of resources required
- photocopy, cut up and sort materials for the various activities.

2. Four Professional Learning Modules
Unpacking the AC achievement standards
Validity and reliability of assessments
Confirming teacher judgments of student learning
Reporting student learning
Curriculum, Teaching and Phases of learning have developed a sequence of professional learning modules to support teachers’ effectiveness in assessing and reporting student learning as part of the implementation of the Australian Curriculum for English and mathematics in 2012.
The AC achievement standards play a critical role in curriculum implementation and are evident in nearly all the cycles of curriculum i.e. intended, implemented, assessed, achieved and reported.
Developing an understanding of the AC achievement standards will occur with familiarisation of the associated curriculum including content descriptions, elaborations, proficiencies (mathematics) and modes (English).

3. A quality assurance assessment cycle
Planning
Clarifying
Confirming
Reviewing and Improving
Module 1
Module 2
Reporting to parents
Achievement standards play a critical role in curriculum implementation and are evident in nearly all the cycles of curriculum e.g. intended, implemented, assessed, achieved and reported.
All contribute to ensuring that quality information is provided to parents.
The quality assurance and assessment integrity cycle comprises four phases. Quality assurance involves teachers reflecting on current practice with the objective of ongoing improvement. This ensures comparability and validity of student performance information and supports a shared understanding of standards.
They focus on the critical elements of
understanding and use of standards
assessment design
consistency of teacher judgement through moderation
pedagogy of instruction.
Before teachers can plan for the range of possible teaching, learning and assessment opportunities they need to be familiar with and understand the AC achievement standards.
Further detailed information regarding the Quality Assurance Assessment Cycle can be found in the NTCF Assessment Guidelines (pp7-11).
Module 1 focuses on the Planning phase of the quality assurance assessment cycle.
Learning Management Questions such as:
What do learners already know? and Where do the learners need or want to be? represent the thinking by teachers at this stage.
Module 4
Module 3

4. Assessment and Reporting with the AC
Module 1
Unpacking the
achievement standards
Module 1 focuses on exploring and learning about the achievement standards.
In order to respond to the questions
What do learners already know?
Where do the learners need or want to be?
What evidence of learning will best match the intended learning?
teachers must have a deep understanding of the achievement standards.

5. Achievement Standards: What are they?
Describe the expected achievement for students.
Indicate the quality of the learning
- depth of conceptual understanding
- extent of and ability to apply the knowledge
- the sophistication of skills.
Present an ordered sequence of learning across F-10 with the difference between one standard and the next clear and unambiguous.
Achievement standards describe what skills and concepts students can typically understand and be able to do and apply in a variety of situations.
Teachers of course must cater for the range of ability levels in their class cohort.
Most of their students will be able to access the age/grade appropriate content if
it is scaffolded sufficiently
and
simple to complex contexts are used when delivering the appropriate learning experiences associated with that year level achievement standard.
For some students in the class, however, this age/grade appropriate content will need to be supplemented with suitable learning experiences from a lower year level curriculum with its associated achievement standard.
For example a Year 3 teacher when catering for his/her students will focus mainly on the Year 3 content (scaffolded and presented appropriately for the learners) and associated achievement standard. The student learning should reflect the depth and breadth of understanding and application of knowledge and skills for this year level.
A few students may need learning experiences scaffolded from content outside their year level. However, teachers will ultimately have to report the student’s progress against the age/grade achievement standard of that student (e.g. a Year 3 student is reported against the Year 3 achievement standard).
Achievement standards will be accompanied by annotated work samples that play a key role in communicating the expectations described.
The content descriptions and achievement standards
are interdependent and should be read together.

6. English achievement standards
The English achievement standards are structured by
Receptive mode (listening, reading and viewing)
- understanding purpose, how language works to create effects
- mechanics, comprehension, interpretation and listening (skills)
Productive mode (speaking, writing and creating)
- understanding purpose, point of view, how different effects are created
- skills needed to write and speak, mechanics, speaking OR
Reading and Viewing
Writing
Listening and Speaking
On the AC website the English achievement standards default to the receptive and productive modes.
Schools can choose to view and/or download the achievement standards in the strands of Reading & Viewing, Writing, Listening & Speaking for the activities in this module. This can be done by identifying the modes in the view icon.
We have opted to use the default classification – Receptive and Productive modes – to encourage educators to think about this way of categorising the English curriculum.
Productive and receptive modes more accurately represent the intertwining relationship that exists between the strands and provide a greater focus on what the student is required to understand and do.

7. What does it look like for English?
ACARA are currently developing a bank of quality samples and portfolios of evidence of learning that exemplify the achievement standards. The first set are available now with ongoing work occurring throughout 2012.
Schools are urged to submit quality assessment samples to ACARA to support this process.
Understanding the achievement standards should occur in conjunction with analysing associated work samples i.e. What does the achievement standard look like?
Student evidence of learning plays a key role in communicating expectations described in the achievement standard. Each work sample includes the relevant assessment task, the student’s response, and annotations identifying the quality of learning evident in the student’s response in relation to relevant parts of the achievement standard.
Achievement standards with work samples

8. Mathematics achievement standards
Mathematics achievement standards are separated into
understandings and skills.
They combine the proficiencies
Understanding Fluency
Problem Solving Reasoning
with the mathematical strands
Number and Algebra
Measurement and Geometry
Statistics and Probability.
The achievement standards for mathematics consist of 2 paragraphs: The first describes Understandings and the second Skills.
The proficiencies (working mathematically) are woven into the achievement standards and are critically important when planning for teaching, learning and assessment.
More information on the proficiencies can be found at

9. What does it look like for mathematics?
Achievement standards with tasks and work samples
Same information as the What does it look like for English? slide

10. Module 1: Learning activities
Objective:
Teachers will develop knowledge and understanding of the achievement standards to enable effective use of the standards when planning, teaching and assessing student learning.
This module consists of activities that:
- identify the conceptual threads across the achievement standards
- sequence the achievement standards into a developmental continuum
- discuss the differentiation of skills, understandings, knowledge required from one year to the next.
In order to develop deep understandings of the nature and content, intent and use of achievement standards it is recommended that hands-on activities be available. This will help to highlight the development of concepts across the curriculum and enable teachers to differentiate the skills and understanding of each year level. That is, ask
What do the students need to know and be able to do from year to year?
In this activity teachers work through a specific task that provides a purpose to reading and making meaning of the achievement standards:
The achievement standards are cut up into paragraphs with the year level removed and teachers are required to identify and highlight conceptual threads.
These threads act as clues to help teachers in the next part of the activity where they must sequence and display the achievement standards in the correct order.
This hands-on activity will build teachers’ conceptual understandings of the achievement standards rather than passively reading them with no specific purpose in mind.

11. Module 1: Materials for activity
Materials required
Packs e.g. envelopes containing a number* of sets of the achievement standards, cut up into sections, for each phase of learning group.
Early Years – Foundation to Year 3
Primary Years – Years 3 to 6
Middle Years – Years 7 to 10
Highlighters or coloured pencils to identify conceptual threads
Achievement standards for final display and discussion (can be on coloured A4 or A3 sheets for wall display)
Content descriptions and elaborations on hand for reference
*Note: The number of each set will depend on the number of teachers in each
phase of learning at your school. Schools may opt to use full sets e.g. F-7.
Maths F-3
English F-3
Maths 3-6
English 3-6
Maths 7-10
English 7-10
Master copies of the achievement standards for photocopying are included in Module 1 materials.
There are 2 versions of the master copy with scissors icons  to indicate the cutting lines:
Mathematics achievement standards divided into conceptual threads to allow for easy identification of topics e.g. fractions.
English achievement standards in a 2 paragraph form (default view on the ACARA website).
Also included are A4 sheets of the achievement
standards (labelled with year levels) for wall
display to be used for discussion in the final
part of the module activity.
If desired, schools can change the overall font,
colour different threads, photocopy into coloured
paper or A3 paper to suit their needs.

12. Module 1: Directions for activity
1. Individually or with a partner
Read, identify and highlight some of the conceptual threads in your set.
2. With a partner
Track the conceptual threads through the texts and use them to help you arrange the paragraphs into a sequence that is developmentally coherent.
Discuss, confirm and/or amend your sequence.
Whole group
Use the A4 (or A3) sheets of the achievement standards to confirm/amend the sequence
Pin up the achievement standard sheets on the wall in order.
Discuss/note the differentiation of skills, understandings and knowledge from year to year. Referral to the content descriptors and elaborations is recommended.
Groupings:
Teachers can choose to work in
- their phase of learning group e.g. F-3, 4-6, 7-9
- their year level group or
- mixed groups (lower, middle and upper teachers).
These groups can work on the achievement standards for their levels only e.g. T-3 teachers might highlight and sequence the F to 3 AS while the year 4-6 teachers sort the rest. They combine them to represent the full developmental continuum at the end of the process and each group can look at the other group’s threads and final sequence. or
a mixed group might work on the F to 6 (or 7 to 9) achievement standards and compare their sequence with other groups at the end of the activity.
Once their set of achievement standards are highlighted and sequenced then the groups can combine to join up the sequences into one complete continuum and discuss the progression in key learnings from year to year.
Note: Make sure the teachers are aware of how the achievement standards have been deconstructed or cut up and that there are 2 paragraphs of text for each year level achievement standard (e.g. in Mathematics one paragraph represents the understandings and the other, the skills for that year level) .

13. Module 1: Highlight and sequence
Highlight threads and sequence the text to demonstrate:
the presence of conceptual threads and what details/key words differentiate one year level from the next
the sequencing of the achievement standards from year to year
the increasing complexity of skills and understandings.
Choose 1 or 2 threads e.g. punctuation or fractions, highlight each thread in different colours and track their progression from easy to more difficult (increasing in complexity) across the year levels.
Note also the change in emphasis in some concept areas.
Some concepts skip a year level and are not directly stated in the achievement standard but are included in the next year level. Teachers will revisit and strengthen these concepts from the time they are introduced. (It is recommended that although some concepts may not be mentioned in a lower year level, they can be introduced in an informal way to set the scene for later year levels when they will be formally addressed and assessed.)

14. Module 1: Display and discuss
Display charts on the wall
Identify and discuss the differentiation of skills, understandings and knowledge from year to year
What keys learnings occur from one year to the next?
It is recommended that the continuum of achievement standards remain on display so that discussion can occur as part of this module and be continued over the weeks.
Teachers could post annotations identifying key learnings that need to be achieved before moving onto the next year level.
Suggestion:
Explicit teaching points and engaging learning activities that will move students onto the next level can be listed underneath the AC charts.
These could be identified from the C2C materials.

15. Think time Discuss Reflect Question Plan
How can we really really implement the Australian Curriculum with its true essence and pedagogical implications? Not just tick the boxes to say we have.
Use your reflection time to jot your thoughts, ideas, issues etc. to guide your planning for teaching, learning and assessment.
Plan