1. The formative use of summative assessment By Phil Smith FS Consultant Bury LEA

2. By 5.30pm we will have  Recognise some of the key characteristics of assessment for learning  Shown how assessment OF learning can contribute to assessment FOR learning  Seen the influence assessment has on motivation, self-esteem and learning  See the impact of feedback to pupils on their learning  Seen how AfL can actively involve pupils in setting their own individual targets

3.  The “Learning Gap” is the difference between what we know about the brain and the learning process and what is happening in the classroom.  Identifying and closing the Learning Gap is central to genuine and sustainable school improvement.

4. My dream about being a doctor  I told the patient there was nothing else that could be done  Although there were other techniques and strategies…I’d keep on using the leeches!  I told the patient that I feared new methodology and the abandonment of leeches would lead to a decline in standards  Strangely this failed to appease the patient

5. My other dream…about being a teacher  I was telling a young child that there was nothing more that could be done to help him  He too was amazed when I told him that there were techniques and approaches that could help him a great deal  However if he was failing to learn using my method then he would have to spend more time on them-a few more hours after school or even a few weeks of his summer holiday

6. “Our objectives may remain the same but the pedagogy will surely evolve.” Hughes and Vos “The tools are here. The time is now. The script is yours to write-or dance, or sing, or play, or act, or draw, or orchestrate. Welcome to tomorrow.” Gordon Dryden and Jeanette Vos The Learning Revolution

7. Learning…and the need to start tweaking We are not looking for a radical overhaul-just a few tweaks and a bit of polish. In order to do this, we need to:  Be specific and accurately identify precisely which aspects of our performance need tweaking  Identify strategies that will enable us to do the tweaking  In other words, having identified what to tweak, we need to be clear about how to tweak it.

8. Just like improving at golf!

9. Where are you now?  Before we move on, pause for a while and reflect upon the quality of the lessons that you currently teach. How do you judge your current performance-what mark out of ten would you award yourself for the quality of your teaching?  Whatever mark you awarded yourself, you will remain at that level until you do something different  These sessions are about raising your score by at least one mark. It doesn’t matter what score you awarded yourself-the key question is how are you going to improve it?

10. Keep learning high-profile Put this on every teacher’s desk  What have they learned?  How do you know?  How is this activity helping them learn?

11. Keep learning high-profile Put this on every classroom door-so it is the last thing that students will see as they leave the classroom “What have you learned today?”

12. LEARNING=Understanding+Memo ry L= U + M

13. Content coverage “Cover the curriculum” is a horrible phrase: cover the curriculum and we transfer information; explore the curriculum and we cognitively grapple with it, and only then do we begin to make sense of it. Mike Hughes and Andy Vass

14. Three keys to effective learning  State People learn best when they are in an appropriate physical and emotional state. Learning is optimised when the brain is nourished and students are relaxed, confident and motivated.  Style People learn best in different ways. For maximum progress, people must have frequent opportunities to work in their preferred learning styles  Structure Mature, successful learners progress through discrete phases of learning quite naturally. Lessons should be structured to reflect these stages, in order to guide immature learners through the learning process.

15. I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture, or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crises will be escalated or de- escalated, and a child humanised or de- humanised.” Haim Ginott From Teacher and Child (1972)

16. Does your lesson have the O factor?  It’s the difference between pupils saying, even subconsciously, “Oh g oo d, it’s maths today” And “Oh G o d, it’s maths today.”

17. Using the language of possibility Student: I can’t do this. It’s boring. The student is actually saying “I don’t believe I can be successful with this and therefore I don’t want to take the risk.” NB It may or may not be boring Teacher: of course you can. Just keep trying and put a bit more effort in and you’ll get it. Inadvertently, we have denied the validity of the student’s feelings. Exhorting her to “keep trying” is not motivating if she believes the task is beyond her. Asking her to put a bit more effort in presupposes she isn’t trying hard enough and it’s her fault. Again-not motivating

18. Using the language of possibility A simple shift in language may have the desired effect. Student: I can’t do this. It’s boring By initially agreeing with the student, we are validating how she actually feels, which will ALWAYS be correct. This is a start to gaining rapport and therefore effective communication. However by reframing the problem as “a little tricky at the moment”, we have also diluted the severity of the problem and made it a temporary stage. Teacher: OK, it’s a little tricky AT THE MOMENT. Which BIT can’t you do YET? “Which bit can’t you do yet?” repeats the student’s words (can’t), which she will accept, and also lessens the difficulty by presupposing it’s only “a bit.” The inclusion of the word “yet” serves to emphasise the temporary nature of the difficulty and retains a connection to the possibility of things improving