Assessment

Most students are only in school for a number of weeks, which means that they aren't able to appreciate the full 'assessment' picture. This guide to assessment in the primary school seeks to redress this, providing students and teacher trainers with an overview of how assessment works. It is useful for those involved in primary education.

Introduction; Guide to the book; Further reading; 1. Assessment and its purposes; 2. Assessment Types; 3. Assessment through the Year; 4. Learning and Assessment: The Teacher's Role; 5. Learning and assessment: Implications for Assessment; 6. The daily formative process: assessment at the centre of learning; 7. Creating time to formatively assess; 8. Creating opportunities for greater participation; 9. Questioning Strategies to Promote Engagement; 10. Constructive Feedback; 11. Record Keeping. Introduction; Guide to the book; Further reading; 1. Assessment and its purposes; Introduction; Assessment as a process; Accountability; Layers of Accountability; The School Improvement Agenda; Uses of data collected for accountability; Public expectations; A school for a child; the parents' or carers' choice; Teachers and other school staff; The Local Authority view; Ofsted's approach; The impact of National Tests; The Teacher's role and Assessment; Pupils' inner needs and assessment; Summary; 2. Assessment Types; Introduction: Summative and formative assessment; Summative assessment; Formative assessment; Diagnostic assessment; Ipsative assessment; Summary; 3. Assessment through the Year; Introduction; Tests and examinations; Assessment through the year; Introductory Information; The daily formative assessment; First meeting with parents or carers; Half-term review; End of Term; End of Year; Transfer; Case Study: Managing assessment in a Nursery Infant School; The appraoch to assessment; Developing the appraoch; Recording assessment in the classroom; The half-term review; Reporting to parents and carers; 4. Learning and Assessment: The Teacher's Role; Introduction; Inner Needs and External Control; Teacher's Goals; Teacher in control approach; Teacher as guide approach; View of children; View of learning; Summary; 5. Learning and assessment: Implications for Assessment; Introduction: Implications for assessment; Open formative assessment. Rewards and Feedback; Using both approaches; Is school based learning different?; Teach less, more thoroughly; Teach children how to learn; Summary; 6. The daily formative process: assessment at the centre of learning; Introduction; The day to day promotion of formative assessment as a process; Summary; 7. Creating time to formatively assess; Introduction; Adjusting medium term planning; Using formative assessment in the lesson and lesson evaluation; Allowing response time for homework remarks and other marking; Allowing response time for individual targets; Responding to individuals in class; Summary; 8. Creating opportunities for greater participation; Introduction; Teaching strategies to encourage discourse; Clear learning objectives; Providing more discursive and decision making situations through pupil working styles and task types; Summary; 9. Questioning Strategies to Promote Engagement; Introduction; Pupils' responses to questioning; A repertoire of question types; Response time; Applying questioning strategies to stages of a lesson; Teaching a new learning objective; Whole class review of a learning objective; Group work; The plenary; Getting the pupils to ask the questions; The quality of the questions and question sequences; Summary; 10. Constructive Feedback; Introduction; Constructive feedback; Reward - valuing learning rather than grading?; Feedback during the session; Clear marking criteria and related, constructive feedback; Feedback in the form of grades; Action plans and target setting; Creating pupils who can self-assess through pupil strategies; Assessment and evaluation; Pupil self evaluation; Summary; 11. Record Keeping; Introduction; Informal record keeping; Using ICT to record. Recording for classroom management; Records are not a guarantee of secured pupil knowledge; Records for others - reporting; A word of warning; Profiles; Profile of best work; Profile of pupil progress; Pupil ownership; A shared profile; The class teacher using records to support learning; Summary; References; Appendix 1.