Assessment Feedback Lessons

With a little time having passed between the end of term and now, and with my mind turning its attention back to work mode, I've had a little time to collect my thoughts about leaving and come back to assessment feedback lessons.

Not every assessment feedback lesson can be ideal, due to time constraints, school events, school holidays, lack of technology, and other issues, but this is where my thinking is at in terms of how I'd like to do assessment feedback moving forward.

1. Assessment is completed.

2. Assessment is marked and scores are entered into a QLA document.

3. 'WAGOLL' provided to pupils.

4. Key points are fed back.

5. Identified areas are revisited.

Each of these steps is briefly outlined below.

1. Pupils sit the assessment. There's an argument that sitting assessments is a poor use of curriculum time, and whilst I see that all classroom time would be best spent teaching pupils content, I also want my assessment data to be as reliable as possible. For me, this is that it's sat in (as close as possible to) exam conditions, in front of me, so I know that I can trust it.

2. Marking is time-consuming, but when it comes to assessments, I think this is an appropriate use of time. I want to see the misconceptions that pupils still hold, I want to be able to feedback on common incorrect answers and the remedies for these, and I want to see the effort that pupils are putting in terms of resilience (answering every question) and presentation (taking pride in their work).

QLAs also seem to split the profession, but I like them. I get a feeling for how well pupils have done on a specific question when I mark, but after QLA'ing, I get cold, hard data that I can use to direct my intentions, and I love cold, hard data.

I don't see much value in the QLA document only providing information to the teacher, so I like my QLA to provide a printout for each pupil to give them a visual representation of their scores (in terms of Red, Amber and Green). This printout will also include three questions that are directed at the pupil, identified as being the three most important questions that I'd like them to be getting correct. Some pupils may have more that I want them to be getting correct, but these are the priorities.

I've been working on a new QLA spreadsheet recently, to 'supercharge' the information that I get. I might blog about that at another time.

3. If you're unaware, 'WAGOLL' stands for 'What a Good One Looks Like'. This could be in the form of a handwritten completed assessment, or it could be in the form of me completing the assessment on video. It could even be pictures of their own work, collated, to make a 'Best Of...' compilation. This allows pupils to re-engage with the questions and see what their answers should have been. The improvement in tech over recent years would probably see this uploaded to Google Classroom for pupils to access.

4. Whilst completing the QLA and preparing individualised printouts, I identified three key questions for pupils to complete, but in doing so, I've identified all of the key areas of deficiency within the understanding of my class. 

In my assessment feedback lesson, I would be sharing common wrong answers, why they're wrong, and what pupils should have done, and what's important here is that I'll follow this up with an opportunity for them to correct their mistakes in the form of example-problem pairs or backward faded activities. 'Going through the paper' with pupils annotating with the correct answers isn't enough - copying doesn't engage pupils in thinking, so it's important that we follow this up with pupils having something to 'do' with the feedback.

Following the example-problem pairs and backward faded activities pupils will be given their scores and printouts (these have been held back to increase curiosity and engagement), and the time to complete their targeted questions mimicking the exam conditions, allowing pupils to be successful with something that they previously weren't. I'll then mark these questions to check whether pupils have responded to the feedback they have been given.

5. The most important part of these lessons is that they should be focused on learning, rather than performance. We should all be well aware that simply because pupils are getting questions correct, doesn't mean that they've learnt it. Learning happens over time, rather than in the moment. With this in mind, it's important to provide opportunities for pupils to revisit this understanding at spaced intervals, to maximise the chance of pupils learning this stuff rather than just performing with it in the moment. I'd be adding these to my medium-term plans, to incorporate spaced retrieval opportunities a day later, a week later, a month later and three months later.

My aim is to provide pupils with many opportunities with which to learn from their mistakes. The 'WAGOLL' gives pupils who are keen and enthusiastic the opportunity to engage with the whole assessment. The individualised printout forces those who are less keen and less enthusiastic to engage with key material. The spacing of the ideas in terms of retrieval is the key aspect here, as learning occurs over time and performance is a poor proxy for learning. I want pupils to perform with the ideas many times, in multiple representations, which will imply that they've learnt the idea that they were previously struggling with.

This blog felt a little quick and short. If you have any queries, or if you have any suggestions to enhance this procedure in any way, please let me know how!