Edge Hill University - Primary Education

Focus on Teachers’ Standard 6 - Assessment

‘…a teacher must make accurate and productive use of assessment.’

Remember that assessment is a cyclical processwith three steps:

  • Collect ‘data’
  • Analyse the ‘data’
  • Identify the next steps

In the primary classroom assessment ‘data’ can take many different forms; some of it is implicit and some is explicit. This will include:

  • children’s verbal responses to your questions
  • the questions that children ask you – these can be really useful in helping you to identify misconceptions
  • the conversations they have with each other – without your intervention they may well draw on knowledge and understanding to solve a problem or make a point to their peers that you were not aware they had
  • theoutcomes ofthe tasks you give them e.g. a piece of narrative writing; written mathematics calculations; a sequence of movements in gymnastics; a piece of clay work
  • their feedback through formative assessment strategies e.g. thumbs up / thumbs down; ‘traffic light’ rating
  • theirengagement in your lessons e.g. if you’re dealing with low level disruption that might suggest that the children don’t understand or that they’re not feeling challenged
  • facial expressions e.g. demonstrating that they’re puzzled, confused, surprised, worried etc.
  • results from diagnostic assessments or tests

Some of this is data that you might most usefully analyse after the lesson when you evaluate the children’s learning but much of it is information that you should be using ‘on-the-spot’ to help you make decisions about next steps to takeduringthe lesson. The assessment cycle should be happening while you are teaching not just afterwards.

Your ability to use formative assessment ‘in practice’ is what you shouldreally focus on during your Professional Practice. You should aim to develop your capacity to identify and respond to individual children’s needs so that you can ensure they make progress.

Once you are secure with this level of formative assessment you will be able to engage much more effectively with the summative data that schools use to track the progress of a cohort of children and set longer term targets.

Remember that as a trainee teacher you will need to demonstrate that you are developing your ability to ‘make accurate and productive use of assessment’. Records of what children have done in the form of tick listswill not, on their own, demonstrate this. Mentors’ observations of your teaching; the oral and written feedback you give; assessment criteria and intentions identified on your planning and your evaluations and reflections, will.

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To support you in meeting the standards for TS6 we would like to offer you the following exemplification. You should read this alongside the descriptor for TS6 in the Professional Practice Assessment and Grading Criteria. Your Visiting Tutor will share this document with your Mentor but please use it in your own discussions with him / her as soon as possible.

Grade 1:
OUTSTANDING - MEETING STANDARDS AT A HIGH LEVEL / Grade 2:
GOOD - MEETING STANDARDS AT A GOOD LEVEL / REQUIRES IMPROVEMENT / INADEQUATE - FAILING TO MEET THE STANDARDS
  • Your planning identifies focused intended learning objectives and you can demonstrate that you use assessment information from previous lessons to inform next steps. The assessment criteria and assessment intentions identified on your planning are closely linked to the intended learning outcomes. Your plans identify how additional adults will contribute to assessment.
  • During lessons you consistently use implicit feedback from the learners and a range of appropriate explicit formative assessment strategies, to enable you to anticipate where intervention may be needed and to inform ‘on-the-spot’ adaptations to your teaching. Where a deviation from your lesson plan is necessary,you are able to respond with confidence.
  • You maintain a dialogue with the learners throughout your lesson, supporting them in recognising their own progress and next steps. You can demonstrate that you then reflect on this teacher/learner dialogue as part of your evaluation of the pupils’ learning and to inform ‘next steps’ planning and individual target setting.
  • You are able to recognise the indicators that demonstrate a learner’s current attainment in the outcomes of learning experiences that you have planned across the curriculum e.g. in a piece of narrative writing, written mathematics calculations, art work, DT projects, a sequence of movements in PE etc.
  • You consistently give constructive written or oral feedback on the outcomes of English and mathematics lessons which enables learners to make progress and you are developing this ability across the rest of the curriculum.
  • In consultation, and as a result of your own evaluation and professional reflection, you may have adapted or developed the class teacher’s approach to marking and feedback.
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  • Your planning identifies appropriate assessment criteria which link directly to the intended learning objectives for the lesson. You also identify on your plans any specific assessment intentions i.e. specific focus pupils and when and how you will assess. You refer back to the assessment criteria and intentions when you evaluate the pupils’ learning following the lesson.
  • During your lessons you have begun to demonstrate that you are able to use some implicit feedback from the learners and explicit formative assessment strategies to inform ‘on-the-spot’ adaptations to your teaching. This may necessitate some deviation from your lesson plan.
  • Using the school’s or class teacher’s established recording approach,you track pupil learning and use this information to inform ‘next steps’ planning and individual target setting.
  • You have begun to build a dialogue with the learners during your lessons and you are able support them in recognising their own progress and next steps.
  • For English and mathematics you are able to recognise the indicators in ‘written work’ that demonstrate a learner’s current attainment e.g. in a piece of narrative writing or written mathematics calculations.
  • Using the class teacher’s approach as a starting point you have demonstrated that you are able to give constructive written or oral feedback on learners’ work which enables them to make progress.
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  • Your planning identifies assessment criteria and assessment intentions. You may not yet demonstrate that you are making reference to these criteria during your lessons and the link between the assessment criteria and the intended learning outcomes may not yet be clear.
  • You have begun to use some of the explicit formative assessment strategies that the class teacher has demonstrated. You may not always recognise the significance of the information these strategies provide you with or demonstrate that you are able to act on that information either during or after the lesson.
  • You use the school’s or class teacher’s established approach to record learning. You may not yet use this information to track pupils’ learning,inform your ‘next steps’ planning or to support you in setting individual targets.
  • You understand that ‘written work’ in English and mathematics can provide assessment information that demonstrates a learner’s current attainment but you are not yet able to identify those indicators without support from the class teacher or your mentor.
  • You follow the school’s or class teacher’s expectations for marking of ‘written work’ but your feedback is not yet formative. You give pupils oral feedback which is positive and encouraging but may not yet be formative.
/ You do not:
  • identify assessment criteria and assessment intentions on your planning.
  • use any explicit formative assessment strategies including those demonstrated by the class teacher.
  • use the school’s or class teacher’s established approach to record learning.
  • understand that ‘written work’ in English and mathematics can provide assessment information that demonstrates a learner’s current attainment.
  • ensure that ‘written work’ is marked.
  • give pupils oral feedback which is positive and encouraging.

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