This is a hot topic for learning. What good is telling a pupil what mark they get out of 10 if we do not give them guides on how to improve or what that mark out of 10 even means.
It’s just not enough to give them a mark with a “well done” and call that efficient marking. This is where Assessment for Learning comes into the picture. The key concept is that it has to be driven by learning, so when offering feedback we should be offering advice on ways in which they can improve.
Another important aspect of AfL is encouraging the pupils to take responsibility for their own learning and assessment.
So what are the best ways to integrate AfL into your teaching?
- Peer Assessment – I’m a big fan of this as it is great watching pupils engaged in dialogue with each other about their work. This can be done in a number of ways; they can gather market research of their initial ideas to help choose their final design, deliver a presentation to the class and ask pupils to comment on specific areas, or even assess each others’ work using the same mark scheme as the teacher would.
- Model expectations - Nothing is more effective in getting what you want out of your pupils, than modelling expectations and showing suitable examples whilst highlighting the best features and inspiring them.
- Assessment Criteria - When assigning tasks, it’s useful for pupils to know exactly what you will be looking for when marking. This also makes your marking and commentary much more straightforward and allows pupils to then target set on how to improve.
- Good questioning - Also see the questioning section. Good assessment is fundamentally based on focussing on what pupils do not know, thus helping you identify the limits of their understanding.
- One on one - This is a really beneficial form of assessment for learning, as pupils get individual and focussed feedback from their teacher on how they are doing and how they can improve.
FREE RESOURCES FOR AfL COMING SOON…!
