Teach Secondary - Issue 14.6

Daily assessment In 2010, my full-page lesson plans (which nobody read, of course), included sections for ‘Assessment for Learning’ (AfL) and ‘Assessment of Learning’ (AoL). While this was a good reminder that assessment should be ongoing, getting students to complete ‘Two stars and a wish’ during a 3-minute plenary was never going to deliver a robust measurement of either. Today, my ongoing assessment of students really is that – ongoing . This comes with precision, and through knowing our students well. Mini-whiteboards and finger voting strategies* are the quickest ways of obtaining whole-class knowledge. This approach – as opposed to cold-calling individual students – informs us howmany have understood the concept and are now ready to progress. If a few aren’t ready, then we can quickly provide scaffolds without the majority having to wait. If the majority aren’t ready, we can adapt to address the gap. Either way, our assessment becomes more robust than when we treat one voice as a spokesperson for everyone. If my driving instructor had based our next lessons on the needs of another learner entirely, I’d have never made it to the road... Ongoing feedback and ‘livemarking’ This is pivotal for addressing misconceptions early on. Educators will often ask, “ How do you get round a full class in a lesson ?”. The answer lies in thinking about strategy. What incremental gains are you looking for from each student?What section of their work do you need to target?What misconceptions did they have before, and what guidance will they need? Ongoing feedback is about preventing misconceptions and errors from becoming embedded. Had my driving instructor waited until week five to get me to check my mirrors, it would’ve been far more difficult for me to embed than if I’d been shown that in lesson 2, followed by constant reminders until that particular behaviour became habitual. Summative assessment In 2010, my assessment goals were foggy at best. It’s important that we’re all clear as to what we want to discover about student progression before assessing them– because often, formative assessments will fail to identify the differences between gaps in content and skill . Whenmy Y8s initially sat their formative/summative assessment, I didn’t know whether they lacked knowledge of language features (content), or how to write about them (skill). Assessments need to test both content and skill separately to diagnose the gap. Yes, by the end of Y11 they’ll need to apply both together – but we still need to know the precise gaps in order to get them there. My first few driving lessons were less about the skill of driving, and more about the content of what everything did and how it worked. It was only after I’d mastered this that I could consider speed, perception and accuracy. Yes, the final test checked to see if and how I could put it all together to drive safely – but had my instructor not identified much earlier that I didn’t understand how the clutch worked, I’d have continued to stall when trying to start the car. Overall, I’ve come a long way since those early experiences with assessment. Through intergenerational learning, assessment practice continues to be strengthened. Gone are the days (hopefully) of repeating the same test to get an unclear outcome, and we now have a broader field of research around which we can shape our practice. ‘Improvement’ means dedicating ourselves to true ongoing assessment. It’s with this vision that we’ll get all of our students safely ‘on the road’. Oh, and just to add –my first driving test was anything but seamless, In fact, I hit a wheelie bin with my wing mirror, which – surprisingly – wasn’t even the reason for me failing. I think we can agree, though, that those who pass on their second attempt are typically better drivers... right? ABOUT THE AUTHOR Matthew Hallam is a Trust literacy leader, English/literacy SLE and senior examiner based in Oldham and Rochdale *Providing the scaffold of multiple-choice answers and getting all students to vote by holding up the number of fingers that match to the corresponding answer. 29 teachwire.net/secondary A S S E S S M E N T TEACH SECONDARY SPECIAL ASSESSMENT