Teaching & Learning Matters

NAPLAN 2019

Please see the letter below for information regarding NAPLAN in 2019.

Learning in Stage 4 at St Pius X College

MAXIMISING TEACHER FEEDBACK AND BUILDING A CULTURE OF REFLECTION AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Dear Parents

To further develop our St Pius X community to be critical and creative thinkers who are resilient and passionate about learning, we are providing a structured opportunity for our Year 7 and 8 students to take responsibility for their learning through self-assessment and evaluation.  In 2020, this will be further extended into Year 9.

• Teachers spend much time and effort providing what they believe is effective feedback.
• Research has demonstrated that any positive potential of feedback is negated when a mark or grade is included.
• Dylan Wiliam has written extensively on student learning and his principles are the foundation of what is described below. The following link will access one of his papers that includes research on effective feedback, the use of marking criteria and student self evaluation.                                      

Research Link

This process has 5 key steps:

1. Assessment Tasks are returned to students with annotated feedback but without a Mark or Grade.  A blank marking criteria sheet is included.
2. Students read annotations and reflect on their own achievement level using the marking criteria.
3. Once students have completed their own assessment, they then receive the teacher marking guidelines and compare.
4. Students then complete a reflection broadly based on:

              I think I did well in ...

              I think I need to improve on ...

              To improve, I will ...

1. Students take their completed evaluation and marked assessment task home to their parents.

ASSESSMENT FOR & AS LEARNING

By commencing in Year 7 and Year 8 we build a culture where students become more focused on improving their ‘understanding’ and what they need to do to improve  rather than focusing on  ‘marks’ that will do little to improve their learning.

In addition to maximising Teacher Feedback, self-assessment and evaluation are integral elements of  Assessment FOR and AS learning which is the framework for assessment as stipulated by NESA.  Some of the key elements are:

Assessment FOR Learning

• reflects a view of learning in which assessment helps students learn better, rather than just achieve a better mark
• provides effective feedback that motivates the learner and can lead to improvement
• reflects a belief that all students can improve
• encourages self-assessment
• involves teachers, students and parents reflecting on evidence

Assessment AS learning

• encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning
• requires students to ask questions about their learning

Further information is available from

https://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/support-materials/assessment-for-as-and-of-learning/

If you have any questions regarding this initiative, please do not hesitate to contact me at the College.

Mr Alex Damo - Assistant Principal Teaching and Learning