This document discusses formative assessment strategies to raise attainment. It considers why formative assessment is important, reviewing research on effective learning intentions, questioning, feedback, and self-assessment. Examples are provided of assessment for learning strategies that have successfully improved attainment, including generating success criteria with students and using questioning techniques to extend thinking. The benefits of feedback without grades and the use of self-assessment and peer assessment are also outlined.

1. Currie High School - CLPL Session
AifL and Raising Attainment
Lianne Rae, Modern Studies
January 2014

2. Learning Objectives
1. Consider why formative assessment is
important in raising attainment
2. Review the research on successful
Learning Intentions, Questioning, Feedback
and Self & Peer Assessment
3. Share examples and experiences of AifL
strategies that have been successful

3. Engaging Learners – How we teach
Passive recipients
who recall
information
Develop skills to
apply knowledge
Active
learning
Co-
operative
learning
Creative
contexts

4. Summative Assessment
Summative testing - positives Summative testing - negatives
Preparation for SQA requirements Not frequent nor detailed enough to provide
feedback that improves learning and teaching
Frequent and sufficiently detailed
formative assessments allow teachers to
monitor whether formative strategies
are actually leading to improvements
Pupils cannot interact and reflect usefully
upon grades
Grades alone do not allow pupils to develop
their understanding and identify steps for
future learning
An emphasis on summative testing may also
lead to "teaching to the test" and to superficial
learning e.g. rote learning.

5. Key Question
Do our approaches to
classroom assessment improve
or prove learning?

6. Improving Attainment
Formative assessment results in an
improvement at GCSE level of three
grades for "so-called low-attainers" and
one grade for higher attainers
(Jones &Tanner, 2006)

7. Black & Wiliam, 'Inside the Black Box' (1998)
Defined formative assessment (assessment for
learning) as:
"all those activities undertaken by teachers,and by their
students,which provide information to be used as
feedback… to adapt teaching to meet the needs of
pupils”
Teaching children to think for themselves makes
them more confident,resourceful,reflective and
effective at learning,resulting in increased attainment
and better exam results

8. Unpacking Formative
Assessment

9. Effective ClassroomAssessment:
— is not an“add on”
— is planned coherently
— involves pupils,including self-and peer-evaluation
— requires a broad range of approaches
— is a careful balance of regular formative and only
very occasional summative assessments
— ensures regular feedback to pupils that plans next
steps in learning
— enables the school to inform parents of pupils
progress
— encourages pupils to identify next steps and take
responsibility for ‘closing the gap’

10. Key Features of AifL
— Learning Intentions
— Questioning
— Feedback
— Peer and self-assessment

11. Learning Intentions
— There are often multiple learning intentions in play at any
one time e.g. long term and short term knowledge and
related skills
— Knowledge learning objectives need to explicitly linked
with a key skill so that success criteria focus on the skill
rather than the knowledge
— Closed learning intentions are achieved simply by meeting
the success criteria – there are rarely quality issues
— Open learning intentions require discussions with pupils
about quality
— Learning objectives need to be separated from the context
to promote a focus on the learning not the context

12. Breaking down Learning Intentions
- Skills
Long term (often several
years)
Short term (individual
lessons)
To be able to punctuate
properly
To be able to use commas
To be able to design a science
experiment
To be able to record
observations

13. Breaking down Learning Intentions
- Knowledge
Long term Short term Key skill (with SC
generated by pupils)
To know the significant
events ofTudor times
To know the impact
of HenryVIII’s reign
on people’s lives
To select and organise
historical data
To know the duties of
religious leaders
To know the duties
of a Rabbi and a
Priest
To compare and contrast
these duties

14. Closed Learning Intentions
To be able to:
•Use question marks
•Catch a ball
•Use an index
•Subtract using
decomposition
•Use references in an
essay
To know:
•The definition of
photosynthesis
•Colours in French
•Major rivers in Africa
•Key events of the
Gunpowder plot

15. Open Learning Intentions
To be able to:
•Write a persuasive argument, letter etc
•Think of an effective simile, personification etc
•Solve a geometric / numerical problem
•Compare data, reports, pieces of artwork etc
•Draw an effective conclusion

16. The impact of separating Learning Intentions
Learning Intentions– what you want pupils to learn
To write a newspaper report
To analyse data
Context – the activity or vehicle through which the LI will be taught
To write a newspaper report About pollution in our town (research
plus ICT skills)
To analyse data In comparing climate between Edinburgh
and Cairo,using atlas graphs
Muddled LI’s
To write a newspaper report about pollution
To analyse data about climate difference between Edinburgh and Cairo

17. Success Criteria – generating the
ingredients of the Learning Objective
— Pupils analyse a finished piece of work – “One
minute to talk with a partner to decide one thing you can
see in this piece of work to do with persuasion” (LI)
— Two pieces of work of differing quality
— Display poor success criteria and ask pupils
to re-write
— Demonstrate e.g.Talk
— Re-use success criteria – decontextualised LI
lead to generic success criteria

18. Questioning
— An area of formative assessment which
involves the active involvement of pupils
in their own learning.
— The crucial thing that teachers should
consider when questioning is how their
questions will improve pupils' learning
(Cohen et al., 2004).

19. Questioning – Practical Strategies
Random Name
Generator
http://www.classtools.net/edu
cation-games-
php/fruit_machine

20. Questioning – Practical Strategies
to encourage and extend thinking
— A range of
answers
— A statement
— Right & wrong
— Stems

21. Feedback
— When feedback is given as marks only or as marks and
comments there was no improvement in attainment
(Butler 1987)
— However when teachers gave comments only,
attainment increased by 30%
— are we damaging learning by returning marks to pupils?
— Grades "can reinforce comparisons that pupils use to
rank their position as a 'good learner' resulting in
'poorer' performing pupils accepting that they cannot
succeed
— Marks can have a negative effect on motivation,
confidence and self-esteem in pupils.

22. Feedback - Practical Strategies

23. Feedback - Practical Strategies
-using summative tests formatively

24. Self & Peer Assessment
— Once pupils understand what they are
aiming for it is then becomes possible for
them to manage and control the learning
process through self-assessment.
— Peer-assessment has been found to improve
learning as pupil motivation to work
carefully increases,peer support is provided
through the feedback and pupils more
readily accept criticisms of their work from
their peers

25. Self & PeerAssessment - Practical
Strategies