Standard 5: Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning
Focus Area: 5.1 Assess students learning
The NSW syllabus (2012) states, “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 and provide ongoing feedback to students to improve learning.” During my time on practicum I was given the opportunity to implement a range of different assessments for students. My mentor teacher introduced me to two different forms, one is known as SENA which is used for testing numeracy, and the other is a L3 'hearing and recording sounds' assessment task, both of these I used during my last week of teaching. In addition to these formal assessments I was also involved in general marking of work daily, through the marking process I was able to provide constructive feedback to students that was beneficial in helping them improve. Although I implemented various formal assessment tasks, I noticed that I was also continuously involved in informal assessments regularly. It was through observations and questioning techniques where I was able to assess how much knowledge and understanding students had on the content and topic.
Through both formal and informal assessment, I was constantly providing students with constructive feedback and also ensured I set goals with them so they could strive towards learning something new. An example of this can be demonstrated with the use of the ‘bump it up wall’ (photo evidence above). The bump it up wall provided encouragement and motivation for students to reach six stars. Each star had a description of what was required, if student reached that standard level of writing they were rewarded with a star on both their writing sheet and their rewards chart. This was fantastic for all ability levels as it gave them something to work towards. Students appeared to enjoy using this wall as they would constantly refer back to it and proof check their own work. Once students had finished their writing, they would individually sit down with me and read what they had wrote, together we would discuss how many stars they should receive. Through this process I provided feedback and highlighted all the things that they had done well in their writing, we then worked together to decide on a purposeful learning goal. Having students work with me to create their learning goal proved to be more meaningful as they could take ownership of their learning. I believe these independent writing lessons were a good opportunity for me to assess where students were at and see which areas they needed more assistance with.
Above is collected evidence from my final report which supports how I met standard 5.1