Graduate Standard 5: Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning
5.1 Demonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning.
Assessment is a practical way of assessing students’ progress, achievements for themselves, teahcers and parents. It also gives a mean value to the progress of the class, individual progress and a way of assessing the productivity of the teachers teaching.
Assessment can be formative or summative. Assessment can be done in a number of ways, whether it be through oral, written, visual, exam setting etc. it is important for teachers and the curriculum to vary assessment for interest, learning new skills and providing to students different learning styles.
Programs such as excel are great for recording marks and recording the classes progress. Using excel means that teachers can make graphs of their classes progress and measure it up to previous assignments/years.
For ESL and history, I would use a number of assessment strategies, I would use ICT for assessment in typing orals, posters, essays etc. however assessment such as tests and exams I would use the old pen and paper. I would record assessment using excel and use graphs to understand the progress/levels of the students.
Evidence
5.2 Demonstrate an understanding of the purpose of providing timely and appropriate feedback to students about their learning.
As assesments are expected to be done in a timely manner, I think marking should be done in a timely manner aswell. For most students, a frustration seems to be that they don’t get feedback in time before the next assignment is due and cannot know what to improve on for following assessment. Along with that, students need to have a fresh mind on the assessment piece, if it is given back too late, they have already lost interest.
I like the idea of a criticism sandwich. The bread are positives and the insides are negatives, therefore starting and ending with a positive. This not only goes with the idea of praise and how that can improve the students work, but it is a lot more beneficial for the students. No one likes getting their paper back filled with red writing, although drafting and fixing is necessary, sometimes using a different coloured pen that not as dramatic as red can also be nicer for the students. It is good that teachers reserve a time to talk to students who are not achieving well as well as those that want to achieve more. Reserving a class where students can work on following assignments and having quite one on one discussions with the students regarding their work and mark is a very useful and productive way of assessing and is often more productive then reading (or not even reading) their papers after the make.
Using email can also be a good way of discussing with the parents and students the marks, especially if they have failed. This shows professionalism, care and allows a constant relationship with parents to improve the students grades.
In my history classes, I would dedicate a time of the class to do a full class discussion on the assignments and overall what they did well and what they could improve on as well as one on one feedback.
Evidence:
5.3 Demonstrate understanding of assessment moderation and its application to support consistent and comparable judgements of student learning.
When marking assessment, it is important that teachers assess on the same basis and are not overly lenient for some students and stricter on others. When marking, it is important for teachers to compare pieces of work marked in the same banner (a,b,c etc) in accordance to the rubric. When marking tests, if the answers are open ended, it can be more flexible. However, if closed ended questions, ut must be marked the same.
Again, excel can be used to compare the marks and graphs can be used to record class and individual trends.
As esl can have such a variety of learning styles, assessment styles may need to vary to cover different levels, this must be reflected in the marking according to what the assessment piece was.
Evidence:
5.4 Demonstrate the capacity to interpret student assessment data to evaluate student learning and modify teaching practice.
When marking, it is hard to analyse the full productivity of the assessment piece in digits. An B for one students can be a great job, while others, it can be very disappointing. The B may also be a reason for many different things. For example, the B might be because one students wrote very well but didn’t answer the essay well or show enough examples. Whereas another student might have answered the question well but their sentence structure and grammar was not at an 8 grade. Drafts are also important in marking.
For some teachers, they will put a grade for the draft and the final and add them both up for the mark. This is a good way of marking for ESL as when drafting, teachers can help a lot with grammar, sentence structure etc. Using excel makes this easy as you can put both marks side by side and have a column for draft mark and final mark and final mark. The drafts marks can easily be compared individually and as a class whole. Graphs of these can be compared for drafts and finals aswell for that assessment and throughout the year. This also shows how teachers criticism and help is taken on board. I would use this style of marking for ESL.
Evidence:
· Adapted assessment design and criteria according to previous student work whilst on practicum
5.5 Demonstrate understanding of a range of strategies for reporting to students and parents/carers and the purpose of keeping accurate and reliable records of student achievement.
Reporting on student achievement is one of the most important parts of assessment, not only does it allow students to know how they are going, but what they can work and improve on and it’s a good reflection process for teachers aswell.
Student teacher verbal feedback, teacher parent interviews, email, excel, teacher-teacher interaction are all good ways of reporting. Although its important to document marks and feedback and write feedback on assignment, tests etc, not all students are going to take it in/read it. Its important to have one on one feedback, allow the students to ask questions, enquire and solve the issues. Class feedback is also important. Email is a good way of keeping contact with parents on their students progress and teacher to teacher interaction and dual marking can be important.
Lots of teachers will mark side by side and both mark a piece and analyse each others marking. Especially when they are in the same faculty and using the same assessment pieces, it is important that the have the same expectations and are using the same marking style. Emailing assessment rubrics is also important and posting them on sites such as edmodo is important so that parents can see the rubric that teachers are marking against.
In ESL I would use one on one reflection on marking as well as using excel. I would use email as a form of letting parents know the students marks, especially for parents that are based overseas or have low English. I would show the class graphs on the average class grades and how they can improve their grades.
I would keep achievement record keeping on both excel, saved in a number of places as well as written/printed copies.
Evidence:
5.1 Demonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning.
Assessment is a practical way of assessing students’ progress, achievements for themselves, teahcers and parents. It also gives a mean value to the progress of the class, individual progress and a way of assessing the productivity of the teachers teaching.
Assessment can be formative or summative. Assessment can be done in a number of ways, whether it be through oral, written, visual, exam setting etc. it is important for teachers and the curriculum to vary assessment for interest, learning new skills and providing to students different learning styles.
Programs such as excel are great for recording marks and recording the classes progress. Using excel means that teachers can make graphs of their classes progress and measure it up to previous assignments/years.
For ESL and history, I would use a number of assessment strategies, I would use ICT for assessment in typing orals, posters, essays etc. however assessment such as tests and exams I would use the old pen and paper. I would record assessment using excel and use graphs to understand the progress/levels of the students.
Evidence
- Devised assessment tasks whilst on practicum and for my university studies.
- Developed rubrics for assessment whilst on practicum.
5.2 Demonstrate an understanding of the purpose of providing timely and appropriate feedback to students about their learning.
As assesments are expected to be done in a timely manner, I think marking should be done in a timely manner aswell. For most students, a frustration seems to be that they don’t get feedback in time before the next assignment is due and cannot know what to improve on for following assessment. Along with that, students need to have a fresh mind on the assessment piece, if it is given back too late, they have already lost interest.
I like the idea of a criticism sandwich. The bread are positives and the insides are negatives, therefore starting and ending with a positive. This not only goes with the idea of praise and how that can improve the students work, but it is a lot more beneficial for the students. No one likes getting their paper back filled with red writing, although drafting and fixing is necessary, sometimes using a different coloured pen that not as dramatic as red can also be nicer for the students. It is good that teachers reserve a time to talk to students who are not achieving well as well as those that want to achieve more. Reserving a class where students can work on following assignments and having quite one on one discussions with the students regarding their work and mark is a very useful and productive way of assessing and is often more productive then reading (or not even reading) their papers after the make.
Using email can also be a good way of discussing with the parents and students the marks, especially if they have failed. This shows professionalism, care and allows a constant relationship with parents to improve the students grades.
In my history classes, I would dedicate a time of the class to do a full class discussion on the assignments and overall what they did well and what they could improve on as well as one on one feedback.
Evidence:
- Devised assessment tasks and marked these in a timely manner whilst on practicum.
5.3 Demonstrate understanding of assessment moderation and its application to support consistent and comparable judgements of student learning.
When marking assessment, it is important that teachers assess on the same basis and are not overly lenient for some students and stricter on others. When marking, it is important for teachers to compare pieces of work marked in the same banner (a,b,c etc) in accordance to the rubric. When marking tests, if the answers are open ended, it can be more flexible. However, if closed ended questions, ut must be marked the same.
Again, excel can be used to compare the marks and graphs can be used to record class and individual trends.
As esl can have such a variety of learning styles, assessment styles may need to vary to cover different levels, this must be reflected in the marking according to what the assessment piece was.
Evidence:
- Attended all University of AdelaideSenior Curriculum & Methodology lectures for English and History.
5.4 Demonstrate the capacity to interpret student assessment data to evaluate student learning and modify teaching practice.
When marking, it is hard to analyse the full productivity of the assessment piece in digits. An B for one students can be a great job, while others, it can be very disappointing. The B may also be a reason for many different things. For example, the B might be because one students wrote very well but didn’t answer the essay well or show enough examples. Whereas another student might have answered the question well but their sentence structure and grammar was not at an 8 grade. Drafts are also important in marking.
For some teachers, they will put a grade for the draft and the final and add them both up for the mark. This is a good way of marking for ESL as when drafting, teachers can help a lot with grammar, sentence structure etc. Using excel makes this easy as you can put both marks side by side and have a column for draft mark and final mark and final mark. The drafts marks can easily be compared individually and as a class whole. Graphs of these can be compared for drafts and finals aswell for that assessment and throughout the year. This also shows how teachers criticism and help is taken on board. I would use this style of marking for ESL.
Evidence:
· Adapted assessment design and criteria according to previous student work whilst on practicum
5.5 Demonstrate understanding of a range of strategies for reporting to students and parents/carers and the purpose of keeping accurate and reliable records of student achievement.
Reporting on student achievement is one of the most important parts of assessment, not only does it allow students to know how they are going, but what they can work and improve on and it’s a good reflection process for teachers aswell.
Student teacher verbal feedback, teacher parent interviews, email, excel, teacher-teacher interaction are all good ways of reporting. Although its important to document marks and feedback and write feedback on assignment, tests etc, not all students are going to take it in/read it. Its important to have one on one feedback, allow the students to ask questions, enquire and solve the issues. Class feedback is also important. Email is a good way of keeping contact with parents on their students progress and teacher to teacher interaction and dual marking can be important.
Lots of teachers will mark side by side and both mark a piece and analyse each others marking. Especially when they are in the same faculty and using the same assessment pieces, it is important that the have the same expectations and are using the same marking style. Emailing assessment rubrics is also important and posting them on sites such as edmodo is important so that parents can see the rubric that teachers are marking against.
In ESL I would use one on one reflection on marking as well as using excel. I would use email as a form of letting parents know the students marks, especially for parents that are based overseas or have low English. I would show the class graphs on the average class grades and how they can improve their grades.
I would keep achievement record keeping on both excel, saved in a number of places as well as written/printed copies.
Evidence:
- Kept records of student grades and achievement in both hard and soft copy whilst on practicum.
- Marked according to rubrics to ensure equity and fairness.