Exceeding Expectations with Formative Assessment Shirley Clarke MEd

Exceeding Expectations with Formative Assessment Shirley Clarke, MEd, Hon DEd Associate of the UCL Institute of Education

VISIBLE LEARNING… Assessment literate students Classroom discussion Teacher/student relationships Feedback Meta-cognitive strategies 1. 44 0. 82 0. 75 0. 72 0. 69 Homework Class size Matching styles of learning Ability grouping Moving schools 0. 29 0. 21 0. 17 0. 12 -0. 34

1. Setting the scene - the learning culture - involving pupils in planning - talk/learning partners 2. Effective starts to lessons - prior knowledge - learning objectives - success criteria - discussing excellence 3. Developing the learning - questioning individuals - feedback/improvement

Setting the Scene • • Growth mindset Understanding learning Involved in planning Talk partners

Fixed Mindset Intelligence is static. I must look clever! Growth Mindset Intelligence is expandable. I want to learn more! Avoids challenges Gives up easily Embraces challenges Persists in the face of setbacks Sees effort as pointless Ignores useful criticism Likely to plateau early and achieve less than full potential Sees effort as the way Learns from criticism Reaches ever higher levels of achievement

PRAISE • • • achievement (any) effort mistakes revealed using stuck strategies meeting challenge

n i a r b e h t t u o b a YET ! know effort challen ge make mistakes p r a c t t i s e u inp know about the mindsets

How to encourage students Fixed Mindset – what not to say Not everybody is good at maths. Just do your best. That’s OK, maybe maths is not one of your strengths. Growth Mindset – what to say When you do a new kind of problem, it grows your maths brain. If you catch yourself saying, “I’m not a maths person, ” just add the word ‘yet’ to the end of the sentence.

How to encourage students Fixed Mindset – what not to say Growth Mindset – what to say Don’t worry, you’ll get it if you keep trying. That feeling of maths being hard is the feeling of your brain growing. If students are using the wrong strategies, their efforts might not work. Plus they might feel particularly inept if their efforts are fruitless. Great effort! You tried your best. The point isn’t to get it all right away. It is to grow Don’t accept less than optimal your understanding step performance from your by step. What can you try students. next?

Deliberate Practice PANIC ZONE LEARNING ZONE COMFORT CP ZONE

With the question mark card, it means you can carry on with your work; you’re still learning, not wasting your time. Either you work it out yourself, a partner helps you or a teacher will help. But you don’t stop! Ethan, Year 5

Learning Muscles • • concentrate don’t give up be cooperative be curious have a go use your imagination keep improving enjoy learning

Effective Talk/Learning Partners • • random change weekly hands up for questions only lollysticks for who answers classroom layout so all face front carpet face each other compliment slips 3 s for language support

Typical co-constructed success criteria for good talk Good eye Take turns to speak conta ct ly l u f e r a c n e t Lis Be polite Wa it fo d ike l r yo u o y t a h w ur p Tell them artn er t o fini sh “Talk partners are really helpful because sometimes I do not know the answer to a question straight away and talking to someone else about it means I can get to the answer without being told it. ” Y 5

Impact • • all inclusive better behaviour make new friends more respectful to all help each other less teacher – more focused feedback thinking time higher level achievement “I helped Billie in maths and it made me feel tingly, like good butterflies, because she wanted to do maths after that!” Y 4

Ability grouping – the evidence against “Ability grouping has minimal effects on learning outcomes and profound negative equity effects. ’ (0. 12) Hattie, J. 2009 ‘The evidence is robust and has accumulated over at least 30 years of research…. If schools adopt mixed ability, they are more likely to use inclusive teaching strategies and to promote higher aspirations for their pupils. ’ Sutton Trust Report 2011

Differentiated Challenges Mild Spicy Hot Or Incredible F antastic Amazing

With no levels, instead of choosing to look cool and trying to show you’re the best, it helps you to find your position of learning. You discover what you’re comfortable with and what you need to challenge yourself. Amy, Year 6

Lesson Starts • • prior knowledge question L. O. revealed co-constructed success criteria know WAGOLL (what a good one looks like)

Starter/Question Templates Range of answers Skellig – what is he? Imaginary friend, owl, human, ghost, angel Statement These shapes are the same. Agree of disagree. Odd one out (show 3 similes and 1 metaphor) What went wrong? 10 – 2 = 12 Put in order Characters from bravest to most cowardly Opposing statement If you read a magazine without paying, is it theft? True of false Prime numbers are divisible by 2

Learning objectives are more effective if … • • • ‘We are learning to…. ’ not ‘I can…. ’ Decontextualised Your true intentions Sometimes realised by children Sometimes given Sometimes discussed – what could it mean? – who uses that? – where, how, could we best learn that?

Success Criteria • Breakdown of the Learning Objective • Compulsory for closed (rules) and menu for open (tools) • Co-constructed for maximum impact

Writing success criteria 1. Non-fiction examples (compulsory ingredients) - newspaper article - invitation - persuasive letter - balanced argument 3. Every time we write (poster) - spelling - handwriting - grammar - punctuation 2. Fiction examples (choice ingredients) - opening - ending - suspense - characterisation 4. What makes good writing? (poster) - impact on the reader and possible techniques

Co-constructing S. C. techniques • • • 2 -3 excellent examples…what do you see? what went wrong? demonstrate (doing it right/wrong) good and not so good eavesdropping

Feedback • • • ongoing questioning visualiser stops self/peer feedback peer coaching marking

The mistake that I made was seeing feedback as something teachers provided to students. I discovered that feedback is most powerful when it is from the student to the teacher. What they know, what they understand, where they make errors, when they have misconceptions, when they are not engaged – then teaching and learning can be synchronised and powerful. Feedback to teachers makes learning visible. Hattie, J. (2011)

FEEDBACK 1. From the beginning - Probing questioning of individuals

Ongoing questioning • • Tell me more. Tell me what you have done. Tell me what you’re going to do first. What do you mean by…? (key question, even if the teacher thinks s/he knows what they mean by it). Why do you think…? Give me an example of what you mean (key question)? So how is this one better than that one (key question? ) How could you change this to make it clearer?

FEEDBACK 2. During independent learning § § Walkabouts before responding, then… Making decisions § § § § You and one child Peer coaching You and group Pupil as teacher Whole class stop to clarify/explaining/change directions Modelling review via visualiser stops Self and united improvements author holds the pen and has the last word

Achievement in schools is maximised when teachers see learning through the eyes of students and when students see learning through the eyes of themselves as teachers. Hattie and Yates (2014)

Teacher Marking • • • must further the learning use codes & colours acknowledge all work somehow make time for any responses have space for improvements & marking 1 – 1 has greatest impact

Marking Prompts Reminder Prompt • How do you think the dog felt here? Scaffolded • Describe the expression in his face Prompt • Do you think he was annoyed? How do you think he might have shown this? • He was so surprised he…. • He barked_____ly, running around feeling very_____. Example Prompt Choose one of these or your own: • He couldn’t believe his eyes! • He ran round in circles looking for the rabbit, feeling very confused

Sadler’s 3 Conditions How Formative Assessment fulfils them Possess a concept of the • Be given the LO at the point at which it will goal being aimed for affect performance not to know • Have co-constructed SC for the skills in hand, using them to know what should or could be included and evaluating against them • See more than one example of excellence Compare the actual level of performance with the goal • Articulate to peers and to the teacher their understanding of the task and how it relates to the LO • Have mid-lesson learning stops during which random examples are analysed under the visualiser for successes and ‘even better ifs’ and for ‘magpieing of ideas Engage in some appropriate action which leads to some closure of the gap • Be able to follow-up immediately those with self or cooperative improvement to one’s own learning/product making review a constant activity • Respond to regular teacher comments

The need for passion, teaching and promoting the language of learning John Hattie 2016 1. Teachers, working together, as evaluators of impact . 93 2. The power of moving from what students know towards explicit success criteria . 77 3. Errors and trust are welcomed as opportunities to learn . 72 4. Maximise feedback to teachers about their impact . 72 5. Getting proportion of surface to deep correct . 71 6. The Goldilocks principles of challenge and deliberate practice. 60

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