Mentor materials
Assessing for formative purposes
Select a development area
Consider the development areas for this topic (below). Then make a note of the area you plan to zoom in on and when you plan to visit so you can observe your teacher in this area. Familiarise yourself with the focused development areas. You will select one later when you observe your teacher.
Development area 1: Assessing for formative purposes
Focused development area
- Teacher plans an assessment task that checks pupils have understood the key learning from the lesson and enables the identification of common misconceptions.
- Teacher intentionally checks what pupils are understanding and uses the assessment task to identify gaps in knowledge, errors or misconceptions.
Example precise target: Teacher plans an assessment task that checks pupils have understood the key learning from the lesson and enables the identification of common misconceptions
- Not doing it at all: Plan how you will assess pupils in a way that enables you to check pupils’ understanding of the key learning.
- Doing it but needs some improvement: Plan how you will assess pupils in a way that enables you to check pupils’ understanding of the key learning and deliberately targets a common misconception that pupils may hold related to the key learning
- Doing it well and needs some stretch: Plan how you will assess pupils in a way that enables you to check pupils’ understanding of the key learning and deliberately targets multiple common misconceptions pupils may hold related to the key learning.
Development area 2: Whole-class diagnostic questions
Focused development area
- Teacher carefully frames to pupils the purpose of diagnostic questions.
- Teacher creates a set of diagnostic questions that specifically assess for understanding and misconceptions related to the critical knowledge they want pupils to have understood.
- Teacher ensures all pupils know how to display their answer to the diagnostic questions quickly so the teacher can check their responses and gauge pupil understanding.
Development area 3: Delivering assessment for formative purposes
Focused development area
- Teacher plans the delivery of a task they are using to assess for formative purposes and follow-up questions to ensure they know if pupil answers stem from secure understanding.
- Teacher plans the sample size of pupils they will ask their question to and the way they want pupils to show their responses.
Observe
Consider the following questions based on a short (approximately 15 minute) observation of your teacher.
What was your teacher’s previous target? Are they meeting it? How do you know?
Thinking about the development area you have selected for this topic, what is your teacher already doing well in this area? Which focused development area best aligns with what your teacher needs to get better at? What one precise target (bite-sized action) might you work with them on during your mentor meeting?
Reminder: You can choose to stick with this previous target if they have not made enough progress. When moving on to a new precise target, you can select one from the table above or, if this doesn’t fit your teacher’s needs, you can write your own.
How will you model the target to your teacher to show them what good looks like? What questions will you ask to check your teacher understands the model? For example, ‘How it is different from your current practice?’ and ‘What impact might it have on your practice and pupils?’
Reminder: Your model should help your teacher develop their ability in some of the following:
- Be aware of common misconceptions and discuss with experienced colleagues how to help pupils master important concepts.
- Plan formative assessment tasks linked to lesson objectives and think ahead about what would indicate understanding (e.g. by using diagnostic questions to pinpoint knowledge gaps, errors and misconceptions).
- Structure tasks and questions to enable the identification of knowledge gaps, errors and misconceptions.
- Prompt pupils to elaborate to check that a correct answer stems from secure understanding.
- Monitor pupil work during lessons, including checking for misconceptions.
Next, meet with your teacher to work through the ‘feedback’ stage of instructional coaching.