Assessment for Learning: Embedding Excellence and Consistency

"Assessment that clearly identifies pupils' starting points and understanding, checks progress, establishes what has been learnt and can inform the next steps in learning is at the core of good and outstanding teaching." The Annual Report of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector, 2010-11, November 2011 Assessment for Learning: embedding excellence and consistency shows how to use Assessment for Learning (AfL) to improve the quality of teaching and learning throughout your school. It looks in detail at what makes AfL work and gives real examples of techniques and strategies that your staff can apply in their teaching. With detailed commentaries on lesson observations and individual strategies it will help you to: develop a consistent yet tailored approach to AfL across your school enable your pupils to develop as autonomous, reflective, critical learners, while measuring up to national curriculum and public examination standards make links between pupils' learning and teachers' professional development encourage a more reflective teaching staff and learner-led classrooms. Skilled consultant and trainer John Blanchard demonstrates how AfL can work in all subjects and how even in a packed curriculum it can and should be central to teaching and learning. Brand-new: part of the Optimus Education D-I-Y (deliver it yourself) training portfolio!

Table of Contents:
Summary of contents Section 1: Approaches to AfL Section 1 sets out the territory: defining key terms, giving a brief research context, summarising AfL's main features, and addressing reservations held by some colleagues. Key concepts and principles provide a clear, firm foundation. Crucial to this is the distinction between formative and summative forms of assessment. Section 2: Leading development in your team and across your school Section 2 gives guidance for team leaders, school leaders, development facilitators and trainers. It helps you make decisions about: what matters most; how to keep track of progress and judge results; who should do what; what to change; and what to do immediately and in the mid- to long-term. The focus is on working together to develop carefully thought-through, explicit, progressive strategy. Section 3: Examples of AfL across the curriculum from lesson observations Section 3 presents 22 lesson observations across 10 subject groupings, showing teachers and students using a range of AfL methods according to circumstance and capacity. You can see how AfL contributes to conscientious and effective teaching in diverse contexts. Section 4: Teaching toward autonomy Section 4 builds on the detailed observations given in Section 3. It presents a systematic analysis of the strategies used in those lessons. You are encouraged to consider where your strengths are, and what you might focus on in action research and development. A 12-fold schema emphasises the why as well as the how of AfL methods, enabling you to adapt these to meet your students' learning styles, needs and aspirations. Section 5: Things to work on Section 5 focuses on the 'nuts and bolts' of AfL methods. There are detailed explanations of things to try. You can choose specific materials from this section to trial in your lessons and across your team or school. Section 6: Helping your students to learn to learn Section 6 digs a little deeper, and shows how your students can learn to learn. Consideration is given to how students differ in background and attitude, and how they might need different approaches. Section 7: Further research Section 7 presents a range of research references which have informed this resource, setting out topics for further enquiry and experimentation. Section 8: Developing AfL: Preparation and leadership In this section we provide prepared training resources, based on section 2, for the team in charge of leading on assessment for learning. This section includes PowerPoint slides, reflective questions, notes on facilitating the sessions and a framework for forming action plans. Section 9: Developing AfL: Working together to teach well In this section we provide prepared training resources, based on sections 3 to 6, to disseminate to teachers across the school or within a department. The objective is to encourage individual teachers to prioritise assessment for learning in their teaching. The section includes PowerPoint slides, reflective questions, notes on facilitating the sessions and a framework for forming action plans.