Northern Ireland Revised Curriculum Professional Development Programme Course Handbook Year 5

1. Northern Ireland Revised Curriculum Professional Development Programme Course Handbook Year 5 Assessment for Learning

2. Contents Programme for day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Links between AfL and Personal Development & Mutual Understanding . . . . . . . . . 3 Links between AfL and Thinking Skills & Personal Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Constructivism ~ the work of Carol Dweck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 The Learning Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Range of adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 A structured feedback system ~ ‘2 stars and a wish’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Modelling Effective Questioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 What’s involved? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Examples of Learning Intentions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Self-Evaluation ~ ‘Big Questions’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Structured observation from DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Next steps for me in Assessment for Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Back at School ~ Sharing ideas with colleagues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Key issues to raise with colleagues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Learning Log ~ Session 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Learning Log ~ Session 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Learning Log ~ Session 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3. Programme Session 1 Assessment for Learning in the Revised Curriculum 9.15am – 10.20am Outline Picking up from Day 2 Constructivism ~ the work of Carol Dweck Mapping the AfL strategies 10.20am – 10.40amBREAK Session 2 Practical experience of a range of AfL strategies 10.40am – 12.10pm Sharing learning intentions and success criteria Formative Feedback Questioning Scaffolding reflection 12.10pm – 1.00pmLUNCH Session 3 Impact of AfL in classrooms 1.00pm - 2.30pmRange of practical examples Benefits to the learning environment Session 4 Considering the next steps 2.30pm – 3.00pm What’s next for me? Networking opportunities

4. Links to Personal Development and Mutual Understanding Respect Self-esteem and self confidence Cooperation Sharing the Learning Feedback Dealing with conflict Feelings and emotions AfL Questioning Reflection Attitudes to Learning Communication Responsibilities

5. Links to Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities Asking questions to deepen my learning Self regulation Time to Think Sharing the Learning Feedback Managing my own learning Learning is visible and explicit AfL Questioning Reflection Working with Response Partners Using information to help me learn Assessing other’s work

6. Constructivism ~ the work of Carol Dweck Key principles: Children’s beliefs about the nature of ability strongly affect their success in learning. Carol Dweck’s highly influential research suggests the presence of two distinct ‘mindsets’ in the pupils in our classrooms. Ability is fixed. Difficulty and failure is the environment telling me that I don’t have enough ability to do the task, or cope with the learning area. Ability is changeable. When I experience difficulty, it means that I’m learning. Failure tells me that I need to work harder, or use different strategies to succeed. • These mindsets relate to children’s beliefs about the nature of ability, or intelligence. One mindset holds to the belief that ability is something that is fixed, the other that it is changeable. • Where children believe that ability is fixed, then on experiencing difficulty they feel a sense of hopelessness ~ because there is nothing they can do about it. • Where children believe that ability is changeable, then on experiencing difficulty they feel a sense of optimism. They also believe very strongly in the importance of effort.

7. We Are Learning To: • Use adjectives effectively • Work well in groups • Success Criteria: • Choose words that best describe the friend you would like to have • Include a wide range of qualities • Use classroom rules for group work • The Learning Activity: • As a group, design a ‘Wanted Poster’ advertising for a friend

8. A range of possible adjectives

9. A structured feedback system First … Find 2 successes with reference to the success criteria Second … Find the part of the work which provides most scope for a ‘jump’ ~ not simply the worst part Third … Write a short prompt telling the learner exactly what to do to this part of their work, and … Fourth … provide time to read, process and respond to your prompt.

10. Modelling Effective Questioning Prior notice Tell children ~ in a few minutes I will be asking a question about . . . Ask fewer but better questions Asking fewer questions allows more time to invite more responses. Move away from quick fire questions and quick fire answers. Thinking time Allow thinking time. This gives children the opportunity to improve their responses. Most teachers wait about one second before they expect a response and they often answer their own questions. No hands up Encourage all children to think about the answer ~ not just the quick processors. Think / pair / share This allows each child to think of an answer or an opinion. They must share with at least one other person so no one can coast along on the back of others’ thinking. This is helpful for the less engaged child, the shy child and the child who needs time to think. • Examples of open ended questions include: • What do you think? • How do you know? • How can you find out? • Why do you think that? • Do you have a reason? How can you be sure? • Is this always so? • Can you think of different ways to . . . ? • Is there another reason / idea / way? • What if . . . ? • Where is there another example of this? • What do you think happens next? • What do you think of that answer? • Can you explain how you got to that answer? • Which is the odd one out and why? • A good question challenges our thinking. It makes the mind buzz. It arouses interest, raises further questions, new ideas, differing views and requires some difficult thinking.

11. Encourage children to ask more questions • Value children’s questions as much as their answers ~ the ability to question is one of the keys to effective learning. • Pausing, prompting, probing • Provide prompts and probes for fuller answers. Don’t just accept the first response ~ the child may need a little help and encouragement to give a fuller answer or to go deeper in their thinking, e.g. • Is that the same as…? • Do you mean….? • Tell me more…? • Can you give me an example…? • Responding positively • Respond positively ~ prompts and scaffolds can help children amend their answers. Ask other children if they agree or would like to add anything. Answers which seem a bit ‘off beam’ can provide great insights for the teacher ~ seek clarification and explanation. • Appropriate language and content level • Questions should be clearly worded ~ challenging but manageable so language and subject matter should be appropriate for the age and stage of the children. • Metacognition • Thinking about thinking ~ allow children the opportunity to reflect on their thinking through questioning. Metacognition is the ability of the learner to plan, monitor, redirect and evaluate how they think and learn, e.g. • When planning they can ask themselves questions like: • How am I going to do it? • Is it similar to anything I’ve done before? • Is it one of those? • When adapting they can ask themselves questions like: • Do I understand it so far? • Do I need to ask a question? • Am I on the right track? • Am I still on task? • Is there a better way? Questioning (continued) • When evaluating, they can ask themselves questions like: • How did I do it? • What method/strategy worked? • What did I learn? • Did my plan work out? • Can I learn from my mistakes? • Can I do it differently/better next time? • Important considerations: • Do we ask too many questions? • Do we need to ask fewer, but better questions? • Do we ask, then answer the question ourselves? • Do we ask the same type of questions? • Are we looking for an answer or an explanation? • Do we need to plan for more questions which provide opportunities to challenge thinking and get children discussing and debating? • Are some answers ignored? • Do we take responses seriously? • Do the same children provide the answers? • Is answering questions a competition between children? • Are children comfortable with giving wrong answers? • At the planning stage ~ What would be good questions to ask? • How active are the children? Do they realise that their learning depends on their readiness to express ideas and discuss? It’s not about spotting right answers! • Are children encouraged to generate their own questions? • Do children value and respect the ideas/opinions of others?

12. What’s involved? and how? and the tricky bits? Telling children what they’re about to learn and why • Publish Learning Intentions • ~ perhaps using ‘WALT’ • Framing good LI’s for learning, rather than activity Scaffolding successful activity towards learning by telling them what to pay attention to ~ explicitly • Agree and publish Success Criteria • ~ perhaps using ‘WALT’ • Coming up with SC • Keeping SC succinct • Keeping them few • Ensuring range Giving feedback which is focussed on improvement • Structured, comment only feedback • Keeping within the SC!!! • Breaking old habits Ensuring that students reflect on the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of their learning • Peer/Self Assessment • Structured plenaries • eg 2 Stage MindMaps • It probably won’t happen unless you make it happen • Training for objectivity Using questioning strategies that extend participation and deepen learning • ‘No Hands Up’ • Wait time • Response Partners • Low risk closed questions • Initially ~ no hands up!!! • Scaffolding the wait time • Breaking old habits

14. Self Evaluation – ‘Big Questions’ Developing prompts that help children toevaluate the quality of their learning. • What did you find easy about learning to … ? (add the learning intention) • What really made you think while you were learning to … ? • What helped you (eg a friend, the teacher, new resources, a book, your own thinking) when something got tricky about learning to … ? • What do you need more help with about learning to … ? • What are you most pleased with about learning to … ? • What have you learnt that is new about … ? • How would you change this activity for another group/class who were learning to … ? • What new questions would you like to ask now about learning to … ?

15. Structured Observation of DVD Clips

16. Next steps for me in Assessment for Learning • Discuss with pupils what they must do when you ask a question. • Extend wait time to 5 seconds after you have asked a question. • Experiment with hands up at the end of five seconds or no hands up at all so that anyone can be asked for a response. • Have ‘talking partners’ or threes as a regular feature of your lessons. • Say that if it’s making you think it means that you are learning something new - make this a good thing. • Dabble with self- evaluation: getting pupils to reflect on what helps them learn. • At the beginning of units of work, introduce the elements to be covered in a visual form. Try to involve the pupils in some way. Use this at the beginning and end of a lesson to remind children of the connections of what has been learned and how it links to future learning. • Share/write up learning intention. Explicitly separate from the activity/ context. • In short term plans separate the learning intention from the activity/ context. • Plan process success criteria (what they will need to do in order to achieve the learning intention) Start with one subject only and plan with someone if possible. • Ask pupils for success criteria just before they start to work and write it up or put them up as you go during the teaching part of the lesson. • During lessons, remind pupils to focus on the success criteria. • Remember to: • Build on what you are already doing. • Start slowly… Select an “easy” subject. Continue to move slowly and don’t be in a rush to explore all areas of learning. • Talk to other teachers about what you are doing - compare notes – plan together. Jot down notes about things you’ve tried out and what happened. • Look for impact on children’s learning and your own teaching. • Think of yourself as an action researcher- these pieces of advice are only starting points or ‘ways in’. Experiment and modify your ideas as you go along. • Refer to the ‘Key Stages 1 & 2 Curriculum Support and Implementation Box’.

17. ? ? ? Frequently Asked Questions ? Should I start every lesson with learning intentions? No, only when you are introducing new learning. What about the capital letters and full stops, if the learning intention is not focussed on these? Have a lesson/s where the learning intentions are ‘writing using capital letters and full stops’ or develop a list to remind children what to do ‘during’ their activities, e.g. remember full stops, capital letters. What do we do about our schemes/planners? Do not start rewriting these. Experiment with the strategies and even consider using post it pads on your schemes to record any learning intentions or success criteria which you trial. Share your feedback with other colleagues. More work? You are not going to do this all the time at first. Try a few lessons and see how it goes. What about pupils who aren’t fluent readers accessing the learning intentions & success criteria? Assist children to generate their own little icons to illustrate the meaning of text. What about children who have satisfied all the success criteria? Select a criterion which they can use to extend their work to make an improvement. What if there are no successes in a child’s work? Consider writing a range of success criteria so that they cater for different abilities. Ensure that you do not have too many points in the criteria. What about telling parents about the changes? They expect to see all the spelling mistakes corrected? Consider a parents’ evening to inform parents. A booklet for parents is being produced which will outline the strategies.

18. Back at school ~ sharing ideas with colleagues Assessment for Learning It is recognised that after your development days you will not feel that you are experts in the areas covered! However, it is important that the principal and staff are kept informed and involved. In order to assist you in this process, the following steps are suggested. Meet with your colleague/s Share the programme/information from the day. Discuss the learning log/summary sheets and personal learning. Ask – What will this mean for us in our classrooms? Meet with the principal Share the programme / information from the day. Discuss the learning log/summary sheets and personal learning. Describe the activities you will be trying out in your classroom. Plan how to disseminate to the rest of the staff. Meet with the staff The Stage 4 self-evaluation process will be on-going throughout 2006-07. It is anticipated that at Stage 5, dissemination from Primary 1 and Primary 5 teachers from their Personal Development & Mutual Understanding, Thinking Skills & Personal Capabilities and Assessment for Learning days will inform whole-staff discussion. It will be at the discretion of each school how this is progressed. This may be through: The sharing of the programme and key learning points. The P1 and P5 powerpoint presentations will be available on the PMB web site:www.pmbni.org.uk Using the briefing sheets and critical questions from the Stage 4 self-evaluation pack and the CCEA DVD.

21. Learning Log Session Title: AfL in the Revised Curriculum

22. Learning Log Session Title: Practical experiences of AfL strategies

23. Learning Log Session Title: Impact of AfL in the classroom

24. Schools involved in AfL action research Insert the names of schools ~ or teachers & schools as appropriate! This is SELB ~ maybe using own ELB’s cohorts!!