Teacher Assessment & Moderation: Addressing Misconceptions

This video focuses on the teacher assessment of key stage 2 writing and was published by the DfE a few days ago. Clarification on some of the more technical aspects of judging the standards!

Formal or Informal Tone...?

Some recent training for our Year 6 staff revolved the expectation that pupils should switch between levels of formality in their writing to achieve a greater depth standard at the end of KS2. Not something that the majority of us find easy to spot - this guide might be a good starting point?

Improving Writing...

Part of our November INSET was some training on how to develop writing to a greater depth standard. As part of the day, our Literacy Leader shared several videos she had taken - including one of our teaching assistants engaging successfully with a small group of pupils to improve their writing above.

The key principles we are working on:

Coach culture: Using adults to discuss ideas and model what is expected.

Unpick features needed to write in that context: What skills will they need to use? What skills are already in their toolkit ready to apply? How am I moving children’s learning on?

Children write, prompted to use resources around them (word mats, sentence openers, etc.) and think about language used for effect.

Reflection: Focussed questions for pupils verbally or through reflection bubbles.

Writing Right Across the Curriculum...

Our INSET day, this July, was formed around the expectations for getting our writing right across the curriculum. We have long established expectations both before and since the advent of the new curriculum but had some big questions to pose ourselves. We are also aiming to build our own bank of exemplifications to sit alongside those published nationally.

Writing Exemplification Materials 2016...

The exemplification materials for writing have been released by the DfE to schools for KS1 and 2. The documents are a suite of materials that exemplify the national standards for writing Teacher Assessments. The full suite including the interim TA framework, pupil scripts and annotated versions is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2016-teacher-assessment-exemplification-ks1-english-writing
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2016-teacher-assessment-exemplification-ks2-english-writing

Each collection exemplifies one pupil’s writing that meets the requirements for all of the statements within the interim TA framework for one of the following standards:
• working towards the expected standard
• working at the expected standard
• working at greater depth within the expected standard.

To meet a particular standard within the interim TA framework, a pupil must demonstrate attainment of all of the statements within that standard and all the statements in the preceding standard(s) as follows:

Working towards the expected standard:
The pupil can write for a range of purposes and audiences:
• using paragraphs to organise ideas
• describing settings and characters • using some cohesive devices* within and across sentences and paragraphs
• using different verb forms mostly accurately
• using co-ordinating and subordinating conjunctions
• using capital letters, full stops, question marks, exclamation marks, commas for lists and apostrophes for contraction mostly correctly
• spelling most words correctly* (years 3 and 4)
• spelling some words correctly* (years 5 and 6)
• producing legible joined handwriting.

Working at the expected standard
The pupil can write for a range of purposes and audiences (including writing a short story):
• creating atmosphere, and integrating dialogue to convey character and advance the action
• selecting vocabulary and grammatical structures that reflect the level of formality required mostly correctly
• using a range of cohesive devices*, including adverbials, within and across sentences and paragraphs
• using passive and modal verbs mostly appropriately
• using a wide range of clause structures, sometimes varying their position within the sentence
• using adverbs, preposition phrases and expanded noun phrases effectively to add detail, qualification and precision
• using inverted commas, commas for clarity, and punctuation for parenthesis mostly correctly, and making some correct use of semi-colons, dashes, colons and hyphens
• spelling most words correctly* (years 5 and 6)
• maintaining legibility, fluency and speed in handwriting through choosing whether or not to join specific letters.

Working at greater depth within the expected standard
The pupil can write for a range of purposes and audiences:
• managing shifts between levels of formality through selecting vocabulary precisely and by manipulating grammatical structures
• selecting verb forms for meaning and effect
• using the full range of punctuation taught at key stage 2, including colons and semi-colons to mark the boundary between independent clauses, mostly correctly.
[No additional requirements for spelling or handwriting.]

Writing in the New Curriculum

Some reflection on our work so far towards moving to the new curriculum. The key areas of the new curriculum can be divided into the following areas: 

· Composition

· Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation

· Spelling

· Handwriting

We have been making our transition to the new curriculum by reviewing our current provision and assessing pupil’s progress in light of the new expectations. Since we have taken away levels and the ‘Assessment Focusses (AFs)’, we have adopted the age expected bands and steps – B,W,S (beginning, working within and secure) – within those bands to monitor our pupils progress. Aspects of the old curriculum are clearly evident in the new bands and there are defined strands which focus more on the writing process rather than outcome. Some of these key themes in the composition element of the new curriculum are picked out below.

In KS1:

Write sentences 

Discuss what they have written 

Read aloud 

Write for different purposes: real events, narratives, poetry 

Develop positive attitudes and stamina 

Consider what he/she is going to write… 

Make simple additions, revisions and corrections... 

In KS2:

Plan his/her writing… 

Draft and write… 

Evaluate and edit… 

Proof read 

Read aloud 

Paragraphs 

Settings, characters and plot 

There is also a noticeable shift in expectations and this appears to be more weighted towards the technical aspects of writing and children’s understanding and use of terminology and features like clauses and pronouns. For example, KS1 children are expected to know about and use noun phrases, past and present tense and compound and KS2 pupils are expected to know and use determiners, subordinate clauses and adverbials.

Strengths:
· Writing opportunities across the curriculum for a range of purposes are good
· Opportunities for sustained writing are frequent
· Children’s writing stamina and enjoyment are clear
· Judgements about writing and next steps are really secure
· Children’s next steps are clearly identified
· Marking and feedback moves children on

Areas for Development:
· Technical aspects are not being clearly picked up in pupils’ writing
· Children need to be reviewing their work and more actively ‘polishing’ their writing
· Less able pupils need more scaffolded tasks to support their progress
· More able pupils need more engaging, challenging and open ended opportunities in their writing

Modelling the Writing Process

One of our recent staff meetings was dedicated to a workshop on modelling strategies for pupils - particularly in writing. Our idea was to work through a series of activities with some of the staff as pupils and some as observers while we 'taught' a lesson. The learning intention was to create a shared understanding of AfL (assessment for learning) and reflect on how the modelling process helps support children as writers. One of the challenges is to have a very clear idea of what you want the children to write but getting them to write it! Children share their ideas on a whiteboard and work either alone or with a partner on ideas with the teacher facilitating, prompting and collating as appropriate - you never know quite what they will contribute. It's important that teachers model these thinking processes and share what's going on in their heads if children are going to understand and make links to what's going on in theirs.

Supporting Narrative Structure in KS1

We have been talking about how we can get the children who are in our KS1 narrative group for speech and language to apply some of the skills they are learning in the classroom.

A session with the SALSA in year 3 used these narrative symbols to discuss their guided reading book and identify who is in the story, what events have taken place, when they occurred and where they occurred.  We thought this was a great idea and could also be used to support pupils with planning their own narratives if the story mountain is too complex for them.

Feedback Symbols

We've been exploring ways of using symbols to allow younger pupils to access teacher feedback more independently. Here are some of our suggestions so far. The idea is that they are easy to follow for younger pupils - finger spaces, adjectives, capitals and full stops - and that they provide opportunities for pupils of all abilities to access and respond to feedback. Hopefully, they will impact on learning and progress.

KS2 Writing Moderation Feedback

Some feedback from the KS2 writing moderators:

Strengths across KS2 writing in general:

• Positive approach to moderation
• Good preparation
• Professional dialogue
• Pride in writing
• Evidence of editing process strengthening writing
• Purposeful cross curricular writing

Points to consider:

• Clear differential between moderation and standardisation
• GPAS informing composition and effect
• Independence and Choice - all abilities doing same task?
• Adaptation of planning to meet needs of cohort?
• Developing the planning, editing, drafting process...

Areas I think we need to look at with the more able in mind:

Effective writing from a rich stimulus - can some tasks inhibit pupils from achieving higher levels?
Opportunities for extended periods - over a morning or afternoon or linked sessions?
more ambitious vocabulary - linked to SPAG
writers controlling sentences with readers in mind
Publishing - opportunities to do this in various ways with a clear purpose
Better links with texts as models for writing - links to reading 'pleasure' and having opinions (justifiable!) on what makes it good or not.
It was mentioned about a 'writing' culture - links to our learning values and very much to our thoughts on reading. I like this idea as it links with the celebration, publishing and models of good writing.
Something to consider - would we call ourselves writers...?