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 • Learning Intention:
• Teachers will be able to use formative assessment to
enhance the teaching and learning in their classroom

• Success Criteria:
 Distinguish between assessment of and for learning
 Know the key elements of assessment for learning
 Write learning intentions
 Suggest activities/tasks to achieve the learning intention
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 Devise Success Criteria

 Use questioning in the classroom to generate discussion
and improve student’s participation in their learning
Assessment OF Assessment FOR Learning
Learning (Summative) (Formative)
Happens after learning An integral part of learning
takes place process
Information is gathered Information is shared with
by teacher learner
Information is usually Information is available on
transferred into marks quality of learning
Comparison with Is linked to learning intentions
performance of others and success criteria

Looks back on past Looks forward to the next

learning stage of learning

5
 Reflect on Current Practice

Assessment of and for learning.....

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Source: “Putting Assessment for Learning into Practice,” David Spendlove, 2009)
Assessment for Learning (formative) is not an attack
on assessment of learning (summative assessment).
These are complementary approaches - it’s about
getting the balance right.

It is the teacher who decides the balance and timing

of formative and summative assessments;

(“Putting Assessment for Learning into Practice,”

David Spendlove, 2009)
 Assessment for Learning: Key
Elements
1. Learning Intention and Success Criteria
2. Effective Feedback
3. Effective Questioning
4. Self assessment - Students as owners
of their own learning
5. Peer Assessment - Students as
Instructional resources for each other
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Assessment for learning strategies need to

be phased into practice over time.
AfL Assessment for Learning – A Practical Guide 2010 p38
 Assessment for Learning (AfL)
Enables teachers and students to focus on three
key questions -

1. Where are students now in their learning?

2. Where are students going in their learning?
3. How will students get to the next point in
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their learning?
NCCA Assessment Guidelines p9.
 Learning Intention

• Learning Intentions are an explicit

description of what a learner should know,
understand and be able to do as a result of
learning.
(Learning and Teaching Institute, Sheffield Hallam University)
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 Learning Intentions
“Lessons are guided by syllabus-linked
learning outcomes that are shared with the
students.”
SSE Guidelines
• Example: Students will be able to:
Plan a balanced breakfast menu for two
Demonstrate understanding of the concept of plate
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tectonics
Describe the environmental effects of a natural
disaster.
 Devising Learning Intentions
• State learning intentions simply and clearly.
• Learning Intentions should be capable of
being validly assessed – a verb should be
used in the statement.
Plan a nutritional menu for two
Measure and Map an area
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Describe the environmental effects of a natural

disaster
 Separating the Learning Intention
from the Context of Learning
The context of learning is simply the actions,
activities and/or tasks students will be doing to
achieve the Learning Intention.
Learning Intention Context of Learning

Write clear instructions How to bake a cake

Present an argument for or Four corner discussion on the
against a controversial statement, “student benefit
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proposition should be reduced”

Identify metaphors Lake Isle of Innisfree
Identify the parts of the Smoking
respiratory system and
explain their function
 Clarified Learning Intentions
• Clear: focus on what will be learned in the
lesson, as distinct from what students will
do in the lesson
• Useful: focus is on concepts, skills or
knowledge that is used rather than focusing
on imparting knowledge
• Can be transferrable to a similar context
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Adapted from source: Leahy, S, Lyon, C and Wiliam, D. (Nov.2005) Classroom Assessment: Minute by Minute, Day by Day. Educational
Leadership
 If the learning intention is free of context it can
illustrate to students that there are many reasons
for learning the concept
Learning Intention What students Learning Intention What students
with Context thought they were without Context thought they were
learning learning now

To write “I would learn how To write “We would be

instructions to to make a instructions learning how to
make a sandwich sandwich” write instructions”

To know why “We would be To know how “We would learn

Samuel Pepys is learning about primary sources how other people
important in what happened and help us to find out lived in previous
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understanding the what he wrote. We about the past centuries.”

events of the Great would also learn
Fire of London how to put a fire
out.”

From Clarke, S. (2005) Formative Assessment in Action: Weaving the elelments together
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 Workshop Activity
Use the subject-based statements on the worksheet
to:
1. Write a clear learning intention
2. Identify a context of learning
(task/activity/teaching approach etc.)
Learning Outcome Context of Learning
Identify and explain the The effects of smoking
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respiratory system
 Success Criteria
Success Criteria suggest ways to achieve a learning
intention.
“How will I know when I have learned?”
“How will I know when I have achieved the learning
intention?”

The learning intention and the success

criteria need to be visually displayed
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– WILF - What I’m Looking For

 Success criteria can be
• a series of steps/sequence of instructions
• a list of options/menu from which the
students can choose
• a list of “remember to” prompts
• a visual aide memoir
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 Success Criteria – menu/list of options
• Learning Intention:
Create a written character portrait
• What will you need to do to achieve this?
(Success Criteria)
Include some or all of the following
• Appearance
• Hobbies and interests
• Personality traits
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• Attitude to self/others
• Occupation
• How others respond to the character.....
 Stems for Writing Success Criteria
What I expect from
What I am looking for everyone is…
Why does…..? is…
To produce a good…
What if….?
To be successful what do you need to What do we already
do? know that would
you…
How would you….? help…?

Could you explain….?

What might….?
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 Effective Feedback
“Feedback is among the most powerful
moderators of learning”
Hattie, 2012
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 Effective feedback
• Oral – most powerful impact
• Marks/grading only- does little to improve
learning
• Written comment - quality more important
than frequency
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 Principles of Effective Feedback
• Involves more work for receiver than the
giver
• Timely
• Clear and focused
• Attached to the learning intentions and
success criteria
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 What is Feedback?
“The best feedback is highly specific, directly
revealing or highly descriptive of what
actually resulted, clear to the performer, and
available or offered in terms of specific
targets and standards.” ( Wiggins, Grant. Educative Assessment, 1998)
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 Four levels of feedback
• The Task: correct or incorrect and could include directions to
acquire more, different or correct information.
• The Process: used to create the performance/product;
aimed at the learning process requiring understanding to
complete the product/performance
• Self Regulation: greater skill in self-evaluation or
confidence to engage further with the task
• The self as a person: personal; directed at the person,
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not the performance/product

Hattie and Temperley: The Power of Feedback: Review of Educational Research, March 2007; Vol 77, No. 1

Which level of feedback do you think might have

the greatest impact?
 Evaluative vs Descriptive
Evaluative Feedback offers: judgements of value
or correctness or incorrectness

Descriptive Feedback offers descriptions of:

why a response is appropriate
what has been achieved
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suggestions for improvement

suggestions or prompts of a better way of doing
something
 • Concrete, specific and useful; therefore it is
actionable.
Can a student take action to the following
examples of feedback?
“Good job!”, “B+”, “You need to try harder
next time!”
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 • User friendly: understandable language;
concentrate on one or two key elements of
performance

• Too much feedback can be counter-

productive
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 Good work!
You need to work harder
You got a B on your presentation
I am so pleased with your essay
You need more quotes in your essay
You need more detail in the write up of the
experiment, instructions, recipe etc…
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In light of the above feedback, what have I

learned that can improve my performance?
How can we make the above comments
useful?
 Making the Evaluative Descriptive:
Activities
• Good work; Your use of descriptive
language was an improvement on your last
essay. I was able to imagine the scenes
very clearly. (achieved)
• You need to work harder; (ways to improve)
• You got a B on your presentation;
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(achievement, improvement)
• I am so pleased with your essay;
(appropriateness, achievement)
 Feedback vs Advice
• Feedback must be linked to the learning
intention and success criteria as well as
moving the learning forward, otherwise it
tends to become either a judgement or
advice.
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 Activity
• Organise all the comments into categories of
Descriptive Feedback and Evaluative/Advice
Descriptive Evaluative Advice

Can you find Your use of quotes You need more

quotes that better is not very effective quotes
reflect Lady
MacBeth’s
torment?
You are a very good This report could
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student be in greater detail

The dissection was You did a good job You should be

well carried out with the dissection better organised
because (refer to
LO and SC)
 Structuring Effective Feedback:
Activity
 Highlight successes (2 or 3) and identify one area for
improvement
 Give improvement suggestions – write a prompt
that will help student make the improvement
reminder- suitable for able students: “Say more about how
Gandhi influenced India’s independence
scaffold- for students who need more support than a
reminder: “Describe something that happened when the molten lava
reached the river.”
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example- can work with all students but especially the less
able: “Choose one of these or create your own: ‘He is a good friend
because he never says unkind things.’; ‘He is a friend because he never
tells lies.’
Adapted from NCCA
 • Ongoing!!
Feedback only works formatively if the
student has opportunity to improve to better
achieve the learning outcome. In summative
assessment the feedback is too late.
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 Effective Feedback Techniques
• Three Questions:
asking the students to reflect
on their work and move it forward

• Spot your own mistake

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 Question Stems
Could you
What if…? explain..?
Why does…..?
What if….?
Why does…?
How would you?
What might
you…?
How would you….?
Could you explain….?
What might….?
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 Assessing Progress During Lessons
Asking key questions:

• to measure student progress in learning

orally
• to generate class discussion
• use open questions
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• higher order questions

 Strategies for Effective Questioning

• Use ‘open’ rather than ‘closed’

questions
– E.g. Is Iago or Othello responsible for
Othello’s downfall?
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 Strategies for Effective Questioning
• Change the question into a statement:
Instead of asking: “Who was most
responsible for the Irish Civil War?”
Make a statement: “DeValera was
responsible for the Irish Civil War.”
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 Strategies for Effective Questioning
• Invert the question
e.g.: “Is Ireland a republic?”
Change to: “What does it mean for a country to
become a republic?”
• Insert the word “might” into the question
“What is the meaning of socialism?”
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“What might be the meaning of socialism?”

 Strategies for Effective Questioning
Start your questions with “why” or
“how”
Instead of asking: “What is a prime number?”
Ask: “Why is 7 a prime number and 9 a
composite number?
Instead of asking: “What was life like under the
Taliban?”
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Ask: “How were the lives of men and women

different under the Taliban?”
 Assessment It is essential that
teachers
ensure that AfL does not
become a set of
teaching tips that
ultimately fall into
unthinking routines of
traffic lights, two stars,
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WALT boards, success

criteria and so on.
AfL – A Practical Guide (N. I
Curriculum) pii