All entries for December 2019

Merry Christmas and a Happy New year

A huge thank you to all of our authors and readers for their support throughout the past year. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. Let's hope that 2020 is slightly less challenging than 2019!

There will be no new posts across the Christmas period but we will be back on the 6th of January with more student reflections. If there are any teaching topics you are particularly interested in, or you have a post that you think might be appropriate, please let us know by emailing A.Ball.1@warwick.ac.uk.

With best wishes from the WJETT Blog Team

Abigail Ball : 16 Dec 2019 10:10 |  Tags: Christmas |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

How can assessment encourage & motivate children to succeed academically & socially? Kei

How can assessment encourage and motivate children to succeed both academically and socially? - Kei

Formative assessments can motivate children to succeed both academically and socially as the evidence of learning can be interpreted by both the child and the teacher to determine the child’s next steps in order for the child to reach closer to their learning goals (Harlen, 2007). For example, in Year 1 English, the ongoing learning objective is to write a sentence using Colourful Semantics. Colourful Semantics is used to teach the syntax of a sentence which includes ‘a who’ (subject), ‘a what doing’ (verb) and ‘a where’ (object). After the children complete their piece of writing on the present progressive tense. The children have access to a help mat with a Remember box that allows the children to independently check their piece of writing. The children are able to edit and improve their writing by checking the success criteria such as: sounding out phonemes, using finger spaces, capital letter and a full stop.

Black and Wiliam states that feedback to any pupil should cater to that individual child, it should offer advice for improvement and avoid comparisons with other children (Black and Wiliam, 1998). Where TN used the Remember Box to check for finger spaces, capital letters and full stops which had done independently. After this, I checked (pink pen) and circled the verb like written as lic and asked him if he remembered the split digraph (i-e) we have been learning this week. He did not remember this but I was able to scaffold the answer to him. TN edited the verb like in his writing (in green pen). I also asked TN, what he was proud of with his writing to which he replied, “I remembered everything in the Remember Box.” As I was offering TN advice on his writing, I noticed that some of the children in my writing group were also eager to receive feedback as well.

Socially, creating an environment where children can assess their work together can also be rewarding for both children involved. An example of this is when I encouraged the children to celebrate RN’s piece of writing which I had projected onto the board. I asked the children, “What can we praise RN for, in her piece of writing?”, to which the children agreed that she successfully used capital letters and finger spaces. Next, we moved on to how we can give advice on improvement. The children discussed with their talk partner and agreed that although RN used a full stop at the end of a sentence, they noticed that the full stop was not touching the line. As a result, the children were able to build a culture in the classroom to give constructive feedback and celebrate each other’s work.

References:

BLACK, P. & WILIAM, D. 1998. Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment, London, GL Assessment.

Harlen, W. (2007). Assessment of learning. 1st ed. London: Saga Publications.

Abigail Ball : 09 Dec 2019 15:26 |  Tags: Assessment Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

How can assessment encourage & motivate learners to succeed, academically & socially? – Munira

How can assessment encourage and motivate learners to succeed, academically and socially? - Munira

Assessment is broadly defined as activities that teachers and students undertake to get information that can be used analytically to alter teaching and learning (Black and Williams, 1998).

The two main forms of assessment used are summative and formative. Summative assessment (assessment of learning) aims to record learning that has taken place and formative assessment (assessment for learning) aims to identify aspects of learning as it is developing in order to find ways to deepen this learning. Assessment has a huge impact on student learning, achievement and motivation. Learners need to be clear about what they are aiming to learn as well as how to evaluate their learning for future learning to happen. Parents also need to be involved as being aware of the journey their child is taking helps to create a strong and positive home school partnership which in turn intrinsically motivates students to do better.

Innovation in education today strives to create “life long learners” equipped with skills and knowledge to lead their own journeys in the real world. However, innovations in pedagogy are unlikely to be successful if they are not accompanied by related innovation in assessment (Cizek,1997). These assessments are referred to as performance based assessments and can be oral presentations, essays, projects, experiments, collaborative tasks and portfolios/videos. In order for assessment to be meaningful, it needs to be ongoing and authentic. Teachers need to be able to identify what learners already know in order to respond to the learning needs of individual students. Feedback plays an important role in assessing learners and is directly connected to their academic success. To have the greatest impact, feedback needs to provide information not only on how the learner has done, but also the specific steps needed to progress further. It needs to be timely, detailed and specific (Hattie and Timperely, 2007).

In my early years classroom, the environment that I create is fluid and safe and I develop relationships with my learners based on trust, mutual respect and love. We understand that we are all diverse and we learn differently as we understand that making mistakes is the most powerful way of learning; based on Hattie and Timperely's (2007) research on feedback. This is the key for emotional and social success which then leads to academic success. I regularly check in with my students during a learning engagement and assess their learning with them as well as set goals. Reflection is a big part of our day and this is something we do at the end of every learning engagement so that students can share their new learning or their misconceptions.

It is our role to define what our students need to know and provide the environment they need to successfully learn and meet their learning targets in order for them to believe in their potential for success. We need to create meaningful assessment systems that provide valuable information to pinpoint gaps in learning and guide learners through next steps they need to take to eliminate the gaps. We need to involve our students in the assessment process and watch as they gain a sense of ownership and commitment to learning. Soon they become more focused, motivated and achievement oriented.

References:

Black, P. & Wiliam, D., 2010. Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(1), pp.81–90.

Hattie, J. and Timperley, H., 2007. The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), pp.81?112.

Abigail Ball : 02 Dec 2019 09:10 |  Tags: Assessment Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem