Assessment and Feedback in Mathematics

Some further notes and additional resources on Assessment and Feedback…

The first few slides (slides 1-15) introduce Assessment and Feedback, looking at definitions. To summarise:

Assessment and feedback is something we do every day in our classrooms. It’s a two way process, students and teachers working together. The feedback needs to be helpful to the students in that they can do something with it to improve their learning.

Some further useful reading:

Quality Improvement Agency – Quick Start Guide on Assessment for Learning
Quality Improvement Agency – Assessment for learning guide
The Educational Endowment Foundation Toolkit includes Feedback
Dylan Wiliam – Is the Feedback You’re Giving Students Helping or Hindering?
Daisy Christodoulou has written a Guide to her posts on Assessment
A really useful read from Dylan Wiliam – The Secret of Effective Feedback
What makes great teaching? Review of the underpinning research.
Robert Coe, Cesare Aloisi, Steve Higgins and Lee Elliot Major

The next section of the presentation (slides 16-23) concerns teacher – student relationships, so important and something which comes up continually in my own conversations with students, note section 3 on Classroom Climate and also these comments from younger (age 11-12) students. This is all about knowing our students well and creating a climate where it is OK to be stuck, there is trust between teacher and students and the students know that their teacher has their best interests at heart. To quote Dylan Wiliam:

Without that relationship, all the research in the world won’t matter.

Continuing with the theme of knowing our students well, it is so useful to ask them what works. Slides 24-31 show quotes from students about what helps them learn. Included in this section – Corbettmaths 5-a-day.

Slides 32-38 illustrate some learning activities such as matching exercises which have built in feedback. For some useful resources for this type of activity try the following:

Tarsia for making your own matching activities – or you can find many Tarsia resources on TES Resources for example.
Spot the Mistake these activities can be a good alternative to peer marking
Treasure hunts and loop activities
Code Breakers on TeachitMaths

Teachit Maths though a subscription site offers its entire collection of activities as pdfs free.
I have found many high quality resources here for all ages. Look at this activity on quadratic functionsfor example – this should really help understanding.

The next section (slides 39-45) is on questioning. Used wisely, well planned for questions can help us work out just what our students know.
Recommended reading and resources:

Questions worth asking – the Brighton & Hove Assessment for Learning Project
Assessment without Levels, note Daisy Christodoulou on using multiple choice questions
Multiple Choice Questions
Diagnostic Questions
Rich Questions in Mathematics
Here’s the diagram, what’s the question?

Retrieval Practice (Slides 46-49) looks at low stakes testing to help students recall information. Something I have found valuable throughout my teaching career and an area I am currently working on and will write further on in the near future. See:

Homework ideas are given on slides 50 to 53.

The next section is on marking (slides 54 to 63). See:
Test Analysis

Consider a question by question analysis on tests; this can be very revealing as to which topics a class has found harder.
Look at examiners’ reports to give advice to students about what examiners are looking for.
A very interesting read from the University of Oxford and the Education Endowment Foundation is A marked improvement? (April 2016)
Plan for marking, what are you looking for in a particular piece of work. Consider Ross Morrison McGill’s (@teachertoolkit) 5 Minute Marking Plan
For simple day to day marking, ask your students to assess themselves using RAG123.

Further Resources