Skip to main content

Developing the beautiful struggle–assessment and progress in education–workshop from #TLT13

Having just got through the door from #TLT13, there is a lot to think about.  Here is my presentation and notes from my session on assessment and progress.  As a bit of background, you may wish to read this post about the abolition of levels and this one about the beautiful struggle for knowledge.

Teachers are experts at tracking progress and assessment.  The government would have us wait for advice from expert panels, but Key Stage 3 should be informed by the formal exam systems or GCSE and A’Level.

The Year 7 students who have started this year will take their GCSE examinations, assuming that they still exist, in 2018.  That’s five years away.  Consider what has happened in the past five years.  This means that we must do more as teachers than say ‘these important exams in five years time.’ The images are from some History department homework and illustrates what our Year 7s find important.

I’ve used the Touching the Void quote as there is a parallel to using targets and assessment.  Joe Simpson lived by displaying pure grit and determination.  The thoughts shared by Simon Yates were not externally shared – he tried to get Joe safely down the mountain.  When we are talking to children, it’s important that we don’t give up.  Ever.  The purpose of communicating progress to young people is to help guide them through the forest of school.  To provide a clear path to success, whether that’s measured by university graduation or employment. 

I made the point that it is often by focusing on the everyday aspects of teaching that we get great results.  I drew a parallel to this recent post about who provides CPD.  Can potential really be measured? There was a groundswell of feeling at #TLT13 that assessment is broken and a few people were talking about a Growth Mindset approach: teaching everyone as if they can achieve an A*.

I also posed the question about what we should be measuring progress of.  Should it purely be understanding of content or character or both?

I’m starting to see progress in terms of the ‘Mind the Gap’ writing found along the edge of train platforms.  The job of communicating progress and education is to furnish young people with the skills, traits and knowledge to overcome the gap and get on board the attainment train.  The trouble is that often, young people don’t understand the warning signs.  They may as well be in a foreign language.  This represents feedback such as ‘This is great work’ or ‘You have to try harder.’  These comments are impossible to decode.  It’s the role of teachers to measure and communicate progress in a way that young people don’t miss the train.

But, we can’t have a quick solution.  The Victorian gung-ho approach.  We have to encourage young people to adventure into the pit (Lego graphic thanks to Priory School) then, develop the traits, skills and strategies to get out of the pit.  Pretending the Gap isn’t there just isn’t good enough.

I then went on to share some practical strategies linked to progress and assessment.  I aimed to avoid the issue that levels are going, instead concentrating upon ongoing assessment that occurs in classrooms every day.

1. Level and Grade mountains. – see this post and thanks to Sam Atkins.  My point here was that at Priory we used the GCSE criteria to shape our approach lower down the school.

2. This is further illustrated by the exciting approach being taken by Patcham High’s Art Department with the Skills Web.  This uses the skills needed to succeed at GCSE (we are an 11-16 school) and allows children to identify what they need to develop.  Priory Geography quickly worked up an example linked to geography, and I used the KIPP character traits to suggest that perhaps we could use a skills web to assess the development of character traits.

3. Using Twitter to provide live feedback.  I’ll blog about the Year 7 map activity in a week or so, but using social media to share great work and get feedback from others is a useful technique.

4. Feedback 5 – see this post.  What we need to remember here is that young people need to be taught how to respond to critical feedback.  If we are to develop a growth mindset, this is vital.  I suggested that writing frames are used to develop the quality of students’ targets. Crucially, time should be planning into Schemes of Work for this to happen.

5. Using Google Docs to share Schemes of Work I illustrated that assessment must be planned for.  For example, every GCSE lesson used to feature some form of exam based question. Banned Words develop literacy, along with VCOP sheets and other techniques.

6. Getting children involved in creating the curriculum is important.  Getting feedback on where assessment and progress can be planned for.  An example shows that children actually wanted to be challenged and not content with gaining their target.

7. Finally, I shared how tracking and marking monitoring feed into progress and assessment planning.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What makes a learning experience profound? Personal reflections and possible implications for classroom practice.

I have recently begun a Leadership Pathways journey.  As part of the first core day, we were asked to reflect on a profound learning experience. This got me thinking about how many profound learning experiences I have both been involved in, and how many I have been able to give to others.  Our group came up with a huge long list, but these are my five. Emotional Connected Demanding Reflective Collaborative As always, these are personal thoughts and quite mixed up.  I put them here so that I can look back on them (plus they’d get lost inside my world-cup-free brain) 1. Emotional I can’t think of a time where deep learning hasn’t engaged my emotions.  From being awe inspired to that tingle feeling when a student gets a light bulb moment.  From this-is-the-happiest-day-ever, to I-think-I’m-about-to die.  How often do we engage the emotions of those we teach?  Here, I would argue that having a safe learning environment is not always conducive to profound

The danger of Teaching and Twitter conversations: poorly formed bipolar arguments.

Sometimes in life, there really are only two options.  Get the wrong one and you can look like a muppet.  Take this useful sign for the toilets in Morocco.  I successfully navigated it, choosing the right option.  The result? No egg on my face.  As a mountain leader, there are many right or wrong decisions that I’ve faced, as there are all over life.  It’s not a good idea to let inexperienced young people walk themselves down Snowdon.  They may die or be seriously injured.  If someone is showing the signs and symptoms of hyperthermia, you need to treat it fast in a specified way.  There is no real arguing with this sign: Other options are less obvious.  Take this sign recently spotted near to where I live: Now, I wouldn’t consider sleeping in a bin.  However, faced with a sub-zero night, I could see the appeal.  The danger? Being tipped into one of those huge lorries with a compactor. (by the way, I only really considered all of this thanks to questions from my four year old boy).

Banned Word Board

Today I want to share some simple ideas that I have found to be very effective in the classroom. I can't say that they are my own original ideas, although I have played around with them. The first is the Banned word Board. This is a simple display in the classroom that lists a number of words that are not allowed to be used by pupils in their written or oral answers. The effect has been an increase in the quality of written work, and I have almost made comments such as 'Sir it's simple, the stuff just affects the thing and causes people problems'. Pupils are now more able to use specific language, something that is vital especially at GCSE. I have had to make a few modifications, such as the introduction of 'Heavenly Words' This is an additional display placed on the ceiling. I found this necessary as pupils needed some stimulus in finding replacement words. After advice received after posting the idea on the SLN forum , I have also introduced semi-banned words