Formative assessment

Assessment

Primary

Hear opinions on APP and summative and formative assessment

Hear current opinion on summative and formative assessment, and discover what the future might hold for Assessment for Learning in primary and secondary schools, in this whole-school video. Professor Dylan William of the Institute of Education outlines why he believes a shift away from formal summative testing for schools, and towards using assessment for learning in the classroom, would be a more effective way to improve education. This video also addresses some of the debate around the introduction of the government's assessment for learning strategy, Assessing Pupil's Progress (APP), a hybrid of formative and summative forms of assessment. Among the various views from schools and experts, some argue for a lighter footprint for summative testing while others believe that schools can't be 'secret gardens' with nobody on the outside knowing what's happening.

AfL and APP: What's Going on with Assessment

The Steer Report's influence on learning behaviour strategies

A look at how those on the education front line are trying to steer the right course with learning behaviour strategies following the publication of the Steer Report. This programme opens with a focus on Therese Allen's work and how she turned around her failing primary school in a deprived area of Birmingham. There is a focus on Sir Alan Steer, briefly exploring his main purpose and proposals, and an observation on how those working in primary are deploying initiatives such as nurture groups, better parenting classes and nursery home visits with parents. Sir Alan peppers the programme with observations and key points, concluding that he is optimistic about the future improvement of learning behaviour.

Assessment and Behaviour - Steering the Right Course (Primary)

Implementing formative assessment more effectively

Teachers who have switched the emphasis away from marking and grading to give comments and feedback are finding that their pupils try much harder. Public exams like GCSEs and A-levels give pupils a final grade, known as summative assessment. Recent research, however, has focused more on formative assessment which happens every day, not just in a single ritual. Formative assessment can range from a smile or a raised eyebrow to detailed feedback about how and what a child is learning. It's extremely effective in raising pupil's eventual achievement in tests and exams as well as capturing their interest and commitment.

Assessment for Learning

Examples of original approaches to personalised learning

Westbury Park Primary school in Bristol has an original and unique approach to personalised learning. We follow a Year 5 class as they create their own song and a Year 1 class during the course of their three literacy lessons in Pirate week. The school collaborates with the University of Bristol's Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory project (ELLI), using seven dimensions for effective teaching and learning: learning relationships, changing and learning, creativity, resilience, curiosity, meaning making and strategic awareness.

Formative Assessment and Personalised Learning - Primary

How does a teacher assess progress? 

This programme looks at how teachers assess progress. Aston Tower, Birmingham, serves the inner city. Here, Year 2 teachers, Melanie Grant and Vanessa Clarke are anxious about how they can accurately build up a picture of children's skills at the end of Key Stage 1. They've worked with maths consultant, Val Worcester, to design active assessment opportunities. Looking at shape, Melanie encourages discussion with a small number of children. In money, Vanessa works with a small group on an activity, using real coins to pay and adding the coin values together in pairs. In calculation, a group throws bean bags at printed numbers. They add the numbers mentally or with the support of resources they must choose for themselves. In capacity, the children play in water to find out how much juice they need to fill 30 party cups, one for each child.

KS1/2 Maths - Goodbye SATs, Hello Assessment 1

Reflecting on KS1 teachers' assessment activities

Maths consultant, Val Worcester, reflects on the assessment activities of two KS1 teachers from Birmingham. The challenge for teachers with KS1 assessment is to design activities that will yield evidence about each child's ability. The programme looks at how activities help and how teachers actively assess. Melanie discusses how she manages a whole class activity, and focuses on particular children. She makes notes after the activity, rather than during. She listens for mathematical language as they talk about the use of a familiar puppet. The story starter for activities is discussed. Vanessa points out that watching the children whilst they work reveals more evidence than looking at what they write down. In the programme, making adaptable games is praised while not giving the children resources in the first instance promotes higher level mental activity. The real world context for capacity is discussed as is the need to observe and record children's mistakes as well as their successes.

KS1/2 Maths - Goodbye SATs, Hello Assessment 2

Assessing speaking with EAL pupils

Assessing EAL speaking is notoriously difficult to get right. This programme demonstrates how one new method of assessing the speaking ability of EAL pupils is introduced across a school. We discover how EAL expert Ros Ferrara's method of assessment can help, inform a teacher's future planning and assist pupil language development. In Assessing Speaking, you can observe the model applied in the classroom as Ros' team teaches alongside class teacher Sally McAvoy of St. Anne's RC Primary School in Vauxhall. The lesson focuses on problem solving, collaborative practice and speaking and presentation assessment. For more information on this programme see the resources and support materials page.

Managing EAL - Primary - Assessing Speaking

Using a framework to track EAL pupils' written skills

Research suggests that EAL pupils have specific written language needs, which the National Curriculum cannot necessarily deal with comprehensively. To tackle this, Ros Ferrara at Lambeth LEA in South London has been piloting a framework for assessment as part of a DfES initiative, which aims to raise levels of EAL through a focus on assessment for learning. Ros has been working closely with St Anne's RC Primary School in Vauxhall. At St Anne's we see Sally McAvoy, one of the teachers Ros trained to use the framework, joining Year 2 class teacher Adrian Le Ciurot as he reviews one pupil's written work. The programme demonstrates how the introduction of this kind of framework for assessment monitors and tracks the language targets set for each pupil across the curriculum.

Managing EAL - Primary - Assessing Writing

Watch a small pilot of APP in a KS2 cross-curricular lesson

Watch a primary teacher using the pilot version of Assessing Pupils' Progress (APP) during her Key Stage 2 maths lesson, in the first episode of this four-part series. Jackie Nicholls, deputy headteacher of Dickens Heath Primary School, Solihull, applies APP to assess six of her pupils' understanding of key maths terminology. The Year 5 pupils begin to show their independent thinking in a cross-curricular art and maths lesson, and Jackie gathers some insightful evidence when she challenges the pupils with real-life maths tasks outside the classroom. APP specialists Donna Wright and Louise Burnett review Jackie's assessment and discover that one of her pupils is greatly exceeding her expectations. There's also advice from teachers with experience of the APP pilot on assessing gaps. Note that current advice is that schools should apply APP to all their pupils rather than the benchmark process, capturing and identifying smaller amounts of evidence than Jackie does in this video.

Part 1: Finding the Gaps

Using APP to monitor KS2 pupils' retention of maths skills

A primary teacher continues to monitor her Key Stage 2 pupils as they perform maths tasks outside the classroom, in the second of this four-part series on the pilot version of Assessing Pupils' Progress (APP). Following some gap analysis, Jackie Nicholls runs a lesson designed to get her Year 5 class at Dickens Heath Primary School in Solihull, to apply the numeracy skills gained in the previous lesson. Jackie sets her pupils a series of musical mathematical tasks and investigations based on their maths vocabulary. She gathers evidence of how much from the previous lesson her students can now apply in practical tasks. With help from APP specialists, Donna Wright and Louise Burnett, Jackie begins to re-evaluate her level judgements. Note that current advice is that schools should apply APP to all their pupils, rather than the benchmarked small-group approach here, capturing and identifying smaller amounts of evidence without using portfolios.

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