Activity Resource 1: Reflecting on your current practice

A suite of assessment for learning (AfL) training materials Assessment for learning: whole school training materials (DCFS 1240-2005 GCD) has been developed as part of the Strategy’s whole-school approach to developing AfL. (For full details of all the publications quoted below, see Activity Resource 5).

The materials reaffirm that AfL can be defined as:

‘the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there’.

Assessment Reform Group, 2002

Therefore AfL gets straight to the heart of good teaching by:

• helping teachers help pupils to take the next steps in their learning;
• helping pupils help each other to take the next steps in their learning;
• helping pupils help themselves to take the next steps in their learning.

More broadly, AfL is founded upon ten principles. The characteristics of AfL detail what effective practice in a classroom looks like.

Therefore AfL is more than marking and the awarding of grades and levels. It involves teachers in identifying the next steps for learning as well as responding to the errors pupils make and the difficulties they experience. Essential to good AfL are the sharing of learning objectives and outcomes with pupils, pupils’ peer and self-assessment, and feedback to pupils to inform next steps in learning.

It is important to recognise that effective feedback depends on these broad characteristics of AfL being firmly established in the classroom. The first task of the unit therefore asks you to reflect on the extent to which this is the case. The unit will then move on to consider the specific features of feedback and how they can support improved teaching and learning in music.

Use Task 1 (below) to reflect on the extent to which your department currently uses these principles and characteristics of AfL.

Task 1: Reflecting on the features of AfL (45 minutes)

Reflect on the principles and characteristics of AfL, as described in Activity Resource 1. Discuss as a department the extent to which these principles and characteristics are part of your current practice. To support this process, use the first two sections of Appendix 1: Prompts to support departmental self-review of AfL.  51kb Use the grids from the first two sections to help focus your discussions on: learning objectives; learning outcomes/success criteria. Consider together how you might plan to address those aspects of AfL that, on reflection, need further development. In the light of your discussions, your department may wish to consider exploring learning objectives and learning outcomes in more depth before proceeding with this unit. If so, you will find the following publications helpful: Unit 1: Structuring learning for musical understanding Unit 2: Structuring learning for musical engagement Music subject development materials for AfL, Unit 3: Objective-led lessons (DCFS 1101-2005 GCD)