1. Understanding Formative Assessment
active learning not mechanistic strategies
Shirley Clarke
MEd, Hon DEd
Associate, Institute of Education
University of London

2. The research indicates that improving learning through
assessment depends on five, deceptively simple, factors:
the provision of effective feedback to pupils;
the active involvement of pupils in their own
learning;
adjusting teaching to take account of the results of
assessment;
a recognition of the profound influence
assessment has on the motivation and self-esteem
of pupils, both of which are crucial influences on
learning;
the need for pupils to be able to assess themselves
and understand how to improve.

3. This was further broken down to include:
sharing learning goals with pupils;
involving pupils in self-assessment;
providing feedback which leads to pupils
recognising their next steps and how to take
them;
underpinned by confidence that every student can
improve.

4. Formative
Assessment
Effective
Self-peer-teacher
questioning
feedback
Talk
Capturing interest
Learning
Planning objectives
Success criteria
Excellence
A learning culture
self-belief
meta-cognition

5. Order these famous people from
least clever
to
most clever
J. K. Rowling
Albert Einstein
Miley Cyrus
David Beckham
David Cameron

6. Fixed Mindset Growth Mindset
Intelligence is Intelligence is
static. expandable.
I must look I want to learn
clever! more!
Avoids challenges Embraces challenges
Gives up easily Persists in the face of setbacks
Sees effort as pointless Sees effort as the way
Ignores useful criticism Learns from criticism
Likely to plateau early
and Reaches ever higher
achieve less than full levels of achievement
potential
Carol Dweck

7. Praise achievement not ability
Our language tells children what we believe and what we value
Well done - you’re learning to...
Good - it’s making you think - that’s how
your brain is growing!
Every time you practise, you’re making
connections in your brain stronger.
You’re good at things you like because you
work at them.

8. Praise achievement not ability
Our language tells children what we believe and what we value
Let’s look at what you’ve achieved.
If you could already do it, you wouldn’t be
learning anything.
Your skills have really improved.
You can use this mistake. Think about
why it didn’t work and learn from it.

12. We are learning Learning muscle
We are stretching
How magnets work our Questioning
muscle

13. We are learning Learning muscle
To solve We are stretching
mathematical problems our perseverence
muscle

14. Breaking down the learning
Habits of mind (Arthur Costa)
Claxton’s Learning ‘muscles’
“One of the core functions of twenty-
first century education is learning to
learn in preparation for a lifetime of
change.”
David Miliband 2003

15. Habits of Mind
(dispositions which lead to learning )
Resistance Being clear
Taking your time Using all your senses
Listening sensitively Being creative
Thinking flexibly Being amazed
Thinking about thinking Having a go
Trying to get it right Seeing the funny side
Being curious Learning with others
Transferring skills & Always learning
knowledge Costa and Kallick

16. The Four Rs of Learning Power
Resilience Resourcefulness
Absorption Questioning
Managing distractions Making links
Noticing Imagining
Perserverance Reasoning
Capitalising
Reflectiveness Reciprocity
Planning Interdependence
Revising Collaboration
Distilling Empathy and listening
Meta-learning Imitation
Claxton 2002

17. Enrichment or interruption ?
Talk partners
Children on task
Time to move on ....
Q. What stops you learning ?
A. You do! When you interrupt us.
(Y2 class)

18. Formative
Assessment
Effective
Self-peer-teacher
questioning
feedback
Talk
Capturing interest
Learning objectives
Planning Success criteria
Excellence
A Learning culture
self-belief
meta-cognition

19. Stages in pupil involvement in planning
1. What they already know/can do
2. What they want to know/find out/be able to do
3. Activity and outcome planning - link with
subject and transferrable skills

20. 1.Prior knowledge
break down the theme
explore materials
present the problem
show progression of LOs
pictures and questions
concept mapping
start with application

21. 2/3. Planning the learning and
outcomes
immersion first
ideas follow on from PK activity
include skills - subject specific
- other subjects
include outcomes/products

22. dia
In

24. Formative
Assessment
Effective
Self-peer-teacher
questioning
feedback
and Talk
Capturing interest
Learning objectives
Planning Success criteria
Excellence
A Learning culture
self-belief
meta-cognition

26. Effective starts
L.O.discussed in pairs Role play
A good question or Video clip to discuss
statement
Features of a product Box of artefacts
Compare products Evidence pack with clues
Play first Photograph
Game Surprise
Change the setting

27. Capturing children’s interest first
Effective starts provide:
summative assessment
sometimes instant rethink!
instant engagement
immersion in the subject matter
a natural path to the learning objective
and success criteria

28. Compulsory and optional success criteria
L.O. Construct a line graph L.O. Effective characterisation
Remember: Choose:
title hobbies and interests
label x & y axes likes and dislikes
equal intervals examples of personality
key attitude to self
connect points attitude to others
etc.

29. Pupil generated success criteria
Doing it wrong
Presenting something ‘wrong’ or ‘incomplete’
An excellent product
Comparing products (for closed literacy L.O.s)
Sloppy success criteria
Uplevelling
Demonstrate/visualiser
Retrospective generation

35. ‘It’s bright”
‘The Christmas trees are nice’
‘The letters are a bit funny sometimes’

36. ‘The reindeer is nice.’
‘Yellow drawings don’t stand out.’

37. ‘This is the easiest to read.’

38. Success Criteria
make all your letters the same size
use dark colours
don’t use yellow
put pictures round the edge, not in the middle
check that you have copied all words & numbers

40. Analyse selected extracts
Cinderella picked the Cinderella found a nice
most beautiful pumpkin big pumpkin.
that she could find.
Cinderella obeyed and, Cinderella waved her wand
with a wave of her and every mouse became
wand, each mouse a horse
that scurried was
transformed into
a dappled grey horse.

41. Formative
Assessment
Effective
Self-peer-teacher
questioning
feedback
Talk
Capturing interest
Learning objectives
Planning Success criteria
Excellence
A Learning culture
self-belief
meta-cognition

44. Impact
Cognitive progress
Social development
Pupil voice
“Talk partners have widened children’s
social understanding and increased their
tolerance of other people.”
“One autistic boy has gone from being barely able to
tolerate one person to really enjoying being included in
changing partners and meeting his social targets.”

45. “One child with special needs
said she’d learned so much with
her partners and in previous
years had been with other
children who didn’t know what
to do and couldn’t help her.”
Referring to Y6 child

46. So far . . .
1. Range of answers
2. Statement
“Answering
3. Right and wrong
these types
4. Starting from the end of questions
makes me
5. Opposing standpoints
confident and
6. Odd one out more
independent.”
7. True or false
8. Always, sometime, never
9. Silly questions

49. Statement
1. There is a relationship between the circumference
of a circle and its diameter.
2. It is not possible to think without words.
3. Exercise leads to a healthy lifestyle.
4. Little Red Riding Hood was innocent!
5. The wolf was innocent! “We had
3 different statements
6. Girls are cleverer than boys!
and our teacher let us
independently find out
the result. I like this
way of learning.”

52. Start from the end
1. Bricks are the best material for building a house. Why?
3. 1066 was a very turbulent year. Why?
5. The Romans invaded Britain. Why?
7. Water, glass, the moon and shiny material can all do this.
What might the question have been?
9. Here is a finished puppet. How was it made?
“These
questions
make you
think more.”

53. Which is the ODD ONE OUT and why?
The triangle because The square because
it has 3 sides and 3 it’s the only one
corners. All the with equal sides.
others have 4 of
each.
The triangle The parallelogram
doesn’t have because it is the only
opposite one with no right
parallel sides. angles.

54. True or False - prove it!
To move these things
you will need a heavy force.
True or False?
All odd numbers are prime.
True or False?
“It’s good because you
have to come up with a theory and
then find a way to prove it.”

55. Always, sometimes, never - say
why
A car will travel the same distance on any
surface if the starting force is the same.
Always, sometimes, never ?
A good friend listens to you.
Always, sometimes, never ?

56. Formative
Assessment
Effective
Self-peer-teacher
questioning
Feedback
Talk
Capturing interest
Learning objectives
Planning Success criteria
Excellence
A Learning culture
self-belief
meta-cognition

57. Learning objective: effective similes
Choose to include
alliteration
exaggeration
humour
powerful imagery
effective adjectives, adverbs, etc.

58. As soggy as a wet weekend in
Cl eet hor pes.
As eager as a t eacher at 3:30 on Fr iday.
As sur pr ising as r eceiving a bunch of
f l ower s f r omyour husband when it
isn’t your bir t hday!

59. S I M I L E S
As soggy as ...
As eager as ...
As surprising as ...

60. Formative
Assessment
Effective
Self-peer-teacher
questioning
feedback
Talk
Capturing interest
Learning
Planning objectives
Success criteria
Excellence
A learning culture
self-belief
meta-cognition

61. Understanding Formative Assessment
active learning not mechanistic strategies
Shirley Clarke
MEd, Hon DEd
Associate, Institute of Education
University of London