Research School Network: Formative Assessment Back in the classroom – reflections on our webinar

by Karen Roskilly – Research School Lead

This term we are hosting a number of free webinars based around the theme of being ​‘Back in the Classroom’. First up on 28^th September was Effective Formative Assessment.

This webinar focused on the evidence around formative assessment, with a particular focus on effective questions, responsive teaching and feedback. This blog will just give you a brief flavour of the themes and ideas discussed at the event.

Effective Questions

Monitoring the knowledge and understanding of ALL our students and using this to inform our next steps in teaching is crucial in ensuring effective learning for all. Effective questions are at the heart of this diagnosis process.

Therefore, effective questions should cause thinking, provide practice in recalling information and enable all students to show what they know. Doug Lemov talks about participation ratio and think ratio and how to maximise both of these in the classroom. During the webinar Sandringham Research School Director, Caroline Creaby, talked through a number of practical strategies that could be used to maximise participation and thinking, including the use of cold calling, wait time, use of mini whiteboards and hinge questions.

The pitfalls of questioning were also discussed, including asking a difficult question too early, asking the same kinds of questions and failing to build on student answers.

Blended learning strategies, such as Google Forms and Quizziz, can be particularly useful in effective questioning, particularly if teaching remotely.

Responsive Teaching

This section of the webinar considered how we can respond and adapt our teaching to support students and is particularly relevant at a time when we are all grappling with potential gaps in learning as a result of lockdown. Kate Mouncey, Research School Lead, led us through a consideration of some of the key questions we as teachers ask ourselves as we consider whether or not we can move on with curriculum content.

Do students have sufficient understanding?

Can I move on? What if it is a mixed picture?

Do I need to revisit or re-teach?

Kate talked us through her responsive teaching in A Level Geography and how she was assessing student understanding of work covered in lockdown. This included strategies ranging from folder checks to quick quizzes on specific topics.

Feedback

Giving students actionable feedback is another key aspect of effective formative assessment and the EEF Toolkit suggests that it can have high impact for relatively low cost.

During this section of the webinar we considered what effective feedback looks like including evidence around grading, level of feedback, classroom climate and use of praise.

The importance of student response was also discussed. 

If you are interested in the evidence around effective feedback, a previous Sandringham Research School blog on this topic can be found here.

We referred to a number of other resources during the webinar, including:

Great Teaching Toolkit

A Marked Improvement

Responsive Teaching by Harry Fletcher Wood. His website is also full of great articles here.

A full recording of the webinar can be found below.

Still to come in the webinar series:

13^th October – Metacognition and Self-Regulation

10^th November – Effective Pupil Premium Provision

1^st December – Effective Explanations

Book your place here. We look forward to seeing you at one of these future events.