What if assessment informs learning?

This approach helps teachers on providing learners with relevant and timely information to support their development. Here are the five elements of the assessment for learning approach.

Assessment For Learning

The Five Elements

Assessments, exemplars & evidence are unpacked.
Criteria & options for assessment are
co-constructed.
A Question Mark
Reflection is valued
and given time.
Feed-back and
feed-forward is quality.
Learning is tracked & evidence is collated
and shared.

1

1

Assessments, exemplars & evidence are unpacked.

Which means that we as teachers
Analyse and evaluate students’ own assessments or results with them, as well as others’ exemplars & evidence to develop deeper understanding of what is required.
So that our learners
Use assessments to help move forward and set relevant goals; and have the skills to deconstruct to reconstruct.

Prioritise this if you want your learners to:

  • Be able to have a say in their own strengths and gaps.
  • Understand what level they are at and what they need to work on to achieve further.
  • Understand why they are learning what they are learning.
  • Use models & exemplars to have a deeper understanding of what they are learning.
  • See that their assessments are purposeful and used to inform learning.

2

2

Criteria & options for assessment are co-constructed.

Which means that we as teachers
Involve learners in coming up with criteria and markers that they can use to assess how they are going and their degree of success, and provide options in how they show their learning
So that our learners
Have a very clear picture of what is involved in the learning, and have options in how they show that learning

Prioritise this if you want your learners to:

  • Have a clear understanding of where they are heading and what is involved.
  • Break tasks down into more easy to manage steps.
  • Be more independent as they plan to complete set tasks.
  • Have the flexibility to show their learning in the way that works best for them.
  • Identify the levels they want to achieve and know what they need to do to achieve it.

3

3

Reflection is valued and given time.

Which means that we as teachers
Explicitly teach learners how to be reflective and give them regular time and opportunity to do so for their learning.
So that our learners
Deepen & improve their learning as they think about what they are doing, what they have done and what they can learn from it.

Prioritise this if you want your learners to:

  • Be more thoughtful about what they do.
  • Consider what they have done, how they could have done it better and what they can learn from the experience.
  • Have the skills & dispositions to become a more reflective person.
  • Reflect in the way that works best for them.
  • Develop increasing self awareness and acceptance.

4

4

Feed-back and feed-forward is quality.

Which means that we as teachers
Give specific, relevant information to learners about what they have done, and what they could do moving forward.
So that our learners
know exactly what they can do to improve what they are currently doing or what they can do next time.

Prioritise this if you want your learners to:

  • Know exactly what they can do to improve what they are currently doing or what they can do next time.
  • Value their effort as much as their achievement.
  • Be open to receiving feedback, not seeing it as criticism.
  • Be able to use feedback to drive themselves to improve.
  • Give each other constructive feedback & feed-forward.

5

5

Learning is tracked & evidence is collated and shared.

Which means that we as teachers
Help learners to keep up to date records that outline their learning focus, progress & achievement; and collate and explain evidence of this.
So that our learners
Understand how they are progressing, celebrate what they have achieved, & determine their next priorities, and share all of this with their parents & caregivers.

Prioritise this if you want your learners to:

  • Understand how they are progressing, celebrate what they have achieved, & determine their next priorities.
  • Have evidence of what they have done, that they can look back on and reflect on how far they have come.
  • Plan a balanced programme across learning areas.
  • Share their learning with their parents & caregivers.
  • Have more ownership over their progress and achievement.

What if there were resources to help you with assessment for learning?

We have created downloadable & printable resources for you to help your classroom become a place where students are engaged in assessment that is FORmative & inFORmal but highly inFORmative for both teachers and students and where ongoing assessment is used to help to reflect back and plan forward.

Resources

The Approaches

Information

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