AfL and Target Setting

1. AfL and Target Setting JH – May 2009

2. Why do we mark work? • To evaluate our students’ progress. • To evaluate the success of our teaching. • To inform our students of how well they have understood. • To inform our next steps in planning. • To inform pupils of what they need to do next to improve.

3. What represents good practice in marking? • Work should be marked regularly by the teacher. • Work should be marked using National Curriculum levels , with an awareness of the student’s target level. • Where appropriate, students should mark and level their own and each other’s work (self and peer assessment): “Assessment for learning develops learners' capacity for self-assessment so that they can become reflective and self-managing” (QCA AfL Guidance). • Formative, written assessment should take place at least once every new term.

4. What is good formative marking? • “Assessment for learning should be sensitive and constructive because any assessment has an emotional impact. Teachers should be aware of the impact that comments, marks and grades can have on learners' confidence and enthusiasm and should be as constructive as possible in the feedback that they give.” Start with a positive: I really like the way you contribute to the lesson…”

5. “Assessment for learning should take account of the importance of learner motivation. Assessment that encourages learning fosters motivation by emphasising progress and achievement rather than failure… Motivation can be preserved and enhanced by assessment methods which protect the learner's autonomy, provide some choice and constructive feedback, and create opportunity for self-direction. “Really good use of connectives, now try to vary the adjectives that follow them and aim to make those adjectives agree”.

6. “Assessment for learning should recognise the full range of achievements of all learners: • Assessment for learning should be used to enhance all learners' opportunities to learn in all areas of educational activity. It should enable all learners to achieve their best and to have their efforts recognised.” • In writing formative comments, it is important to recognise that many students cannot meet our exacting standards as linguists. Formative comments we make must celebrate the achievements of all learners and targets set must be appropriately challenging.

7. Formative comments and target setting • Both teachers and students must be aware of target levels or grades and how to achieve those levels or grades. • Planned learning and teaching activities must provide access to students to the skills they need to develop in order to achieve (or exceed) target levels. “Assessment for learning should focus on how students learn. The process of learning has to be in the minds of both learner and teacher when assessment is planned and when the evidence is interpreted. Learners should become as aware of the 'how' of their learning as they are of the 'what'.” • Formative comments should relate to NC levels or GCSE grades and provide clear information on how to achieve (target setting). You are working at level 3a. To move to level 4, you need to be able to write 3 or 4 connected sentences from memory, including your opinions. Aim, too, to include a question in your work”.

8. Target Setting: • “Assessment for learning should promote commitment to learning goals and a shared understanding of the criteria by which they are assessed. • For effective learning to take place learners need to understand what it is they are trying to achieve - and want to achieve it... Communicating assessment criteria involves discussing them with learners using terms that they can understand, providing examples of how the criteria can be met in practice and engaging learners in peer and self-assessment.”

9. “Learners should receive constructive guidance about how to improve. Learners need information and guidance in order to plan the next steps in their learning. Teachers should: • pinpoint the learner's strengths and advise on how to develop them • be clear and constructive about any weaknesses and how they might be addressed • provide opportunities for learners to improve upon their work.

10. Our job is to plan, teach, mark work formatively and set targets for individual students. • “Assessment for learning should be regarded as a key professional skill for teachers. Teachers require the professional knowledge and skills to: plan for assessment; observe learning; analyse and interpret evidence of learning; give feedback to learners and support learners in self-assessment. “

11. “Assessment for learning should be recognised as central to classroom practice” • “Assessment for learning should promote commitment to learning goals and a shared understanding of the criteria by which they are assessed”