Make assessment concrete

Visual Assessment

Using Active Learning techniques benefit students greatly as discussed in the introduction to this chapter, and creating opportunities for using this method with assessment really does produce excellent results. Students who work with assessments on this level eventually gain a concrete understanding about:
•    the various components of an answer;
•    how to build an ideal solution to a problem/question;
•    how/where they ‘hit’ each Level;
•    different versions of an answer to the same question;
•    exploring links/categorisations, themes and trends.

Build the Answer

Type up an answer in your favourite word processor and place each paragraph on a separate page with the size big enough to be able to read from a few meters away. You could also use sentences in the same way of course. You could use an ideal answer but another way of getting them to really see how they could improve we use a ‘C’ or ‘D’ grade. Discuss the question with the class and what they think they ought to include in an ideal answer; note ideas down on the board.

Split the class into groups of three and give them the (laminated) jumbled answer. Now inform them that they are to construct or piece together an answer using the available material. Students place the answer on the floor and move the various components around until they have reached a possible answer. Discuss students’ ideas and, this is crucial, ask them what they could do to improve it. Allow them a few minutes to return to their answer and give them a few sheets of paper to add details to. Finally get one group to show the rest of the class their example. Discuss.

Activate them!

An alternative to the example above is to involve the whole class (depending on size – max 20 works well). ‘Extras’ can play ‘examiners’. Give each student a piece of the answer (about 12-15 students need to be involved here), give others possible headings or factor/theme cards (4-5 students) and another bunch ‘GCSE Level’ or A-Level criteria cards. Get them to construct the answer together as a group. This generally creates a lot of discussion and it might be easier if the teacher leads this together with the students. When the answer has been laid down on the floor, or students are holding them up, ask the ‘factors/heading’ students to decide which factor is discussed in which paragraph. The final step is for the last group to level the piece.
It is important at this stage to ensure that the class is familiar with peer-marking and comfortable with GCSE Levels or A-Level criteria. Get them to decide as a group where each Level ought to be placed. When they have completed their marking ask them to justify their decisions and then get feedback from the rest of the class. Some students may disagree with the judgments of the marking group so allow the changes to be made if necessary.

Great challenges

Assessment for Learning made Easy

Students become very nervous and frightened by the mere term ‘assessment’. Although some students will rise to the pressure, a large number may actually under perform because it is deemed an assessment.
- Tom, NQT
This example shows how simple Assessment for Learning (AFL) techniques can make students more focused and confident about how to improve. This approach will enable the class to see concrete progress within the lesson as well as across lessons. This is a History example but can easily be modified for any subject.

I taught a mixed-ability year 10 class about protest through history and this particular lesson investigated the key question: What impact did [different protests]…have on law-making and law enforcement in England?1 Some of these protests included Poll tax riots and Conscientious Objecting during WWII.

The Starter:

The starter got students on their feet and students assessed the severity of some protests using an Active Protest continuum2. After discussing the outcome of the task we moved straight to the assessment task which involved analyzing a range of historical sources. We discussed the source material together as a class first, and then the class explored what they needed to do to answer the question successfully. Students annotate the sources in pairs after which an exemplar answer was given to them.

Task 1: Speed AFL!

In pairs, students faced each other and were informed to mark the exemplar answer using the criteria/mark scheme. The first one to find one of the top levels would win. We then discussed students’ responses and they highlighted where the ‘exemplar student’ had achieved a certain Level on the Interactive Whiteboard. There were some disagreements about how the answer moved up the levels.

Task 2: Towards progress!

The class now moved to a more challenging question and the skill had also changed. We treated this question in the same manner as the previous one and then compared the differences between the two questions. As a class we then analysed the mark scheme for Q4 and what they would need to do in order to reach high levels.

Students then answered question four on their own and a time limit was set. In pairs, students marked the other person’s answer using the criteria/mark scheme. Students discussed how their partner’s had reached a certain level and what they thought was particularly good about their answer as well as setting them a target for improvement. We then examined an answer, which was quickly scanned for students to see, and comments were made about the strengths and weaknesses of this particular response. Questions were taken in to mark for the next lesson.

At the start of the following lesson the class peer-assessed, using mark schemes, three responses from grades A-C, starting with grade C. After discussing the answers, assessments were handed back and students were asked to read teacher’s comments and try to meet their targets – examples of meeting the target were either given by the teacher or the student’s answer showed evidence so this area was highlighted.

This way of using assessments is simple, structured and engaging as students feel they can move forward in that lesson and beyond. When a class has experienced this process they enjoy taking assessments because they know that improvement will be concrete and real.

Extract from Exam Class Toolkit : How to Create Engaging Lesson That Ensure Progression and Results

Fantastic websites to use with students from starters to main activities, check it out:

KartOO I really like this site as it give students a visual of how search term link together and which sites link to a particular word or phrase. Here’s an example.

Visuwords: This website allows you to look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. You can then produce a diagram of those associations as well as, if you’re geeky, install the software on your own site! This is an example of the word ‘freedom’.

Wordl.net This interesting website was passed onto me from Tom S (thanx!), and it’s essentially a ‘collage’ tool; excellent for presenting ideas and visualising concepts : ).

More updates coming soon!

Not quite.

The debate over the value of measuring and testing intelligence has been fiercely debated in the press particularly around the time of GCSE and A-Level results, over the past few years. Arguments vary from suggesting that exams are becoming easier to they no longer serve any purpose.

The number of exams is not as important as what those exams are. Pure regurgitation of facts is not as useful as being forced to use your reasoning skills under pressure. In my work, remembering things is important, but many of those things can be looked up if I can’t recall immediately. The important thing is being able to use those facts well, quickly and under pressure. That is what exams should demonstrate. /lbw, Reading, England
BBC News Online, Talking Point, Are Exams a Waste of Time?

A similar debate has been on-going in a series of articles in Time Magazine in 2003 in the U.S about the SAT Reasoning Test,a standardized test for college admissions. A year later, in 2004, the journal reported about a new method of testing students. Robert Sternberg created a number of tasks that, in his mind, would challenge students beyond linear and analytical thinking. For example, students were presented with various scenarios which they had to solve such as arriving to a party where they do not know anyone to convince friends to help move furniture. These seemingly unorthodox activities are designed to measure the creative and practical skills that Sternberg says are crucial to success in college and in life but are ignored by the typical pencil-and-paper exam:

The traditional theory of IQ deals with a very important part of intelligence, namely, memory and analytical skills, and that’s what [our exams] measure. Those skills are important for success in school and in life. But what I discovered over the years… is that some students were very gifted in traditional memory and analytical skills, but never good at making ideas of their own. They were good if you told them the paper topic, if you told them what exactly would be on the test. There were other students who were creative, but not necessarily as analytical as the first group. They tended to be imaginative, to have new ideas, to discover things, to invent things, but they were not necessarily the ones who are going to the best in standardized tests or going to excel in a typical class.

(The Yale Herlad, DECEMBER 3, 2004 VOL. XXXVIII, NO. 13)

Students must prepare themselves for an emerging labour market which has evolved from a knowledge based sphere to a conceptual sphere. Linear thinking, analytical and calculating skills is being replaced with the ability to detect patterns and opportunities. If the former were the skills of the Information Age, then synthesis will become the core skill of the 21st Century, where students are required to grasp the bigger picture and to combine contrasting elements into a new impressive whole. Welcome to the Conceptual Age.