Assessment for Learning

The Toolkit

Concocted by Andy Brumby
edited by Pete Crawley

Title: Apr 23­11:41 (1 of 48)
Title: Apr 22­15:15 (2 of 48)
Title: Apr 22­15:16 (3 of 48)
Title: Apr 22­15:44 (4 of 48)
Title: Apr 22­15:08 (5 of 48)
Title: Apr 22­15:08 (6 of 48)
Title: Apr 22­15:09 (7 of 48)
Title: Apr 22­15:09 (8 of 48)
Title: Apr 22­15:10 (9 of 48)
Title: Apr 22­15:10 (10 of 48)
Title: Apr 22­15:11 (11 of 48)
 Raising standards through assessment

Learning 
Use questioning in plenary Questioning 
Objectives  to check pupils have achieved
   objectives

Pupils are better
equipped to deal 
Comments must be with this difficult
related to the task if they have
objectives  Developing and  Help pupils to  good questioning skills.
directing your  recognise what 
questions is a form successful work 
of oral feedback.  looks like. 

You model good feedback Peer and self 
Oral and Written  skills for the pupils to  assessment
feedback  develop their own 

Title: Apr 22­15:51 (12 of 48)
 Objectives & learning outcomes
Do your pupils know what they are intended to learn and what success will look like?

Title: Apr 23­11:55 (13 of 48)
 The Common Mantras: WALT     WILF      TIBS

We
Are learning objective ‐ what the teacher intends pupils to learn
Learning
To
What
I'm learning outcome ‐ how achievement will be demonstrated
Looking
For

This
Is the "big picture" ‐ how it relates to prior / future learning or real life

Becau Se

Title: Feb 28­15:17 (14 of 48)
 Process Success Criteria
• To avoid objectives and outcomes that are about activities, not learning, try this.
• Separate out the skill/knowledge that you want pupils to learn from the context you will use. For example;

Title: Apr 23­11:55 (15 of 48)
 Useful verbs for writing objectives
Look for the verb which fits best with your objective …
… then move down the column to make the objective more challenging

Title: Apr 23­11:57 (16 of 48)
Title: Apr 23­12:01 (17 of 48)
 Strategies to ensure pupils engage with learning objectives and 
outcomes

• Using a catchy starter activity to link with the lesson’s objectives.

• Presenting objectives as a question, a conundrum or a challenge to hook them in.

• Sticking to only one or two clearly focused objectives. 

• Asking pupils questions about the objectives.

• Giving pupils the learning objectives and then letting them decide how they will 
show that learning? (They choose the outcomes).

• Using modelling to show what a successful learning outcome looks like.

Title: Apr 23­10:38 (18 of 48)
 Strategies for discussing learning objectives and checking pupils 
understand them:

• Questioning pupils about their understanding of the objective by asking about 
prior learning.

• Asking pupils to RANT in small groups (Record, Accept, Number, Time) about 
what they think the learning objective means or to RANT in small groups 
about their understanding of a key term used in the objective.

• Getting pupils to explain the objective in their own words to the class or to a 
partner.

• Using KWL tables and asking pupils to complete the first column (Know 
already) about what they already know about the learning objective and then 
to complete the second column (Want to know).  At the end of the lesson, or 
at points within the lesson, pupils can then complete the final column 
(Learned) to write down what they have learnt.

A4 Thinking Skills sheet

Title: Apr 23­10:39 (19 of 48)
 Strategies to help pupils recognise the standards they are aiming 
for 

• Modelling how to produce a good one.

• Showing and discussing good examples and bad examples.

• Teacher led discussion about what the success criteria might be.

A3 example sheet

Title: Apr 23­10:42 (20 of 48)
Title: Apr 23­10:44 (21 of 48)
 QUESTIONING

Title: Apr 23­11:37 (22 of 48)
 Questioning
What makes questions effective?
• Put two or three key questions in your plan. Sequence the questions to  get 
increasingly challenging.

• Link questions to the learning objectives (you could put them in the  scheme of 
work)

• Teach basic skills through questions that break the skill down into small  steps

• Have more open, higher order questions than anything else

• Phrase closed questions so that they are low risk (eg instead of saying  “What 
is the answer?” say “What do you think the answer might  be?”)

• Give pupils opportunities to ask their own questions

• Give pupils the opportunity to feedback to each other

• Make sure that risks are acceptable in your classroom

Title: Apr 23­10:50 (23 of 48)
Title: Apr 23­10:54 (24 of 48)
Title: Apr 23­10:55 (25 of 48)
Title: Apr 23­10:55 (26 of 48)
 Dialogic questioning
What does questioning look like in your department? Does it most resemble table tennis or 
volleyball? 

Teacher to pupil to teacher interaction (ping‐pong‐ping…)

• Sense of teacher seeking the right answer to predominantly closed questions e.g. factual recall, procedures 

• Reliance on Hands up

• Limited waiting time before and after pupil response

• Responses are typically brief, often one word or phrase

• Few opportunities for pupils to discuss questions in pairs or small groups

• Few opportunities for pupils to build on and/or constructively challenge each other’s responses

• Question/answer sessions dominated by a small number of “enthusiasts”

• Very few opportunities for pupils to formulate their own questions

• Some pupils are reluctant to offer contributions for fear of being mocked by peers if they get it wrong

Title: Apr 23­10:57 (27 of 48)
 Badminton, squash, rugby, volleyball: 
which is the odd one out, and why?

 I’ll give you two minutes to discuss that 
with your partner and then I’ll take some 
feedback
 

Title: Apr 23­11:00 (28 of 48)
 Key features of volleyball questioning

Teacher to pupil to pupil to pupil interaction

• Teachers plan sequences of questions e.g. break down a big, open question into subsidiary questions, or 
plan questions that are increasingly challenging in terms of thinking skills

• Teachers appear to be more interested in finding out what learners think and why rather than the right 
answer

• Teachers avoid Hands up preferring strategies that involve all pupils in formulating a response e.g. Think, 
pair, share

• Teachers increase the amount of waiting time before and after pupil response

• Pupils are frequently asked to discuss questions with their response partners before feeding back to the 
class

• Pupils are actively encouraged to build on and/or constructively challenge answers given by their peers

• Pupils are invited to devise their own questions and to analyse them

• Pupils are prepared to take risks because teacher values wrong answers as useful for learning

Title: Apr 23­11:01 (29 of 48)
 Oral and written feedback…

Feedback
Identifying learners’ strengths and giving clear constructive advice on areas for improvement

Title: Apr 23­11:05 (30 of 48)
Title: Apr 23­11:07 (31 of 48)
 Written feedback

Is it really worth the time it takes?

Title: Apr 23­11:07 (32 of 48)
 Written feedback must include:

• Where the pupil has met the objectives and/or success criteria
• Where the pupil still needs to improve
• A way to improve learning
• A way to think through the answer for themselves

Title: Apr 23­11:23 (33 of 48)
 Good written feedback

To be effective feedback ­ oral or written ­ should cause thinking  to take place

Title: Apr 23­11:25 (34 of 48)
 Self and Peer Assessment
Pupils reflecting on their work and working out how to improve it

Title: Apr 23­11:05 (35 of 48)
Title: Apr 23­11:28 (36 of 48)
Title: Apr 23­11:30 (37 of 48)
Title: Apr 23­11:35 (38 of 48)
Title: Apr 23­11:35 (39 of 48)
Title: Apr 23­11:37 (40 of 48)
 TARGET SETTING & ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

Title: Feb 27­20:54 (41 of 48)
 WHY BOTHER TO CHANGE?

Both teachers and students have grown up in a learning environment in

which the work is completed and handed to an adult.
Words of wisdom are passed down - sometimes relating to notional
standards.
How do these help the students advance their thinking and learning
knowing that: •    /                50%
•                                
•                          
•                         
•                          

Do these allow he student to see what he / she has to do to ensure

progress?
Students also clearly see it as our responsibility to judge their work,
not a shared responsibility.

Title: Feb 27­22:02 (42 of 48)
 UNDERSTANDING ASSESSMENT

The key to this are SUCCESS CRITERIA.

Simply these are reminders of what a good piece of work will contain.

Students need to be able to VISUALISE what a good piece of work will

look like before they start.

To do this we need to spend some of our teaching time to build up the

skills needed to judge the difference between average and very good.

Title: Feb 27­22:32 (43 of 48)
 Target setting

For key pieces of work in KS3, ( usually summative assesment or levelled assessments) work is returned
with scores, grades or levels if appropriate, as well as comments and targets. Comments usually refer to
what the students hasdone well as well as how the studentcould improve their work next time.
We refer students to a target sheet (which should be glued into the front of every exercise book in the
Curriculum Area, and has already been explained) with a code. T standing for TARGET, followed by:
D = DESCRIBE
X = EXPLAIN
K = KNOWLEDGE
E = ENQUIRY
M = MAPS & PRESENTATION

These vary according to the subject.

Pupils find the target code on the sheet and then write this into their book, in the first person, after the
teacher comment.
Then they write a response to this stating how they intend to achieve their target. They are encouraged to
discuss this with a partner.
This target is reviewed by the teacher after future tasks.
They are also used on reports, used as a starting point for individual progress reviews with the teacher.

Title: Feb 27­21:11 (44 of 48)
Title: Feb 27­21:14 (45 of 48)
 BUILDING THE SKILLS

• The teacher has to model the process.

•
• The students have to develop the language of talking about learning
•
• Have the chance to try it out in a secure environment
•
• Have the chance to improve their work through use of success criteria.

Success criteria fall into 2 camps - lesson based and assessment based.

Title: Feb 27­22:38 (46 of 48)
 LESSON BASED SUCCESS CRITERIA

You have planned the lesson, set the learning outcomes, but because
learning is often invisible you have probably set some kind of task that
allows the nature of the learning to be revealed.

This is a good point to stop and reflect with the students what the task
might look like if it is well performed.

For example, the task is to give a geographical description of arable farming in

Eastern England.  
WHAT WOULD A GROUP DESCRIPTION ENTAIL?

Not a simple or mediocre one, but one which is thoughtful and detailed, and
of a high standard?

Title: Feb 28­14:47 (47 of 48)
Title: Apr 23­11:40 (48 of 48)