Perfect Assessment for Learning (The Perfect Series) - Hardcover

Gadsby, Claire

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1781350027 ISBN 13: 9781781350027

Publisher: Independent Thinking Press, 2013

Synopsis

A simple "how-to" guide for improving achievement by implementing sustainable Assessment for Learning in schools. Includes how to shift staff culture to embed great practice, helping children own their own learning, effective use of learning objectives, and working well with parents.

Perfect Assessment for Learning takes the busy teacher through a range of
strategies to ensure that assessment, progress and learning are inextricably linked.

“Perfect Assessment for Learning provides us with a very
thorough and clear explanation of Afl and puts it well and truly at the heart of school improvement in terms of developing outstanding teaching and learning. I am sure that anyone who is interested in improving learning in their classrooms and schools will find this a stimulating, practical and very effective resource.”
Linda Dawson, Deputy Head Teacher, The Bemrose School, Derby

“This simple, straightforward and easy to digest book reminds us of our responsibility as teachers to ensure that students are making progress and then sends us on our way with a staggering array of inventive learning tools to put the message into practice. An essential addition to the Perfect series: recommended.”
David Didau, Director of Learning and Literacy at Clevedon School

“This is an excellent and practical book which should be readily available for use by all staff in schools – senior managers and the teaching and learning coaches team in particular. Used well, Claire Gadsby’s practical ideas will enhance teaching and learning.”
Mo Laycock OBE, Former Head Teacher

Claire Gadsby is a freelance education consultant, trainer and keynote speaker. She has more than 15 years of teaching experience and was head of English at her last school. She prides herself on being very close to the realities of life in the classroom and regularly team-teaches or delivers demonstration lessons for teachers to observe and critique.

About this title

About the Author

Claire Gadsby is a freelance education consultant, trainer and keynote speaker. She has more than 15 years of teaching experience and was Head of English at her last school. She prides herself on being very close to the realities of life in the classroom and regularly team-teaches or delivers demonstration lessons for teachers to observe and critique.
www.clairegadsby.com

Jackie Beere, Head teacher at Campion School, Northants until 2006, is now a consultant, trainer and School Improvement Partner. She spent three years as an Advanced Skills Teacher leading and implementing innovative teaching and learning initiatives including KS3 and 4 Learning to Learn and Thinking Skills programmes. She was awarded the OBE in November 2002 for services to education, having trained many teachers and school leaders in the latest theory and practice of learning to learn and emotional intelligence.
www.jackiebeere.com

From the Back Cover

Perfect Assessment for Learning takes the busy teacher through a range of
strategies to ensure that assessment, progress and learning are inextricably linked.

“Perfect Assessment for Learning provides us with a very
thorough and clear explanation of Afl and puts it well and truly at the heart of school improvement in terms of developing outstanding teaching and learning. I am sure that anyone who is interested in improving learning in their classrooms and schools will find this a stimulating, practical and very effective resource.”
Linda Dawson, Deputy Head Teacher, The Bemrose School, Derby

“This simple, straightforward and easy to digest book reminds us of our responsibility as teachers to ensure that students are making progress and then sends us on our way with a staggering array of inventive learning tools to put the message into practice. An essential addition to the Perfect series: recommended.”
David Didau, Director of Learning and Literacy at Clevedon School

“This is an excellent and practical book which should be readily available for use by all staff in schools – senior managers and the teaching and learning coaches team in particular. Used well, Claire Gadsby’s practical ideas will enhance teaching and learning.”
Mo Laycock OBE, Former Head Teacher

Claire Gadsby is a freelance education consultant, trainer and keynote speaker. She has more than 15 years of teaching experience and was head of English at her last school. She prides herself on being very close to the realities of life in the classroom and regularly team-teaches or delivers demonstration lessons for teachers to observe and critique.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Excerpt from The Perfect Assessment for Learning

Foreword:

Once upon a time there was a land where teachers went into school on a Monday with a couple of bullet points written in their diary with ideas of what they may teach that week. As the week progressed a few annotations may have been added to note what work had been completed and where the learning would go next. The names of children who needed to work a bit harder or could take the lead next lesson may even have been added. Occasionally, an interesting idea about homework tasks may have found its way in. And this, my friends, was my planning diary in 1979.

My results were good and getting better each year I taught. However, I look back in amazement at how random and anecdotal teaching was in those early days. ‘Teach one of these texts and let the work grow from there’ my Head of Department told me. How different teaching is now – and how much more rigorous is our planning and assessing to ensure our pupils learn effectively. Much of that essential rigour is now delivered through using Assessment for Learning.

If Assessment for Learning is the answer, what is the question?

How can every teacher ensure that every pupil makes progress?

Every child making optimum progress in every classroom in the land is the hope and dream of all those involved in education from Ofsted and the Minister for Education, to the teacher slogging away planning their lessons on a Sunday afternoon. Consequently, teachers ensure that lessons have clear objectives, build in self and peer assessment and include a plenary which measures progress. They also plan their next lesson to ensure progression for all abilities. So what’s not to like?

Well, like all prescriptive models of great practice, this can become just a ticklist of ideas to be included in lesson plans. But teachers rarely engage effectively with formative assessment as a learning process in the lesson. To really engage with formative assessment you have to be a teacher who has your metaphoric antennae tuned in to what is really happening in your classroom. Are those kids really engaged with that objective or just writing it down out of habit? Do they actually know what progress is in your subject? Or do they just
have the customary target sheets stuck in the front of their books with little or no understanding of what they need to do to improve? Do the pupils find that peer assessment really gives them feedback that helps them move on – or does it
just give the class know-all an opportunity to remind them how inadequate their handwriting is? Does the plenary really tell the teacher whether every individual child has ‘got it’?

How can it if the quiet child at the back holds up their whiteboard with the answer on so that the teacher can’t properly see it? Is your ‘marking’ really making a difference to the progress being made over time for every child? Or do
they glance briefly at the grade you give them and move on to the next thing?

Just planning to use assessment for learning strategies will not give you an assurance that your lesson is outstanding. You need to really care and get curious about what is happening in your classroom and relentlessly go on a quest to find out – by getting feedback from the pupils and noticing what they are doing. The great strength of this book is that it suggests a huge range of ideas and methods to measure progress and empower pupils to take ownership of their own progress. If you use the myriad of strategies in this book you will grow your instincts about the learning happening inside your classroom. As Claire says, progress happens in their heads – if you can tune in using her techniques you will be helping every child make the most of their ability and using assessment as learning.

And that is what I call a happy ending.

Jackie Beere, Tiffield 2012

Edition details

• Publisher: Independent Thinking Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1781350027
• ISBN 13: 9781781350027
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 144
• Editor: Beere Jackie