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To
produce a pack of assessment for learning
materials and activities for
Key Stage 3 Science teachers, including ICT
resources. |
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School:
Greenbank High School, Southport |
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Fellow: Lyndsy Newton
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Email: lyndsy@blueyonder.co.uk |
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Final Report |
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My challenge during my Gatsby
fellowship year was to produce a pack of Assessment
for learning (AFL) resources for key stage
3 teachers that could be integrated easily
into their lessons. It was my aim to produce
activities that could be used successfully
for great benefit to the pupils, without being
a burden on the teacher or causing any extra
work for staff who are already faced with
the many demands of classroom teaching. |
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In the initial stages a lot of my time was
spent observing colleagues and discussing
with them their experiences and thoughts regarding
AFL. This provided valuable research and really
helped to enthuse me about the work I was
conducting and about teaching as a whole.
This has reinforced my feeling that not enough
emphasis is placed on the value of other teachers
as a resource and has prompted many discussions
within school regards the sharing of good
practice. As a result, changes are to be made
to allow more peer coaching to take place
within school. I also spent a lot of time
investigating the research that already exists
around AFL. This was a long task but it enabled
me to come up with my own definition of AFL
and allowed me to get to grips with this huge
area of teaching and learning. |
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The next stage was to produce the resources
and to trial them in the classroom. I decided
to focus my resources on peer and self assessment.
This focus was chosen to cut down on the amount
of marking that would need to be done by staff
and also to allow pupils to see why they were
being assigned certain levels from the point
of view of the marker. In order to produce
effective resources I researched the different
types of activities that were effective at
assessing pupils knowledge and understanding.
When I began trialling the materials I didn’t
account for the fact that the pupils would
need to be trained in the use of the materials.
Initially the students found it difficult
to differentiate between the different levels
– for example, they didn’t automatically
determine the difference between describing
something and explaining something. When this
became apparent to me I decided to design
an activity that could be used to help train
the pupils in marking each others’ work
and their own. Once this had been done and
the pupils had a chance to practice this type
of activity they found the tasks much more
useful and more enjoyable. |
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The feedback from the pupils
has been very positive. The majority thought
that the tasks they had completed had helped
them to improve their work in science. One
year 9 pupil commented that “The work
was helpful to me because I now know my level
and what to aim for. When you mark your friends
work you are looking for certain things so
then you know that you need to put them [into
your work]”. Many students were less
positive about the peer assessed tasks –
“I don’t like marking other peoples
work because I find it hard to be honest so
give them a higher mark than I would on my
own work”. When I first trialled the
materials I asked the pupils to assign levels
to each others work based on the learning
outcomes. This seemed to be the part that
they particularly disliked. They found the
activities themselves and the marking aspect
fine, but actually assigning a level to someone
else’s work seemed to prove problematic,
especially within mixed ability classes –
“No offence, but I don’t personally
think our levels help they just depress me
even more cus of the fact that I’m only
a 5 and everyone else is a 6 or 7”.
On the back of these comments I altered the
format of any peer assessed work so that it
became more of a checklist of the learning
outcomes rather than criteria leading to a
level.
It was clear from the pupil feedback that
the pupils didn’t feel that the formal
tests we use in the department helped them
to know what level they were currently working
at or how they could progress towards their
target level. “The tests are ok but
I usually don’t know how much progress
I am making”. The pupils felt that it
wouldn’t be wise to totally abolish
SAT style tests as they needed practice at
this form of assessment – “I think
that the year 9 tests helped because they
were like the real tests”. However the
pupils did think it would be useful to have
shorter tests at the end of each QCA unit
to be used alongside the AFL materials in
order for them to gain the most benefit. “You
could improve them by having little tests
at the end of each topic”. Finally,
the pupils liked the materials that they had
used but felt that a greater range of tasks
could be included; “You could improve
it by adding real life situations and more
practical stuff and experiments”. |
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It was clear from the pupil feedback that
the pupils didn’t feel that the formal
tests we use in the department helped them
to know what level they were currently working
at or how they could progress towards their
target level. “The tests are ok but
I usually don’t know how much progress
I am making”. The pupils felt that it
wouldn’t be wise to totally abolish
SAT style tests as they needed practice at
this form of assessment – “I think
that the year 9 tests helped because they
were like the real tests”. However the
pupils did think it would be useful to have
shorter tests at the end of each QCA unit
to be used alongside the AFL materials in
order for them to gain the most benefit. “You
could improve them by having little tests
at the end of each topic”. Finally,
the pupils liked the materials that they had
used but felt that a greater range of tasks
could be included; “You could improve
it by adding real life situations and more
practical stuff and experiments”. |
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As part of the evaluation I
was observed using the materials in class
by one of our assistant headteachers. The
feedback from this observation was very encouraging
and the observer was impressed with how competently
the pupils used the materials to mark each
others work (after having been trained!) |
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At the beginning of March I organised and
delivered an INSET afternoon to all the teachers
within my department. Here I introduced the
work I had been doing and displayed the findings
of my research into AFL. This afternoon allowed
us to sit down as a department and engage
in discussion about AFL, the materials that
were available to us and how we could make
things work for our pupils and our school.
Within this session it was decided that we
needed to change our whole assessment procedure
and to include a range of AFL materials within
our schemes of work at KS3. Since this meeting,
all of the science staff have used the AFL
activities with their classes. The initial
feedback I have had has been very positive
and I am currently awaiting their evaluations
about how this has impacted on their teaching
and their pupils learning. |
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My resources have been created to fit in
with the QCA scheme of work for Science, but
during my project I have been working closely
with one of our assistant headteachers to
set up an AFL working party with members from
each faculty in our school. This has provided
a whole school focus for AFL and a forum for
sharing good practice across all subjects.
I have also taken part in the AFL teaching
and learning network meetings set up by our
LEA consultant and spoken about my project
at an LEA INSET focussing on AFL in Science. |
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I will continue to develop
the resources I have created this year and
have still to develop my materials to be used
with an interactive whiteboard. With the current
changes that are happening to the KS4 schemes
of work, now would be a good time to start
developing AFL resources to be used alongside
the new curriculum. I would also like to look
at other aspects of the AFL strand such as
written and verbal feedback and the use of
questioning. I feel this particular area would
prove more challenging than the peer and self
assessment as, due to the nature of classroom
discussion and questioning, any work done
would need to be more geared towards equipping
staff with strategies to be used in the classroom
rather than providing them with a pack of
ready to use materials. |
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When I first started to plan
my Gatsby project and think about how I might
spend my time throughout the year my focus
was on producing the resources and having
something tangible to work with at the end
of it. What has actually come out of my project
has been something much more than that and
something much more valuable. Throughout this
project I have been lucky enough to engage
in many interesting conversations about teaching
and learning with colleagues, but more importantly
with the pupils. They have been refreshingly
honest and have genuinely wanted to help improve
teaching and learning in their school. I have
personally gained a greater insight into my
own teaching and how I can improve. It is
too easy to become bogged down with the delivery
of the curriculum, to ensure that all the
topics are covered and that everything is
fitted in. This project if nothing else has
made me really think about my students’
understanding; I’m no longer just delivering
the topics but asking if the pupils have learned.
AFL works and it brings the focus back onto
the most important part of our job –
the pupils. |
