Formative assessment

Assessment

Secondary

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

See how a secondary school helps pupils learn how to behave

Behaviour management expert Sue Cowley explores how a secondary school encourages pupils to learn how to behave, in this pedagogy and formative assessment resource. The school has appointed key staff and incorporated parent/student teaching initiatives and vocational curriculum options at KS3 and KS4, such as bricklaying. Later, a panel debates the strategies and approaches adopted in the 'Assessment and Behaviour: Steering the Right Course (Primary)' video. The panel reviews the main message of The Steer Report - that behaviour can be learned and adapted by applying a consistent and positive approach within the classroom. Sir Alan Steer also provides his views on the report.

Assessment and Behaviour - Steering the Right Course (Secondary)

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

Developing and managing APP evidence in AF5 reading

Secondary English Consultant, Deborah Murray, works with post-NQT teacher, Gemma Hafeldon, to design a series of four lessons on AF5 reading, using Shakespeare as content. Lancashire is leading the way with introducing APP frameworks in its schools. Here, at Mount Carmel School, Accrington, Deborah helps Gemma design four lessons in one of the most challenging areas of APP - AFs in the reading spectrum. With her class of Year 9s, Gemma uses Shakespeare's "Richard III" to explain level AF5 in detail, getting the children to assess each other, ask questions and identify how their work could have achieved higher levels.

Designing APP Assessment for English

How a maths department has incorporated APP in the KS3 curriculum

How a maths department transformed KS3 teaching by incorporating Assessing Pupils' Progress (APP) throughout the new curriculum. Through two lessons on angles, the maths department at Plantsbrook School, headed by Tom Pole, shows how its redesigned KS3 curriculum delivers APP evidence. Tom uses personally designed assessment diagrams to record observations made during the lessons, and shows how peer assessment can help with evidence collection. Finally, teacher Stuart McAusland shows how his Year 7 class peer assesses homework about sequences.

Designing APP Assessment for Maths

Exploring pupils' thinking processes in maths using APP

A secondary teacher shows how she reveals the thinking processes behind students' answers in a Year 7 maths class, using a technique which can be used across Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 as part of Assessing Pupils' Progress (APP). Teacher Phillipa Rouet invites answers from every pupil in her Year 7 maths class at Merchants Academy, Bristol, taking care not to indicate whether they are right or wrong. She then asks them how they arrive at their answer and through their explanations, students reveal their thinking processes and realise how to correct their own mistakes. The technique is used across all ages in the school from Years 7 to 13.

Exploring Thinking Processes

Pupils at John Cabot CTC are put in charge of their own learning

John Cabot City Technology College in Bristol is taking bold steps to make students responsible for their own learning. Year 7 students follow a "competency curriculum" to develop cross-curricular skills that will make them effective learners for the rest of their school careers. A computer programme designed by teaching staff allows students to self-evaluate their own learning and understanding. This information helps teachers to be more responsive to students' needs in their teaching, along with regular mentoring.

Formative Assessment and Personalised Learning - Secondary

Piloting the QCA's new approach to assessment APP in KS3 English

Naomi Hursthouse has been piloting the QCA's new approach to assessment, APP, in KS3 English at Bishop Luffa School in Chichester. She shares her experience of how this approach has helped teachers use a wider range of evidence to gauge pupils' achievement and give a fuller, more formative picture of students' strengths and weaknesses in relation to national standards. The programme focuses on APP Reading, with reference to AF6, as part of a lesson on reading satire. There is also a moderation session where Naomi and her colleague review two assessment folders from Year 7 pupils, and a parent-pupil review session.

KS3 English - APP Reading

Looking at APP in action at Downlands Community School

The English department at Downlands Community School in Hassocks has been applying the new QCA Assessing Pupils' Progress for three years. See it in action in a Year 9 English lesson, focusing on a specific Assessment Focus to target students' learning needs around writing. Head of English, Paul Barber, who introduced APP to his school, also discusses the challenges and successes they have had using this approach. For Paul, APP helps his planning and teaching. He can spot students' weakness, plan specific lessons to tackle these and see progression over time. For the students, APP is a very personalised approach, putting them in the driving seat of their own learning and enabling them to understand how to improve their writing.

KS3 English - APP Writing

We take an in-depth look at a workshop for assessment

In this programme, we follow Year 7 history teacher Reuben Moore as he takes an NQT and a PGCE-trainee to a workshop on assessment. For three months we have had unique access to Reuben at west London's Lampton School, enabling us to reveal - over a series of four programmes - how he deals with the demands faced by the modern day history teacher. Leading the assessment workshop is Reuben's former teacher-training colleague Sally Burnham, now a specialist in assessment. Looking at the challenge of assessment and the role of NC level descriptors, Sally discusses different ways of "doing" assessment. Reuben reflects on the end of term and how his Year 7 pupils have developed over the term, meeting with their parents for the first time at parents evening.

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