Assignment template

All areas of this form marked with * are essential information and must be completed. Semester*: One Date Due*: Friday 26 April, 2013 Unit Code*: ETP425 Unit Name*: Teaching and Learning 3 Assessment & Reporting Student No*: s239335
th

Students Full Name*: Elizabeth Geradine Cusack Assignment Title*: Assessing Student Learning and Reflection Students Email: * lisa.cusack@optusnet.com.au

Students Phone No: 0427 871615 / 0733965662

I declare that all material in this assessment is my own work except where there is a clear acknowledgement and reference to the work of others. I have read the Universitys Academic and Scientific Misconduct Policy and understand its implications.* http://www.cdu.edu.au/policies/academicandscientificmisconductpolicy.pdf I agree I do not agree

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CHECKLIST*

Task 1 2 3 4 5 6 I have completed the form above*: My CDU email address is activated* I have read and understood the important information on this form*. I have kept a copy of my assignment*. I have acknowledged and referenced the work of others* I have named my file correctly using the unit code, my name, student number and assignment number. E.g.ETL123_ DowJane_s123456_A2 I have filled in the footer page and indentified my file correctly* I have saved the assignment in a compatible format e.g. .Microsoft word doc or txt* My assignment file size does not exceed 2MB* I have reread and checked all the assessment requirements.*

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ETP425_Cusack Elizabeth_s239335_A1. 1

Assignment template
All areas of this form marked with * are essential information and must be completed.

Part A Evaluation of a work sample

Australian Curriculum Content Descriptions Science Inquiry Skills: Planning and conducting. Use informal measurements in the collection and recording of observations, with the assistance of digital technologies as appropriate (ACSIS039) Initial observation is brief but factual. Science as a Human Endeavour: Nature and development of science. Science involves asking questions about, and describing changes in, objects and events (ACSHE034) Science Understanding: Biological sciences. Living things grow, change and have offspring similar to themselves (ACSSU030) Evidence of representing observations in a variety of ways. Comments

Day and observation date is recorded correctly.

Emerging understanding of growth changes of the bean are noted and described in the text, and drawings. Response illustrates engagement and interest in process. Further description, differentiation or elaboration of growth process is not evident.

Literacy: Creating texts. Write legibly and with growing fluency using unjoined upper case and lower case letters (ACELY1673)

Use of capital and lower case letters. Emerging understanding of punctuation. Lower case letter correctly edited to upper case letter at the beginning of a sentence. Use of full stop at the end of a sentence.

Literacy: Creating texts. Reread and edit text for spelling, sentence-boundary punctuation and text structure (ACELY1672

Measurement and Geometry: Using units of measurement. Compare and order several shapes and objects based on length, area, volume and capacity using ETP425_Cusack Elizabeth_s239335_A1. appropriate uniform informal units 2 (ACMMG037)

Evidence of correctly measuring and recording the height of the plant using a measuring device, descriptive text, and drawings.

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Part A (contd)

Summary Comment
This Science activity covers many content description areas in Science, English and Mathematics in the Australian Curriculum at a Year 2 achievement level (Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority (ACARA), 2013). The student has completed each of the five sections of the Data Record Bean Plant Observation sheet by recording the day and date of each entry, drawing an illustration of, and writing text for, a bean plant observation spanning five consecutive days. Science Science Inquiry Skills planning and conducting - Use informal measurements in the collection and recording of observations (ACSIS039). Science as a Human Endeavour nature and development of science - Science involves asking questions about, and describing changes in, objects and events (ACSHE034). Science as a Human Endeavour use and influence of science People use science in their daily lives, including when caring for their environment and living things (ACSHE035). Science Understanding biological sciences - Living things grow, change and have offspring similar to themselves (ACSSU030). The student has completed the activity using informal methods of recording observations in chronological order on the Data Record sheet, noting the day and date for each of the five entries. This activity has enabled the student to care for a living thing with the potential to apply this knowledge to a real-life context. Changes in plant growth have been described by attempting to write texts and draw illustrations of observations. The work sample provides evidence of the student meeting the achievement standard for following instructions, recording and representing observations, and communicating ideas to others. English The activity also provides an opportunity for students to draw on knowledge in cross-curricular subjects to demonstrate English Literacy skills. Literacy creating texts - Write legibly and with growing fluency using unjoined upper case and lower case letters (ACELY1673); Reread and edit text for spelling, sentence-boundary punctuation and text structure (ACELY1672). The student provides evidence of meeting Literacy standards by writing legibly and use of uppercase letters at the start of a sentence, and full stops at the end of sentences. Use of commas is also evident. The qualitative word, Yay in the observation record suggests excitement and engagement in the activity.

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The student is beginning to describe changes in the bean plant by using descriptive text to accompany drawings in an attempt to illustrate progressive changes of plant growth in a vessel. However, three of the five recorded entries were identical indicating difficulty expressing (in writing) incremental changes in plant growth. Student drawings better resemble the expected observation progression. Entries were also very brief with only a single observation for each. Mathematics This activity also gives the student the opportunity to apply knowledge of Mathematics. Measurement and Geometry using units of measurement - Compare and order several shapes and objects based on length, area, volume and capacity using appropriate uniform informal units (ACMMG037). The student is meeting expected achievement standards for Year 2 in measuring and recording the height of the plant using text.

Where to from here?

Educators must play a critical role in connecting ideas and information in meaningful and authentic ways. They must model and teach skills required to: scrutinise, discover, learn, problem solve and contribute. Providing an opportunity for students to collaboratively discuss learning and assessment with peers will help to construct meaning and enhance cognitive development as they are exposed to varying viewpoints and learning strategies. Learners actively construct meaning in different ways, and these different perspectives can help to broaden students knowledge and meaning-making. As learning is socially and culturally constructed, self-assessment will involve the opinions of others (Brady & Kennedy, 4th Ed.). Peer assessment offers critical appraisal of student work, and promotes the idea that assessment is an ongoing and integral part of learning. This external assessment feeds back to provide a model for self-assessment which provides the fundamental link with learning (Boud, 1995 in Brady & Kennedy, 4th Ed.; Black & William in Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006). Showing the class, or individual students, exemplary work samples of their peers provides explicit examples of how students can improve on recordings. Similarly, explicit feedback to students during an activity, at the end of activity, and after assessment can help students better understand their strengths, and areas for improvement. This contributes to the maturation process of learning (Mason & Johnston-wilder, 2006), which in turn allows students to gain confidence in applying their learning to new situations and across contexts. Encouraging the student to elaborate on recordings is necessary to better meet outcomes and differentiate between progressive plant changes. Feedback that enhances self-regulation can help students take control of their learning so that thinking, motivation and behaviour during learning can be adjusted. In this way students can monitor, and use strategies to achieve, learning goals; manage resources; exert effort; and regulate reactions to external feedback to enhance outcomes. (Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006). Modelling the concept of questioning, focussing enhanced
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concentration and observation skills in observing details, and providing recommendations on a more appropriate (or specific) number of points for daily entries (Hattie & Timperley, 2007) can encourage students to write entries that are more descriptive and comprehensive. It is important to explain concepts using appealing materials and modalities that embrace the visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. Digital resources and the online world is the ultimate evolution of Vygotskys (1934/1986) more knowledgeable other where students can explore networked communities under supervision. Access through online resources such as: blogs, discussions, and webnars or podcasts for example, provides unprecedented learning opportunities for expanding vocabulary, enhancing writing skills and gaining confidence in applying knowledge. Students can access infinite pathways of information by various modes of engagement, challenging themselves to actively participate in their own scaffolding, while escalating their Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1934/1986). Specifically, students can access and evaluate content on scientific websites to learn how scientists record observations, both written and visual. Providing opportunities for students to research and master the genre of scientific observations and recordings can help them to incorporate functional grammar in recordings. Practice to independently construct texts can exemplify skills in genre writing (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012). Brainstorming and researching metalanguage of plants and growth, such as shoot, stem and leaf, and words to describe incremental changes, would afford the student with more vocabulary to better describe plant progression. Suggestions to draw on the senses may help students to elaborate on text descriptions such as: visual (the size and colour of the shoot/plant), textural/tactile (how soft/hard the shoot feels compared to the stem or leaf), spatial (how small or large the shoot/plant is relative to the vessel in which it is contained (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012). Ultimately, it is imperative that students have the opportunity to practice new skills and apply new ideas so that they can extend and refine their knowledge and master difficult concepts.

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Part B
Broad social, economic and political contexts (Brady & Kennedy, 4th Ed.), combined with the interests of various stakeholders - curriculum writers, educational theorists, policy makers, academics, teachers and students (Ewing, 2010), shape learning, teaching, assessment and reporting practices in a dramatic way. Prior to undertaking the Graduate Diploma of Teaching and Learning I was mostly unaware of these influential dynamics in the educational process. I am also now attuned to different forms of assessment which need to operate alongside each other to meet the expectations of different audiences, and purposes. These assessments range from the more traditional norm-referenced and standardised testing, to criterion-referenced, performancebased, alternative, authentic, formative and summative assessment for example (Brady & Kennedy 4th Ed.). The purpose of assessment is for learning, as learning and of learning (Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, 2013). Assessment should: inform planning and teaching; enable students to reflect on and monitor their progress to develop and achieve learning goals; and allow teachers to make judgements about student learning. Assessment needs to be ongoing (Brady & Kennedy 4th Ed.) and cater to the diversity of students so that results genuinely reflect student knowledge and capabilities. Meaningful, effective and timely feedback provides students with information about their progress. Feedback also feeds forward so that teachers can plan appropriately. The digital information revolution and new knowledge economy highlight the need to focus on assessment practices that correlate with the skills required for twenty-first century living (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012). However, high stakes testing of basic skills (NAPLAN, 2012) mediates against innovative teaching, learning and assessment. During my practicum with a Year 5 class, I will be examining how much time and effort is dedicated to preparing students for NAPLAN in May. This is very relevant to teaching and learning as critical learning may be diverted away from rich and fundamental learning experiences in other key learning areas. I am also keen to explore which assessment methods are predominantly used, and why, so that I can better judge the strengths and weaknesses of certain methods in a particular context.

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References The Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority (ACARA) 2013 Retrieved April 16, 2013 from, http://www.australian curriculum.edu.au/ Brady, L., & Kennedy, K. (4th Ed). Assessment and Reporting Celebrating Student Achievement, Pearson Australia Ewing, R. (2010). The Reflection Storyline: Bringing Stories Together. In Curriculum & Assessment: A Narrative Approach. South Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81112. DOI: 10.3102/003465430298487. Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2012). Literacies (2012 ed.). Port Melbourne, Victoria Australi: Cambridge University Press Mason, J., & Johnston-wilder, S. (2006). Designing and Using Mathematical Tasks. In Mathematical Activity (pp 69-96). St Albans, United Kingdom. Nicol, D.J., & Macfarlane-Dick, D. (April, 2006). Studies in Higher Education. In Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: a model and seven principles of good feedback practice, 33 (2) (pp. 199218). University of Strathclyde, UK, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom. National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) Website Australian Curriuculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. Retrieved April 13, 2013 from http://www.nap.edu.au/. Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood De3velopment. Retrieved April 15, 2013 from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/support/Pages/module3.aspx Vygotsky, L.S. (1934/1986) Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA:MIT Press

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