Literacy Across the Curriculum

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Literacy Across the Curriculum

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ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING
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Some opening principles

• There is a marking-across-the-curriculum issue
• But theres a deeper issue about assessment too
• And the tyranny of questions
• We need to get better at assessing in different
  ways stop seeing it as only our domain
• which is what this presentation is about

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Literacy Across the Curriculum

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The limitation of questions

• Dylan Wiliam (Kings College)
• UK versus Japanese teachers
• Marks can have a negative impact
• Demotivation of UK students

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Research from Israel 33 of students given marks
only made no progress 33 given mark and
comment no progress 33 given comment only
increased their performance by 30
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4 key ingredients in good assessment

• Quality of questioning
• Quality of feedback
• Sharing criteria with learners
• Using peer and self-assessment

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FORMATIVE V SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
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Summative assessment How have I done?
Formative assessment How am I doing?
Learning
teacher - peer - parent - buddy - mentor
verbal - tick-list - general comment - written
feedback
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Literacy Across the Curriculum

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Part 1 Marking Across the Curriculum
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• Marking for literacy some key principles
• Make marking criteria explicit
• Mark selectively
• Prompt and praise
• Expect active involvement from pupils
• Develop a consistent approach, easily
  interpretable by pupils, teachers and parents
• Provide immediate feedback

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• Some principles for selective marking
• Focus attention on those literacy skills which
  coincide with the meaning and purpose of the
  work.
• Select high-value features for marking,
  commenting on features from which the pupil can
  generalise and apply the advice to other written
  tasks.
• Give specific prompts which tell pupils exactly
  where and what they need to improve.
• Expect pupils to respond to the prompts.

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Year 7 Cross-curricular priorities 1. Recognise
and record personal errors, corrections,
investigations, conventions, exceptions and new
vocabulary. 2. Recognise the cues to start a new
paragraph and use the first sentence effectively
to orientate the reader, eg when there is a shift
of topic, viewpoint or time. 3. Revise the
stylistic conventions of the main types of
non-fiction information recount
explanation instructions persuasion
discursive writing 4. Use appropriate reading
strategies to extract particular information, eg
highlighting, scanning.
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Year 8 Cross-curricular priorities 1. Explore
and compare different methods of grouping
sentences into paragraphs of continuous text that
are clearly focused and well developed, eg by
chronology, comparison or through adding
exemplification. 2. Learn complex, polysyllabic
words and unfamiliar words which do not conform
to regular patterns. 3. Combine clauses into
complex sentences, using the comma effectively as
a boundary signpost and checking for fluency and
clarity. 4. Use talk to question,
hypothesize, speculate, evaluate, solve problems
and develop thinking about complex issues and
ideas.
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Year 9 Cross-curricular priorities 1. Compare
and use different ways of opening, developing,
linking and completing paragraphs. 2. Synthesize
information from a range of sources, shaping
material to meet the readers needs. 3.Write with
differing degrees of formality, relating
vocabulary and grammar to context, eg using the
active or passive voice. 4. Discuss and evaluate
conflicting evidence to arrive at a considered
viewpoint.
Test this now!
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Part 2 Alternatives to Questions
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Blooms taxonomy of questioning
Tasks?
Evaluation Synthesis Analysis Application Comprehe
nsion Knowledge
Assess / compare contrast / judge
Design / create / compose
Explain / infer / analyse
Demonstrate / solve / try in a new context
Translate / predict / why?
Describe / identify / who, when, where?
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Mr Rees has been teaching about witchcraft in
17th century England. How could he assess whether
students have understood the topic?
Mrs Miles has just finished teaching an ecology
lesson. How could she assess whether students can
synthesise the main points?
Ms Hunting has just explained the coming terms
design project. How could she assess students
ability to evaluate their own work?
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Invite students to elaborate Could you say more about that?
Speculate I wonder what might happen if
Suggest You could try
Reflect on the topic Lets bring this all together
Offer extra information It might be useful for you to know that
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Reinforce useful suggestions I especially liked .. because
Clarify ideas We can tell this is the case by
Correct me if Im wrong But I thought we had all agreed that ..
Echo comments / summarise So you think? Jane seems to be saying?
Non-verbal interventions Eye-contact, a nod, raised eyebrows
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7 tips for effective questioning

1. Plan questions in scheme of work
2. Use Blooms taxonomy to move to higher-level
   skills
3. Share key questions at the start of the lesson -
   point the way ahead
4. Balance asking and telling
5. Ask open questions
6. Make questions collaborative
7. Give thinking time

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DEPENDENCE
Self-assessment by students
Re-teaching a lesson
Group feedback
Part 3 Re-think Assessment
Re-present in different format
30-second 11
Presentations in small groups
Ticklists
INDEPENDENCE
Feedback from other groups
Learning buddy
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NEXT STEPS
Get feedback from students on their attitudes to
marking - what helps them what doesnt
Display marking criteria in all classrooms
Get one team testing new homework-setting patterns
Get clear in your own mind formative -v-
summative assessment
Use sampling to evaluate marking
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ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING