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Classroom strategies from the assessment tool kit
The headings below detail the four important ways of including students in formative assessment. Under each heading are some practical strategies to help you implement assessment practices with your students.
Using self- and peer-assessment
- Model the process of self assessment
- Identify clear criteria/indicators (brainstorm criteria with students)
- Provide a clear achievable assessment activity
- In peer assessment have students work in small groups/pairs
- Take time to build skills and trust
- When peer assessing focus students on the learning not on the person
- Commend, recommend, commend
- Use traffic lighting
- Link learning and encourage an atmosphere of ongoing self-assessment and goal setting.
- Prompts for review – What have you done? Enjoyed? Why? Found difficult? Why? Learned? Can you show me? Your next steps?
Sharing learning intentions and achievement criteria with students
- Use a motivating starter activity. Tell students the learning outcomes. Display them. Link the learning that is taking place to the learning outcomes (What we are working towards?).
- Set challenging achievable goals/targets with students
- Explain tasks clearly, breaking down learning into manageable steps. Design the achievement criteria/indicators together with students (What we are looking for?)
- Model, demonstrate and exemplify learning to clarify achievement indicators. Stop, discuss and review progress towards the intended outcomes during and at the end of teaching
Using questioning
- Increase wait time: pause, give a 5-second window for students to respond to questions
- Direct questions to pairs, or small groups. Allow discussion and break down the risk of getting it wrong
- Encourage everyone to answer - 'no hands up'
- Move around the class when questioning
- Be precise, use, and encourage students to use, more specific terms e.g. predict; compare etc
- Consider the level of questioning required (Bloom's taxonomy/ SOLO) and use appropriate question. starters to elicit thinking
Providing feedback and feed-forward to students about their learning
- Focus feedback on selected achievement criteria. Provide feedback close to the learning
- Commend, specify what has been achieved
- Recommend, specify an aspect to improve
- Provide guidance on how to improve (construct a way forward)
- Scaffold or exemplify next step(s) focusing on selected achievement criteria
- Use comments before grades; ask students to set targets based on feedback and review
- Be positive; believe in every student's ability to improve
- Seek feedback from students about your feedback to them
Adapted from Christchurch College of Education AtoL team
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