This document discusses using "letters to a friend" to assess student progress in a topic by having students write an initial letter at the beginning of a topic and a follow up letter at the end. It provides positives such as identifying misconceptions, gauging prior knowledge, and measuring engagement and progress. Potential negatives include the time needed for students to write and teachers to mark the letters. Suggestions are provided for marking the letters and future developments like increased differentiation, peer assessment, and collaboration with other departments.

1. Letter to a
Friend (L2F)
Assessing progress across a topic.

2. Idea:
O Trigwell & Prosser (1991) – assessed
university students by asking them to write
a ‘letter to a friend’ describing what they
had learnt by the end of the unit.
O Idea has been adapted so that pupils write
two letters: one at the beginning of the
topic and one at the end.

3. Positives:
O Spot misconceptions at the beginning of
the topic.
O Idea of pupils’ pre-existing knowledge
about the topic.
O Informs planning of lessons.
O Engagement in new topic.
O Progress! (Before & After).
O Extended writing opportunity.
O New GCSE 6 mark question.

4. Negatives
O Time!
O Marking.
O English & Science.
O End-of-unit tests & End-of-unit L2F
coincide.

5. Marking
O How do you mark a piece of work like
this?

6. Marking
O SOLO Taxonomy.
O Overall level of thinking or separate each
part of the topic?

7. Future developments
O Increased differentiation
O Writing frames etc.
O Peer assessment.
O Blogging of letters / pupil videos
O Collaboration with English department.