Transcript The formative use of summative assessment

The formative use of
summative assessment
By Phil Smith
FS Consultant
Bury LEA
By 5.30pm we will have
 Recognise
some of the key characteristics
of assessment for learning
 Shown how assessment OF learning can
contribute to assessment FOR learning
 Seen the influence assessment has on
motivation, self-esteem and learning
 See the impact of feedback to pupils on
their learning
 Seen how AfL can actively involve pupils in
setting their own individual targets
 The
“Learning Gap” is the difference
between what we know about the brain
and the learning process and what is
happening in the classroom.
 Identifying
and closing the Learning Gap is
central to genuine and sustainable school
improvement.
My dream about being a doctor
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I told the patient there was
nothing else that could be
done
Although there were other
techniques and
strategies…I’d keep on using
the leeches!
I told the patient that I feared
new methodology and the
abandonment of leeches
would lead to a decline in
standards
Strangely this failed to
appease the patient
My other dream…about being a
teacher
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I was telling a young child that there
was nothing more that could be done
to help him
He too was amazed when I told him
that there were techniques and
approaches that could help him a
great deal
However if he was failing to learn
using my method then he would have
to spend more time on them-a few
more hours after school or even a
few weeks of his summer holiday
“Our objectives may remain the
same but the pedagogy will
surely evolve.” Hughes and Vos
“The tools are here. The time is now.
The script is yours to write-or dance, or
sing, or play, or act, or draw, or
orchestrate. Welcome to tomorrow.”
Gordon Dryden and Jeanette Vos
The Learning Revolution
Learning…and the need to start
tweaking
We are not looking for a radical overhaul-just a few tweaks
and a bit of polish. In order to do this, we need to:

Be specific and accurately identify precisely which
aspects of our performance need tweaking
 Identify strategies that will enable us to do the tweaking
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In other words, having identified what to tweak, we need
to be clear about how to tweak it.
Just like improving at golf!
Where are you now?
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Before we move on, pause for a while and reflect upon
the quality of the lessons that you currently teach. How
do you judge your current performance-what mark out of
ten would you award yourself for the quality of your
teaching?
Whatever mark you awarded yourself, you will remain at
that level until you do something different
These sessions are about raising your score by at least
one mark. It doesn’t matter what score you awarded
yourself-the key question is how are you going to
improve it?
Keep learning high-profile
Put this on every teacher’s desk
 What have they learned?
 How do you know?
 How is this activity helping them learn?
Keep learning high-profile
Put this on every classroom
door-so it is the last thing that
students will see as they
leave the classroom
“What have you learned
today?”
LEARNING=Understanding+Memo
ry
L= U + M
Content coverage
“Cover the curriculum” is a horrible phrase:
cover the curriculum and we transfer
information; explore the curriculum and we
cognitively grapple with it, and only then
do we begin to make sense of it.
Mike Hughes and Andy Vass
Three keys to effective learning
State
People learn best when they are in an appropriate physical and
emotional state. Learning is optimised when the brain is
nourished and students are relaxed, confident and motivated.
 Style
People learn best in different ways. For maximum progress,
people must have frequent opportunities to work in their
preferred learning styles
 Structure
Mature, successful learners progress through discrete phases of
learning quite naturally. Lessons should be structured to reflect
these stages, in order to guide immature learners through the
learning process.
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I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I am
the decisive element in the classroom.
It’s my personal approach that creates the
climate.
It’s my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to
make a child’s life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture, or an instrument of
inspiration.
I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal.
In all situations, it is my response that decides
whether a crises will be escalated or deescalated, and a child humanised or dehumanised.”
Haim Ginott
From Teacher and Child (1972)
Does your lesson have the O
factor?
 It’s
the difference between pupils saying,
even subconsciously,
“Oh good, it’s maths today”
And
“Oh God, it’s maths today.”
Using the language of possibility
Student: I can’t do this. It’s
boring.
The student is actually
saying “I don’t believe I can
be successful with this and
therefore I don’t want to take
the risk.”
NB It may or may not be
boring
Teacher: of course you
can. Just keep trying and
put a bit more effort in and
you’ll get it.
Inadvertently, we have denied
the validity of the student’s
feelings. Exhorting her to “keep
trying” is not motivating if she
believes the task is beyond her.
Asking her to put a bit more
effort in presupposes she isn’t
trying hard enough and it’s her
fault. Again-not motivating
Using the language of possibility
A simple shift in language may have the desired effect.
Student: I can’t do this. It’s boring
By initially agreeing with the student, we
are validating how she actually feels, which
will ALWAYS be correct. This is a start to
gaining rapport and therefore effective
communication. However by reframing the
problem as “a little tricky at the moment”,
we have also diluted the severity of the
problem and made it a temporary stage.
Teacher: OK, it’s a little tricky AT THE
MOMENT. Which BIT can’t you do YET?
“Which bit can’t you do yet?” repeats the
student’s words (can’t), which she will
accept, and also lessens the difficulty by
presupposing it’s only “a bit.” The inclusion
of the word “yet” serves to emphasise the
temporary nature of the difficulty and
retains a connection to the possibility of
things improving