Assessment

‘Assessment for Learning is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there’. (Assessment Reform Group, 2002)

Assessment for learning involves using assessment in the classroom to raise pupils’ achievement. It is based on the idea that pupils will improve most if they teachers understand where children are in relation to expected curriculum expectations and what they need to do next to achieve expected curriculum expectations or even go beyond!

Assessment is closely linked to teachers’ curriculum planning, since it is only by continually assessing what children have learnt and understood, that we can know what “next steps” should be planned.

In mixed ability classes, it is essential that teachers “differentiate” in the work given to different ability groups. Children’s progress can then be assessed against the “learning intentions” in the curriculum planning.  Planning and assessment form an ongoing cycle.

Effective assessment for learning happens all the time in the classroom. It involves: – sharing learning goals with pupils – helping pupils know and recognise the standards to aim for – providing feedback that helps pupils to identify how to improve – believing that every pupil can improve in comparison with previous achievements

– Both the teacher and pupils reviewing and reflecting on pupils’ performance and progress
– Pupils learning self-assessment techniques to discover areas they need to improve

– Believing that every pupil can improve in comparison with previous achievements – both the teacher and pupils reviewing and reflecting on pupils’ performance and progress – pupils learning self-assessment techniques to discover areas they need to improve recognising that both motivation and self-esteem, crucial for effective learning and progress, can be increased by effective assessment techniques. – Research has shown that being part of the review process raises standards and empowers pupils to take action to improve their performance.

Assessment and Testing… are not the same thing!

Children’s learning is assessed in a variety of ways ……. By observing the children, by talking with them about their learning and designing assessment tasks/activities at the end of an area of learning in order to find out what children have learnt.  In the upper part of the school children are given “tests” from time to time to help them learn to work “against the clock”.

The emphasis is not on children competing with each other, which could be very disheartening for children of lower ability, rather the emphasis is “improving on your own previous best”.  This motivates children to achieve at their own pace.

Feedback

Assessment drives learning. Feedback to pupils about their learning leads to new learning. Assessment is an essential part of the ethos in every classroom and a continual two-way process between adults and children. Planning and assessment are thus interdependent processes.

Self-Assessment … is known to make a valuable contribution to children’s learning, and children throughout the school are becoming used to being involved in self-assessment, using success criteria to assess their learning. Children are involved in assessing their own and each others work. We believe that the more aware children are of what they can do, and the steps they need to take to make progress, the more responsibility they will begin to take for their own learning – a vital aspect of achieving success.