Reflections on the all important process of Assessment for Learning

Brief lesson observations can be incredibly helpful in helping to energise a positive team atmosphere especially if a specific focus is introduced for each half term. During the next half term I plan to observe all ten colleagues teach for 15 or 20 minutes and to request that the focus for the next half term’s lesson observations will be assessment for learning.

The four cornerstones of effective teaching – empathy, sympathy, firmness and kindness can be complemented by the four elements of assessment for learning:

- Clear lesson objectives
- Oral and written feedback
- Questioning
- Self and peer assessment

To crystalise the area of assessment for learning,  it is very useful to read Inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment by Paul Black and Dylan Williams.  The document can be viewed at: http://weaeducation.typepad.co.uk/files/blackbox-1.pdf

I have been planning a series of 'on entry' starter activities to maximise the learning environment and make optimum use of the first two or three minutes of a lesson.  For example, a just one topic – just ten minutes on entry starter involved a small number of questions involving the cosine rule and sine rule. It was an interesting experience to find that a few students were not hugely confident about which ‘armoury’ is appropriate for which problem. This was completely solved by giving the strategy: if two sides are 'cuddling up' to an included angle then the cosine rule is used. Cuddling up implies cosine rule and the sine rule was utilised when this condition was not met.

Sharing three 'must achieve, should achieve, could achieve' objectives are always welcomed by learners to maximise the process of differentiation during the lesson; returning to these objectives as the basis for questioning and feedback during plenaries helps to create a clear infrastructure to the lesson even if a line of enquiry sometimes takes a welcome unexpected direction. Modelling what successful work should look like can also enhance the ‘could’ aspect of the objective setting.  

It is well recognised that oral feedback is just as important as written feedback and that both forms of feedback should be constructive and positive. When invited to teaching and learning meetings, students  report that they wish to know what they have done well, what is the ‘next step target’ for improvement and how they can improve on their work. For example, a next step target could be: “Damon, you are becoming more confident with Pythagoras work at level 7; remember that if the hypotenuse is given in a right-angled triangle and you are required to find the length of one of the other two sides, you need to square and subtract not square and add. The process of formula, substitute, work out, check using clear method work and sequential equal signs will help with this”.

Self and peer assessment is a key cornerstone for enhancing the assessment for learning process. Students enormously value clear opportunities to talk about what they have learned and what they found difficult, both in terms of student to student discussions and student to teacher discussions. In one lesson I observed, my colleague said ''exchange books with the person sitting next to you. Find an answer that you disagree with and justify to your neighbour why you think their answer is wrong''; this was a terrific aspect to a high quality lesson.

Explaining steps in their working to the class is also very powerful to maximise learning. Asking for volunteers to come to the board and write down the next step before giving the board pen to someone else has worked well. I am confident that AfL strategies are being used by successful teachers across the country as a natural part of inspired teaching and learning. 

Christopher Curtis    
Curriculum Team Leader for Mathematics