Collecting evidence of learning, keeping track of learning and sharing learning all contribute to the motivation of the student. The student has the power of success and control of their own learning and this breeds more success. Knowing deeply about your own learning anchors the learning in the student’s long-term memory; the new learning is [...]

Focussed revision = practice with feedback. Focussed instruction (strategy 5) followed by focussed practice has allowed my class and myself to keep the learning “front and centre”  in our classroom. We are all literally speaking the same language, and working together to improve on shared targets – so students know what the purpose of activities [...]

This strategy gives the power to the teacher to effectively focus their lessons, to know the purpose of a task, to know how far it was achieved and helps in identifying how to move students forward. Rather than aiming for a non-existent middle of the group and hoping that someone learns something relevant, lessons are [...]

To put the students at the centre of their learning the skills of self-assessment are of great importance. Students must have ownership of the responsibility to learn. “If students do the learning then the grades will follow” When students see where they are at in their learning and know what they have to do next [...]

Feedback during learning gives students important information in regard to where students are now in relation to where they want to be and to prompt further learning. Feedback given in response to particular learning targets is very focussed, specific and immediate. Students understand the language being used as it is directly referring to the target, [...]

    Setting out your learning targets goes some way in making learning intentions clear to both students and teachers, but using examples of strong and weak work clarifies this even more. Providing actual work samples for students to discuss and analyse further adds to the picture of the expected learning that we are developing [...]

Classroom Learning Targets: Learning targets look quite different within the classroom – they are  more focussed, smaller, and may or may not change more often. In some areas there will be different targets for specific groups, same target across the class, or individual targets for each student. Learning targets in the classroom may be phrased [...]

Curriculum Specific Learning Targets: Targets are used to inform the students and the teacher about the learning intentions within the classroom. Often curriculum outcomes or indicators are complicated and jargonistic in nature and in order to provide meaningful targets for learners to meet, curriculum targets often have to be unpacked and reworded so that they [...]

  I first heard about Assessment for Learning through this book: “Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning” by Jan Chappuis. As I read it last summer, I was impressed with how “real” the strategies and ideas were, how do-able and sensible they were. Quite simply it is all quality teaching! The seven strategies described in [...]

As I set out on my assessment for learning journey I was very much aware that I would need to change a lot of what I did in the classroom – not just in relation to assessment, but in how I talked about what I was doing, how I approached the assessment tasks, what I [...]