Teach Primary Issue 18.6

www.teachwire.net | 55 T E ACH RE AD I NG & WR I T I NG Marc Bowen is a Deputy Head and primary teacher in South Wales. He is always keen to engage in professional dialogue, sharing ideas and experiences for use in the classroom. He welcomes any responses to this article or further questions through his email bowenm43@ hwbcymru.net @raglanvc FIND OUT MORE... For a detailed case study, with a comprehensive selection of example assessment documents, please visit tinyurl.com/tp-PauseReflect conceptual understanding; misconceptions that needed to be addressed immediately; or aspects of learning that might need to be revisited in the future. Whole-class marking Once pupils have finished the assessment task, it’s time to complete a more formalised ‘whole class mark’. This stage offers a useful way of balancing teacher workload against the impact of the assessment activity. Rather than individually marking each piece of written work, or providing digital feedback to a multimedia product, the teacher spends time looking in detail at each piece. Whilst doing so, they note down on the ‘whole class feedback’ sheet, any common strengths, issues or next steps that emerge from the task overall. This may include ‘remarking on the remarkable’ – capturing specific assessments for individuals, whilst also gaining a more generalised view of the progress of the class as a whole. How the outcomes of this process are then captured will depend on the individual setting and the regional and national procedures in place for the profession. In my setting, we complete a comparative, colour-coded assessment of each individual against the original learning objective/success criteria for the Pause and Reflect task. The comparative process involves simply sorting the learner ‘work’ into four groups, ranging from those who have only partially met the goals of the assessment, to those who may have exceeded expectations. Children can then be given individual verbal or written feedback through a ‘learning conference’ process, or be assigned a numbered level or grade for each outcome. Many assessment providers are now looking to the use of artificial intelligence to develop tools that will support teachers in quickly and efficiently making these comparative judgements. This could ultimately replace the traditional (and sometimes contentious) moderation and standardisation processes which are commonly found within and between primary settings. Following the completion of a Pause and Reflect task, the teacher should be left with: a detailed insight into the level of pupils’ understanding; specific goals for individual learners; a clear direction for the class as a whole. Pupils should come away from the experience feeling that they have been actively engaged with a purposeful learning activity. From my first-hand experience of developing and trialling this approach, I can confidently say that the assessment activities, and the outcomes that result from them, have provided me with some of the most useful, powerful and purposeful insights into the children in my class that I have ever encountered. Who knew that teachers could actually enjoy assessments? TP “Who knew that teachers could actually enjoy assessments?” AS S E S SMENT S P E C I A L