Spelling and assessment

An interesting feature on Breakfast this morning, followed up online in this article. Reminds me of the range of different mehods that I use to assess pupils. The baseline assessment has been used by all 250 Year 7's and a quick evaluation has been made.

As usual, some pupils aren't that great at writing. I found myself talking to pupils and asking questions and listening to their ideas. I then recorded the level of their oral answer at the top of their question sheet.

So how do we assess our pupils? And is it important at KS3? When I talk to pupils assessment is very important to them. They value the chance to know how well they are doing. The main 'customer' of education: parents, also like assessment. They like to know how well their children are doing.

I also value assessment - I can see the progression of pupils in a measurable way. I am a quantitative geographer by nature, and I like being able to measure pupil performance (although not in the SLT sense of the word). We are also all assessed in the workplace (in all walks of life) so is it a good idea for pupils to get used to having their performance measured?

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David Rogers

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