Content area
Full text
Abstract: This paper provides a description of practice outlining changes made to English assessment structures for the purpose of facilitating improved teaching and learning. These changes, which included marking, feedback, reporting, and the evaluation of the efficacy of teaching, were implemented across Years 7 to 10 English classes in an independent boys' school in the ACT. The current approach, which evolved incrementally over time, developed primarily through two stages. The first was a reimagining of rubric design, with criteria reflecting continua of transferable skills, based on the developmental nature of the National Curriculum. This initial change provided rich data but in itself did not lead to the desired impact on teaching and learning. The second stage involved a systematic approach to the formative assessment cycle. Within this cycle the collection of data generated from assessment marking has begun to fulfil its original intention of supporting teaching and learning through progress tracking, targeted feedback, differentiated grouping and improved evaluation of the impact of instruction on student learning.
Introduction: The background of the practice
Changes to assessment structures in English began with the implementation of the Australian Curriculum, in particular the concept of learning descriptors that progressed and built over the years of study, in conjunction with the achievement standards as described in the work sample portfolios (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority ACARA, n.d.b). Alongside these mandated changes, it was evident that the existing approaches to assessment, marking, and feedback were not fully meeting the needs of our students, nor our teachers. External data, most pointedly NAPLAN results, but also the ACT Scaling Test, which students sit in Year 12 in the ACT system, showed merely adequate student progress, and in neither case were results trending in an upward direction. More pointedly, teachers in the English Faculty discussed in this paper often expressed frustration that there was not enough time to build skills and understandings, but instead felt that they were constantly lurching from assessment to assessment, with both students and teachers struggling to keep up. Existing assessment structures did not seem to be facilitating teaching and learning practices that were being discussed as crucial to creating substantive and demonstrable student gains. Across the school, improved formative feedback practices, (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Hattie &...