Assessment
NSW syllabuses and support materials promote an integrated approach to teaching, learning and assessment. The purpose of assessment is to gather valid, reliable and useful information about student learning in order to:
- monitor student achievement in relation to outcomes
- guide future teaching and learning opportunities
- provide ongoing feedback to students to improve learning.
- outcomes being assessed
- evidence to be gathered
- teaching and learning activity
- context
- students’ learning needs.
A range of assessment strategies may assist teachers to:
- plan for and gather valid and reliable evidence of student learning
- consider a balance between informal and formal evidence.
- the extent of their knowledge, understanding and skills
- their learning using a range of resources and stimulus material, including ICT.
Teacher Observations
Teacher observations can provide information about student achievement in relation to outcomes. Evidence may be gathered and recorded formally and informally, where:
- informal observation and feedback occur during teaching and learning activities
- formal observation involves planning for an opportunity to observe specific learning outcomes.
Peer and self-assessment strategies can provide teachers with information to plan teaching and learning opportunities for students. Peer and self-assessment strategies can be formal or informal. Teachers may choose to incorporate peer and self-assessment into teaching, learning and assessment to assist students to develop a better understanding of themselves as learners. Peer and self-assessment can encourage students to reflect on their learning in relation to the outcomes, and recognise the next steps needed to improve their learning.
Peer Assessment
Teachers should model the appropriate language and clarify expectations for activities that incorporate peer feedback. Feedback may be oral, written or digital, and may provide an opportunity for students to develop their social, collaborative and reflective skills. Students may provide feedback to their peers about:
- what has been completed
- strengths and/or what aspects have been completed well
- suggestions to improve their work with reference to the learning and assessment intention
- alternative strategies to complete the activity.
Student self-assessment can help students to identify what they know, where they need to be and how to get there in their learning. Gathering information about the way students think and reflect on their learning can provide teachers with information to inform future teaching and learning. Strengthening the skills of self-assessment may enhance the ways students interpret feedback.
Self-evaluation encourages the development of metacognitive thinking as students reflect on themselves as learners and identify their learning style and how they learn best. It also encourages students to set learning goals in relation to syllabus outcomes, identify what they have learnt and what they still need to learn, and act on feedback. Portfolios, work samples and journals, including online journals, can support the reflective process where students can set goals, reflect on their goals and monitor their learning.
Collaborative Activities
Collaborative learning activities occur as a result of interaction between students engaged in the completion of a common task. Students work together, face-to-face and in or out of the classroom. They may use ICT to enable group discussion or complete collaborative tasks within their school, between schools, locally, nationally and internationally.
Inquiry-based Research Activities
Students can develop their critical and creative thinking skills when they are provided with opportunities to research, evaluate information, consider new ideas and make connections. Students can develop their research skills as they use information drawn from a range of sources, including the library, the internet, databases, spreadsheets and other digital resources. Teachers may use ICT collaboration tools (such as wikis, blogs and student moderated forum discussion) and graphic organisers to involve students in active thinking about relationships and associations.
Practical Activities
Practical activities can provide students with opportunities to pose questions, investigate, make decisions, manipulate and make observations. Students may work individually or in groups.
Presentations
Presentations provide students with opportunities to demonstrate their understanding to an audience. The format may be spoken or written, multimedia or a combination of these. Presentations may be prepared or impromptu, depending on the activity requirements. Peer and self-assessment may be used in conjunction with this assessment strategy.
Collections of Students Work
Assessment can enhance student engagement and motivation, particularly when it provides opportunities for interaction with teachers, other students and a range of resources. Collections of student work may be reviewed at specific points in the learning process to inform future teaching and learning opportunities or as summative assessment at the conclusion of a unit of work.
Assessment Schedule 2014
Term 1
Week 2, 3 - Benchmark Assessments.
1. SWST Year 6 SWST Year 5
2. SAST List A
3. Writing Task - Recount template
4. RPT Reading Year 5 and 6
4. Reading assessment Naplan 2010 Year 5
5. Numeracy assessment Naplan 2010 Year 5
6. Language assessment Naplan 2010 Year 5
Week 5 - History -
i) Group activity - play
ii) Timeline - Events that lead to Federation
iii)
iv)
Week 8 - Maths - Update Numeracy and Mathematics Continuum
Term 2
Week 1/2 - Mathletics Naplan Assessments
Week 3 - Naplan May 14-16
Week 8 - School-based half yearly diagnostic assessments
RPT Reading Test (TBC)
PAT Mathematics Test (TBC)
SWST - see Term 1
By Week 9 -
Poetry for Dorothea Mackellar Award Competition