Assessment for learning cracked!
Now available in Word, so they can be edited, or on CD (special order).
WMG labels take the strain out of planning and preparation. They help learners understand ‘What Makes Good?’ No more struggling to get your WILFs right! Children love them because they taste success and because the labels themselves are attractive. They are far more effective in supporting your teaching and developing learning than other stickers on the market. Other labels or stickers on the market don’t work electronically, don’t include learning objectives, don’t give the success criteria in enough detail and don’t develop next steps in learning effectively. Black and Wiliam talked about the importance of ‘specific feedback’. (See below). These labels support all aspects of assessment for learning. If you use them it’s difficult not to teach an outstanding lesson!
WMG Labels and the Rose Review of the Curriculum
WMG labels will be even more valuable in introducing the new reforms. Although they are written to match the strategies they were essentially created to support teachers who are designing their own schemes of work. They provide the structure and already cover all the suggested objectives. You just add the exciting activities! There are one or two instances where terminology has changed. For example, handling data has become statistics. Label categories will be adjusted to match these changes well in time for 2011.
WMG Labels:
- Are attractive, colourful forms with effective, focused learning objectives and success criteria written for you
- Have been developed to cover KS1 and KS2 English and Mathematics
- Are specially written to complement the Frameworks but can also stand alone in their own right
- Can be used to underpin your own curriculum even when the Framework ceases to exist in 2011
- Are loved by children because they take ownership of their learning and succeed
- Help pupils self - and peer-evaluate
- Ensure learners are crystal clear about what they have to do to improve
- Take the stress out of planning
- Pave the way for outstanding teaching
- Will improve your school assessment for teaching grade
- Are unique. Other labels or stickers on the market don't work electronically, don't include learning objectives, don't give the success criteria in enough detail and don't develop next steps in learning effectively
Give yourself more time and improve your teaching!
"I think your AfL resources are great! The teachers are really enthusiastic."
Linda Harvey, Headteacher, Beaumont Primary School, Purley.
"AfL labels are going really well, teachers love them!"
Tammy Lawlor, Headteacher, St Joseph's Infant and Nursery School, Croydon.
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What do you get for your money?
English
Currently there are approximately 300 English labels, covering Year 1 to Year 6. There is at least one label for each of speaking and listening, reading and writing in each unit of the poetry, non fiction and narrative strands. In many cases there is more than one label, especially in writing. This depends on the content of the unit. The labels are, in the main, A5 size; so you can either use them electronically or print them out to stick in books or stand on desks. There is an option to download two to a page to save on paper costs. A few labels are A4 in size, simply because there was too much information to get it into A5 format. Each English unit is also accompanied by a really useful IWB electronic intro page that summarizes all the objectives for each unit. (if you want the children to participate in identifying their own criteria introduce it later as a checklist and/or use for end of unit assessment.) All labels are style/genre based so that they stand alone or link directly to the Framework.
Mathematics
There are also approximately 300 mathematics labels, again covering Year 1 to Year 6, and corresponding to the seven strands in the Framework. Each of these is in A5 format. There are no IWB intro sheets as the integration of the strands in the current blocks made this quite complex. However each label will serve as an IWB intro on its own. All the labels are written to stand alone and for progression and continuity through the year and across year groups. Nevertheless, it should be quite clear how they link to the Framework.
What's next?
This idea has taken several years to come to fruition. It has been horrendously time consuming but I have persevered as it has become increasingly evident that teachers are overwhelmingly keen to have this as a resource, making sure their planning is robust and saving masses of time. I am very aware that September is the best time to launch this, so I am going ahead even though NOT everything on the site is quite complete.
- Please email your feedback, especially any specific suggestions for improvements.
- Other subjects will follow, if there is demand, and after the Rose Review is completed.
"Marking is so much quicker. The children love them.”
“The children know exactly what I want them to do now. The boys especially like the challenge and the comfort of knowing exactly what to do.”
“They make planning so much easier.”
“The teachers think that they are brilliant” |
The theory
Assessment for learning (extract from the one stop learning and teaching framework. Read/download the whole article there)
Black and Wiliam carried out a thorough investigation into research based on raising standards in the classroom. The study was called Inside the Black Box. It established that the only proven effective means of raising standards in the classroom was via effective formative assessment. The most importunate point they make is:
"Greatest measurable gain in learning is dependent upon specific teacher feedback to the learner on how to improve"
Further work was done by Black and Wiliam and by Shirley Clarke and other practitioners and researchers and their ideas were taken up and integrated into the Assessment Reform Group. They have since been successfully expanded and promoted nationwide and given the collective title Assessment for Learning (AfL or A4L)
The main elements of Assessment for Learning are:
- Formative assessment that concentrates on establishing where the learner is and where the learner should be next
- Specific shared learning objectives
- Lesson modelling
- Questioning
- Feedback polices that promote specific positive feedback for the next stages of improvement
- Self assessment (linking to metacognition)
- Peer assessment
Assessment for learning sits at the top of the personalised learning pyramid and it is undoubtedly the key to effective focused teaching and learning.
Conditions
The license entitles you to download as much as you need for your school. There is no set limit but there is an expectation that use will be reasonable. Your school name will automatically be printed on the bottom of all labels that you download. I reserve the right to immediately revoke the license of any school allowing access or usage outside their own premises.
Acknowledgment
Many thanks to Laura Worrall, deputy head of Hayes Primary School, Croydon for assistance in writing the Key Stage 2 narrative units.
