Literacy and Assessment for Learning -a brief overview of literacy and the difference between assessment of learning and assessment for learning - and what the latter looks like in the classroom/school/district

1. Vancouver Principals and Vice-Principals
May 13th, 2009
Faye Brownlie

2. Engagement &
Meaning Making

3. Literacy is about more than reading or writing –

it is about how we communicate in society. It is
about social practices and relationships, about
knowledge, language, and culture.
Those who use literacy take it for granted – but

those who cannot use it are excluded from much
communication in today’s world. Indeed, it is the
excluded who can best appreciate the notion of
‘literacy as freedom.’
UNESCO, Statement for the UN Literacy Decade,

2003-2012

4. GRADUAL
RELEASE MODEL
Model
Guided practice
Independent practice
Independent application
Pearson & Gallagher (1983)

6. Assessment OF Learning
Purpose: reporting out, summative
assessment, measuring
learning
Audience: parents and public
Timing: end
Form: letter grades, rank order,
percentage scores

7. Assessment FOR Learning
Purpose: guide instruction, improve
learning
Audience: teacher and student
Timing: at the beginning, day by
day, minute by minute
Form: descriptive feedback

8. Assessment FOR Learning
Purpose: guide instruction and
learning
•The Grand Event
•Ongoing in the Class

9. Descriptive scoring

Coding in teams

Class/grade profile of strengths and areas of

need
Action plans developed - what’s next?

Individual students identified for further

assessment

10. (with the goal in mind)
What do I need to teach?

11. Literacy teacher pulled 40/70 students who

were identified at risk in fall assessment
1:1 assessment, performance based

Read text orally

Looked for patterns


12. Encouraged kids to mark the text

Predicting from title, picture, caption – average

of 4 seconds
Comprehension – analyzed 3 samples, students

ranked by performance standard rubric
Inference – adding your thinking, not

summarizing - practiced

13. From Assessment to Instruction
1 Assess
(against criteria)
2 Set a
Goal
(target)
3 Plan/
Teach
(with the goal in mind)
4 Reassess
Brownlie, Feniak, Schnellert, 2006

16. The Six Big AFL Strategies
1. Intentions
2. Criteria
3. Descriptive feedback
4. Questions
5. Self and peer assessment
6. Ownership

17. Descriptive Feedback
What’s working?
What’s not?
What’s next?

18. •ensuring an orderly & supportive environment
•planning, coordinating & evaluating teaching
and the curriculum
•strategic resourcing
•promoting & participating in teacher learning &
development
•establishing goals & expectations

19. School Leadership and Student Outcomes:
Identifying What Works and Why –
Viviane M.J. Robinson, University of Auckland
•ensuring an orderly &
supportive environment
•strategic resourcing
•establishing goals &
expectations

20. •planning, coordinating
& evaluating teaching
and the curriculum

21. • promoting &
participating in teacher
learning & development
ACEL, #41, Oct. 07

22. …the more leadership is
focused on the core
business of teaching and
learning the greater its
impact.
Robinson, 2007