Theory
Working with colleagues to identify efficient approaches to assessment is important
Assessment can become onerous and have a disproportionate impact on workload.
We have spoken a great deal about scaffolding over the last year. Working with and learning from more experienced colleagues is the single most useful thing you can do to scaffold your progress as a teacher. As you will no doubt be aware, assessment can take up a considerable amount of your time and this in turn can have a significant impact on your workload. Gibson (2015) tells us that the most commonly reported ‘burdensome’ task is recording, inputting, monitoring and analysing data.
Colleagues will be able to provide ideas they have found work well with your pupils, especially in terms of how they manage to gather evidence from all pupils in the class and then use this to adapt how they respond with their teaching. If you teach the same phase or subject, you may even be able to directly adapt their assessment materials for your pupils. You spent some time during the Block 5 Mentor Sessions engaging with colleagues on this topic: it would be valuable to continue this now that you are in your second year and looking to refine your practice.
Working with colleagues
These are some questions you could ask colleagues about assessment and feedback:
- what steps do you take to make assessment efficient?
- how do you get the information needed?
- how do you provide effective feedback?
Try and expand the network of colleagues who you look to for support in this area. For example, it can be useful to talk to colleagues from outside your phase/department as it can help give you a different perspective.
Your school may well have teachers who are identified as excellent practitioners. It would be worthwhile seeking these individuals out.
Efficiency is not just about tackling the bottom-line issue of workload. Effective time management is about prioritisation and trade-offs. You should seek to spend the largest amount of your time on activities which directly and indirectly improve pupils’ learning, and to minimise time where the benefit is less clear. Ideally, you will do all tasks – beneficial or not – in an efficient way, without compromising the quality and impact of what you do. Marking and whole-class feedback is an area where there is a lot of benefit to be gained and a lot of time to be saved. Techniques that increase the efficiency of assessment should therefore become integral to your teaching. Consider the following examples:
Increasing the efficiency of assessment
| Strategy | Explanation and exemplification |
|---|---|
| Use marking codes | One way to make marking more efficient is to use a set of codes. Many schools have codes for highlighting literacy errors. For example:Ο = circle any incorrect or missing punctuation﹏ = squiggly line underneath a part of writing that doesn’t make sense// = new paragraph needed |
| Use group targets | Sometimes, when you mark a class’s work, you will notice that pupils are making similar mistakes and you are having to write the same feedback each time. In this case, you could create a single feedback sheet with numbered points which you (a) write up on a PowerPoint slide and (b) note the corresponding number in each pupils’ book when they make this error. At the start of the lesson, pupils need to note down their specific feedback (e.g. numbers 1, 4 and 5) from the slide and are given time to act on it.For example:1. You need to revisit the section on the effects of the earthquake and ensure that you have described at least 3 effects. 2. You need to ensure that you justify your reasons. For example, “I think the most significant effect was because...Doing this can free up time for you to write an effective model answer, produce a worked example or plan to reteach an element. Pupils seeing what good looks like is very important to their improvement. |
| Use highlighters | When you are marking work, you will tend to pick out the parts of the work that have been completed well and show the pupil the areas that need to be improved. A more efficient way of doing this could be to use different colour highlighters to indicate these. This will also mean that pupils have to do the detective work to identify what specifically needs to be improved.For example:Green – what has been done well Orange – spelling mistakes Pink – grammatical errorsAs with all effective marking, you will need to pick a couple of things for each. Avoid highlighting large sections of the pupils’ work. |
Supporting effective self- and peer-assessment
Self- and peer-assessment are often touted as a way of increasing the efficiency of assessment. This is where you ask pupils to either mark their own work or mark the work of a peer. The trouble is, unless pupils are good at this, the marking they do will be ineffective, or potentially even damaging to learning. Rather than avoiding these practices – for which there is good evidence of effectiveness when done well – you should guide and support your pupils to do them well. Typically, this will be done by providing examples of the standard you are looking for and providing clear, accurate and explicit guidance on the features of these good pieces of work.
Consider the following strategies for supporting pupils to do self- and peer-assessment well:
Supporting self- and peer-assessment
| Strategy | Explanation | Exemplification |
|---|---|---|
| Use models - sometimes known as WAGOLL (What a Good One Looks Like) | By providing models of work at different standards, pupils learn what good looks like. Pupils can use the models to compare the work of their peers or themselves to identify similarities, and note differences to help them develop their learning in the future.Key details should be highlighted and the characteristics of work at each level should be made clear.Pupil feedback should focus on these objective points. | History- Following a series of lessons, pupils complete a piece of extended writing about the Black Death. - Pupils work in pairs and swap their work. - They are then provided with a WAGOLL that explains each of the following ideas, and demonstrates how they link together:- The real causes of the Black Death - The causes that were believed at the time - The symptoms of the Black Death - Steps people took to avoid catching it - The impact of the Black Death.- Pupils then compare and contrast their peers’ work and provide feedback on specific aspects they have included and note points that were not covered, explaining or linking as improvement points. |
| Use success criteria | Pupils need to understand the requirements of the piece of work in order to be able to assess it.These could be provided by the teacher or – in the case of external assessment materials – adapted from the accompanying guidance to be appropriate for pupils.It is also possible to do this with the class and work together to generate shared success criteria. | PE- Pupils have previous experience of discus. The teacher asks pupils what needs to be done to ensure a discus is thrown effectively. - The teacher writes those points up as success criteria. - Pupils then work in groups of three, taking it in turns to throw the discus. - Each time one pupil does the activity, another pupil provides encouragement about what has been done well against the criteria, and one provides advice on how they can improve. - They then switch around so they all have a go at throwing the discus, offering praise and constructive feedback. |
| Create ‘how to’ guides | These are produced to explain how ideas/skills/processes related to a concept can be applied to different situations irrespective of the context. Pupils can use these themselves during self-assessment to identify actions they need to take if they are having difficulties. | Maths- Pupils are working on questions related to 2D projectiles and identify that they are having difficulties. - They are provided with a ‘How to Guide’, which they use to check the process they have undertaken to answer the question. - By checking their working against the ‘How to Guide’ they should be able to spot what they are doing correctly and where they may have gone wrong. They can then write a note to themselves about what they need to ensure they do with future questions. |
There is an opportunity to try some of these activities out in your practice through the next activity.
References
Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007) The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81–112. https://doi.org/10.3102/003465430298487
Gibson, S., Oliver, L. and Dennison, M. (2015) Workload Challenge: Analysis of teacher consultation responses. Department for Education. Accessible from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment*data/file/485075/DFE-RR456A*-_Workload_Challenge_Analysis_of_teacher_consultation_responses_sixth_form_colleges.pdf.
Muijs, D., & Reynolds, D. (2017) Effective teaching: Evidence and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Wiliam, D. (2017) Assessment, marking and feedback. In Hendrick, C. and McPherson, R. (Eds.) What Does This Look Like in the Classroom? Bridging the gap between research and practice. Woodbridge: John Catt.