AfL: pupil reflection on learning

Redhill School

Neil Matthews & Paul Crossley 14th July 2009

Starter: What is the common theme?

David Leat

‘Pupils believe that school is a place where young people come to watch old people work really hard’

Objectives

• To know the process by which AfL practice has been firmly embedded at Redhill

• To know a range of practical strategies for encouraging pupil reflection on learning

Outcomes

At the end of the session you will:

• have an understanding of the Redhill blueprint for developing AfL beyond ‘classroom’ pockets.

• have a number of practical strategies you can disseminate to colleagues

The Journey…

Know your stuff

Stage 1

Background knowledge and understanding is essential. If you don’t have this, acquire it or give the lead to someone who does have it.

We used the Black Box research and the AfL whole school training materials.

Assessment for Learning Key characteristics

Assessment for Learning is an essential part of teaching and learning and …

• involves sharing learning goals with pupils• aims to help pupils know and recognise the standards they are aiming for• involves pupils in peer and self-assessment• provides feedback which leads to pupils recognising their next steps and how to take them• involves both teacher and pupils reviewing, and reflecting on assessment information

Slowly, slowlycatchy monkey

Stage 2

We did not go whole school from the start. For Year 1 the ‘breeding ground’ was the Teaching and Learning group. Here experience was built up so the members could then start to operate as a filter.

‘That’s right Gary, the starter is at the beginning of

the lesson and the final plenary tends to be at the end’

Get learning objectives andoutcomes right

Stage 3

Are we nearly there yet?

Now that’s what I call magic …

…. and that’s all there is to it!!!

Something for the visual learners

Definitions

Learning Objectives

What the teacher intends pupils to learn: knowledge, concept or skill

Learning Outcomes

How achievement will be demonstrated by pupils and measured by the teacher: what

does success ‘look like’?

Learning outcomes help teachers and pupils recognise achievement and support assessment and planning

e.g. All pupils write a description of the work done by women during the war

Most pupils write an explanation of how work done during the war changed attitudes towards votes for women

Some pupils write an evaluation of the importance of war work in securing votes for women

Learning objectives for lessons in ‘pupil speak’ involve pupils in the assessment process and promote independent learning

e.g. To know how the role of women changed during the War

To understand how war work changed attitudes toward votes for Women

Teaching objectives are from frameworks, the syllabus or units of study and help teachers provide pupils with the ‘big picture’

 e.g. Votes for Women - Pupils should be taught about the role of women during the First World War and analyse and evaluate the impact of war work on

political, social and cultural attitudes

Making learning objectives precise

For students to:

• know that … (knowledge: factual information, e.g. names, places, symbols, formulae, events)

• understand how/why … (understanding: concepts, reasons, effects, principles, processes, etc.)

• be able to … (skills: using knowledge, applying techniques, analysing information, etc.)

Working through

the modules

Stage 4

Peer and Self Assessment: How can we help each other to improve?

The sharing of success criteria is crucial

… or ‘making the invisible visible’

Why did Hurricane Katrina cause such enormous damage?

The main reason Hurricane Katrina caused so much devastation was the lack of money invested by the American government. Firstly, New Orleans depends on its levees because 80% of it is built on a delta or flood plain which makes it prone to flooding. Over time, the levées have been damaged and money was not invested in repairing them. As a result the high water levels created by Katrina could not be held back. Secondly, the hurricane prediction facilities which did exist in New Orleans were inadequate. This had a devastating impact because the correct position of the hurricane could not be determined. Consequently people were not properly evacuated and over 10,000 people died. Clearly the US government let down its people as a lack of investment in hurricane study and damage limitation strategies left New Orleans completely unprepared for Katrina.

Add these labels to the correct box

A. Sequencing words

B. Answer focuses directly on the question straight away

C. Use of statistics

D. Adding words

E. A sentence to sum up the key reasons for devastation

F. Geography words

G. Explaining connectives are used

H. Knock on effects

The main reason Hurricane Katrina caused so much devastation was the lack of money invested by the American government. Firstly, New Orleans depends on its levees because 80% of it is built on a delta or flood plain which makes it prone to flooding. Over time, the levées had been damaged and money was not invested in repairing them. As a result the high water levels created by Katrina could not be held back. Secondly, the hurricane prediction facilities which did exist in New Orleans were inadequate. This had a devastating impact because the correct position of the hurricane could not be determined. Consequently people were not properly evacuated and over 10,000 people died. Clearly the US government let down its people as a lack of investment in hurricane study and damage limitation strategies left New Orleans completely unprepared for Katrina.

Answer focuses directly on the question straight away

Geog words

Knock on effects

A sentence to sum up key reasons for devastation

Sequencing words

Explaining connectives are used

Use of statistics

Adding words

Lots of practice at key skills is essential for giving pupils a tangible grasp of what quality and success look like.

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

1 because ….

2 because or due to ….

9because and therefore…

Out of the mouths… talk to the students

Here are some comments from Y7 students who tried peer assessment.

Some interesting issues emerged.

“I don’t like people to feel upset so chritism was hard but I tried to be as positive as possible. Other students had good ideas and I could improve my work with some of their ideas” Molly

“I thought it was good because other people can assess my work not just teachers but I didn’t like people seeing negative things in my work e.g. spelling mistakes” Adam

“I was unsure about what to say unless you offend people. I learnt that I had missed some things out but other people missed things I had done” Aleah

“I learnt that mine wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. I didn’t like someone I bearly know looking at my work!” Tom

“If people look at your work they can lead you ferver. They can give you avice. It about working together and working with someone you don’t like” Reece

“I think all the writing was boring” Ashleigh“I learnt that everyone can make mistakes and not everyone’s perfect. Spelling mistakes don’t mean everything” Holly

“Zak’s work helped me learn more bout battering rams” Ryan

“I didn’t want to constantly give someone a low score. I had to give them a low score so they can improve and think about it. I would give someone a little comment to encourage them. It’s OK to make mistakes”

Stacey Year 7

Written and oral feedback. This was linked to learning objectives and driven by specific comments rather than numbers.

Your work is very good!

Good try!Poor work!

Why don’t you try harder?

Non-specific

Specific

+-

Develop a reflective ethos

Stage 5

Meaningful reflection on learning. This has been in place for a while but initially it was fairly low key and small scale.

Traffic Lights

Thumbs up!

Talk Partners & Post-its

Graphic Organisers

Block Review

 

What I am already good at

Features of a good explanation

My targets

Key connective

s

Subject vocabular

y

Focus on question

right from the start

Sum up key

point(s) at the end

Using the Learning Space

So you should be well into your Stats revision by now. Everyone

was keen to keep using the exam papers when we discussed it last

week. Do you still want to continue this method of revision after

half term?

I think it will work best if you’re handing them in prior to the

lesson, like this week, so I can mark them and then give feedback

the following lesson. What do you lot think?

Yeah.

I would like to do some more practice questions as a group. I find

going through the problem stage by stage with class contribution

helps me more. With tests they confuse me and sometimes I just can't

see whats staring me right in the face! I would like to go over how to

derive the actual problem at hand from a worded question as

sometimes I have trouble with this. Don't know if it's just me but ...?

Warren 6Daniel 5 Nikita 4

Going wholeschool

Stage 6

Whole School Inset. Ideally this would have been in May but it was held in October of Year 2. It was a combination of outside expertise and Redhill staff from the Teaching & Learning group.

AfL was made high profile in a number of ways. • Materials were accessible on the website • It was the central element in the school development plan • It was included in all Departmental SEFs• It had to be one of the Performance Management targets for every member of staff• It was the main focus of the school’s Short Notice Review

By placing AfL under the spotlight for 4 years it has been successfully embedded