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Formative Assessment

Strategies  To Be Tried At Bridge Of Allan Primary School

As part of our staff development, we have been working on the following key areas:-

·         Marking Less to Achieve More’

·         Sharing Learning Intentions

·         Pupil self assessment and peer assessment

Staff have been applying a variety of strategies. These include:-

·         Increased wait time

·         ‘Thumbs Up/Traffic Lights’ to determine self grouping

·         What the teacher looks for? (WILF)

·         Think, pair, share

·         Pupils swapping work

·         Oral  feedback on improvement

strategies

Clearly not all classes will be involved with all of these strategies all of the time.

Each teacher will be trying two or three in selected areas of the curriculum.

All of these will add to an even better quality of education and a more enjoyable school experience for all involved.

Assessment – The Facts

There are two kinds of assessment – Formative and Summative.

If we think about learning to drive, formative assessment happens during every lesson. The instructor says what manoeuvre is going to be taught and explain how it is done.

The learner gives it a try and receives feedback about how it went. Both the learner and the instructor have a say in how things went and what can be done to improve.

Afterwards the learner can try again – and keep trying until it’s right.

Summative assessment is the driving test – no help or support, just show what you know and prove what you can do.

What Will Be Different In Class ?

Much of what is involved in formative assessment is derived from good practice.

This being the case, many of the strategies associated with it are already going on in school. We aim to build on this by slowly introducing some new ideas in certain areas of the curriculum.

Expected Benefits

Research has shown that pupils benefit in a number of ways. These include;

·         increased pupil confidence.

·         greater motivation to work

·         better results in class work

·         a quicker pace of learning

·         better understanding of work covered

·         improved contribution to group work

·         children form an understanding of  how they learn

Some Formative Assessment Strategies

Questioning

·         Increased wait time

·         Expecting all pupils to offer an answer

·         Open questions

·         Think, pair, share

Feedback to pupils

·         Avoiding  giving marks

·         Detail improvement targets

·         Oral feedback on improvement

·         Positive feedback to ensure replication

Sharing Criteria/Target Setting

·         What the teacher looks for  (WILF)

·         Setting targets in conjunction with the pupil

·         ‘Thumbs Up’ to determine self grouping

Peer and self assessment

·         Pupils swapping work

·         Pupils feedback to others

·         ‘Thumbs Up’ on completion of work

·         Plenary sessions

·         Structured debate