Standard 5: Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning
Standard descriptor 5.1.1: Demonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning.
Standard descriptor 5.4.1: Demonstrate the capacity to interpret student assessment data to evaluate student learning and modify teaching practice.
The purpose of assessment is to provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate what they know and can do in order for the teacher to “gather data about student achievement in relation to outcomes” (Churchill et al., 2015).
During my last placement, I was able to implement a unit of work that incorporated the use of assessment tasks (5.1.1). I had implemented a pre-test prior to the beginning of the unit identifying what the students already know, areas of strength and what areas require development (see Student Pre-test) (Killeen, 2016).
At the conclusion of the unit, I had given students the same pre-test as a post-test to evaluate and make judgement on student growth and effectiveness of teaching and planning (Sheran & Sarbaum, 2012).
After the pre-test, I recorded each students’ marks in an Excel Spreadsheet to calculate the average and overall grade of the student (5.4.1) [see sheet 1]. In addition, I recorded questions that were answered correctly and incorrectly for each student to identify the areas requiring support [see sheet 2]. This was done similarly after the post-test to evaluate student growth from the time of the pre-test until the end of the unit.
Alongside this, I also implemented a formative target strategy assessment. A three-layered target with the centre being “Learning to…”, the middle layer is “Can do” and the outer layer is “Very easy”. This was used during my teaching and I would record the students name in the appropriate layer of the target to assess who has grasped the concept or who do I need to focus on and work with (Target strategy not included due to sensitivity of names).
Student Pre-test
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Student Result Data
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This was the first time I was able to implement an assessment measuring student growth. I believe I have used assessment effectively to inform my teaching practice based on the results of the students. It is an area I must continue to be effective in not just in mathematics but ways that are effective in Literacy, Science, History, Geography or alike. I endeavour in future to differentiate assessment tasks for students as I found that the pre and post-test were very formal, and some students required support in certain areas. For example, question 5 on collecting and representing data required for students to read a lot and those who require support in Literacy, essentially struggled.
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Standard descriptor 5.2.1: Demonstrate an understanding of the purpose of providing timely and appropriate feedback to students about their learning.
One of the most effective ways of supporting student learning is providing feedback (Rashid & Jaidin, 2014). Feedback, as an aspect of formative assessment, is designed to provide the learner information about their performance, relative to the learning intention and strategies to enhance the quality of work (Brookhart, 2017).
The following evidence (on the right) demonstrates my ability to provide effective feedback. The task was to write a recount of their weekend with the learning intention of students organising their ideas into paragraphs.
My feedback adhered to the three elements outlined by Hattie and Timperley’s evidence-based model of feedback: “Where am I going?”, “How am I going? and “Where to next?” (Hattie & Timperley, 2007).
It was imperative that my feedback linked to the learning intention and elaborated on ways to achieve the success criteria if not met already (Rashid & Jaidin, 2014). For this student, I firstly commended them on their recount, provided a statement on what they require to improve on (in this case paragraphs) and provided an elaboration on how they can improve writing in paragraphs.
Feedback on student work provided by pre-service teacher
I also gave students a self-reflection sheet where they reflect on their own learning to see if they have met the success criteria of that lesson. The teacher supports the students’ self-feedback by then providing ways to improve their learning by providing feedback in their books (Quinton & Smallbone, 2010).
Feedback is something I have always been working on and it is crucial to remember the three elements of Hattie and Timperley’s evidence-based model; Where am I going? How am I going? And Where am I going? It is not a tick or two and fixing spelling, it is about linking the task back to the learning criteria and providing strategies to improve. Without feedback, the student will continue to work at the level they are currently at assuming their work is at expected level.
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