The Scope and Size of Tasks

Measuring, Stock Images

Curriculum Weighting

Consider the range of knowledge, skills and understandings outlined in the Unit Specific Goals, Content Descriptions and Achievement Standards.

Determine the concepts and skills most significant to the course and elaborate on those in your program of learning.

The more significant and pervasive concepts in the unit should be given the most weight in teaching, learning and assessment.

Estimating how long does it take students to complete assigned readings and formative tasks

Think carefully about how much a student can read and long it will take students to learn particular concepts and skills in planning curriculum implementation.

The ACT Senior Secondary curriculum is looking for depth over breadth of knowledge understanding and skills.

Spending more time on knowing some things deeply and developing the skills and conceptual understanding to learn the rest is preferred. Of course, they must also have something to think and analyse with and about.

Groovy, pxfuel, Stock image

Teacher attempting to capture student understanding, Stock image

Research on Assignment Completion Times and Lengths

Some research on this topic is available below:

https://cte.rice.edu/resources/course-workload-estimator

While the research considers first year university students at a prestigious university in the USA, with thought, it can be used as a reflection exercise for considering how much time it takes students to complete assigned work.

Activity 3.1

Apply the Rice University calculator to an assignment you have set before.

Write about whether you think the calculator is reasonable and if you would se the the same assignment after having considered its asserted time calculations. (At least one paragraph)

Considering Task Weightings

As a general principle, the more cognitive effort, time and effort a tasks takes, the more it should be weighted.

A similar principle is that the more parts of the curriculum covered in a task, the more it might be weighted.

Weight more discriminating and reliable tasks more heavily.

Heavily weighted tasks need strong risk management procedures to ensure academic integrity.

Some schools assemble many small tasks each with a small weighting into single portfolio task with a larger weighting. This has risks and benefits. A risk with many small tasks assembled into a portfolio or summative score, is that the small tasks will not sufficiently differentiate students. Another pitfall is that they might not be of consistent and comparable standard and distort the picture of student capacity. Designing a portfolio of tasks of sufficient challenge and consistent standard in a laborious task, therefore fewer parts are generally better than many parts. To support students and prevent them doing it all at once at the end, it also requires regular grades based feedback to ensure students understand their progress. Another concern with this model is that formative assessment becomes conflated with summative assessment thereby placing too much pressure on students who will not get a chance to learn through trial and error in a low stakes environment. Consider the effectiveness of using assessment as a classroom management strategy.

Estimating Time and Word Length

The best practice in determining how many words or how much time is needed to write an answer is to have a colleague develop part or all of an answer, in prose or dot points

In terms of time, a student will take longer than a teacher. Apply an appropriate multiplier, in terms of A/T/M, complexity etc, to the time it took your colleague.

This will also enable you to see if the question can be answered in the number of words you have set, or if there are problems with the question.

This might also serve as a model answer to support student learning when returning work.

An attractive dinner setting, Peggy Greb, USDA ARS - This image was released by the Agricultural Research Service, the research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, with the ID K9315-1 (next). Wikipedia

Elements to Consider in Setting time limits

There is an interaction between expectations of quality and time limits in a test. Expectations should be made clear in the rubric.

Written Work

Do you want them to draft and redraft? They will need more time for redrafting. Reflect this expectation of accuracy in the rubric.
How familiar are they with the genre of writing required?
Will they be typing or writing? Typing take less time and it is easier to edit, so quality expectations will be higher than if they are writing. Reflect this expectation in the rubric.
How complex is the question? If there are several parts to the question, that will require considerable planning time to coordinate a logical response. It will also take more words to answer with appropriate depth
Is the material familiar and the question predictable? They will need less time if the question is expected and the material familiar.

Putting the parts together

seier+seier plywood chair christmas card 20091 mm birch plywood, laser cut into a card sized kit of parts: build-a-chair. https://www.flickr.com/photos/seier/4797164691

Considerations- Research Essay

When deciding on the word or time length of a task consider how many words or how much time it takes to make a point in an academic argument You may disagree with the word counts, but consider the parts of a logical point in an essay and how many words it takes to complete the parts.

Consider the following elements for an 'A' answer in one paragraph. The following estimates of words counts on the elements are suggested for consideration.

Topic sentence (20 words)
Quotation (10 words)
Explanation of quotation (50 words)
Link to the argument (40 words)
Outlining counter argument/ Reference to supporting critical literature ( 50 words)
Resolving the counter points raised by counterargument/critical literature with the thesis of essay/ Explaining alignment with thesis of essay (100 words)
summative conclusion (20 words)

So if one shorter paragraph is 300 words, then the standard five paragraph essay is 900 words plus introduction and conclusion to make three points in an argument.

If more than one object of analysis is to be compared and contrasted the structure of the argument will become more complex and require 100-150 more words per paragraph.

topic sentence making an explicit comparison or contrast.
quotation from first text and explanation (60 words)
coordinating clause, or sentence, indicating comparison or contrast (10 words)
quotation from second text and explanation (60 words)
Link to the argument (60 words)
Outlining counter argument/ Reference to supporting critical literature ( 50 words)
Resolving the counter points raised by counterargument/critical literature with the thesis of essay/ Explaining alignment with thesis of essay (100 words)
summative conclusion (20 words)

Activity 3.2 Reflect on how many words it could take to fulfil those standard elements, or do something alternately innovative, and how might that be reflected in expected word limits and design of task?

Creating

Activity 3.3

In the Industry and Services area students need time to follow design and fabrication processes.

Discuss with your colleagues appropriate time frames for different design and fabrication tasks you have assigned.
How might rubrics or assignment instructions prompt students to use an appropriate amount of time for an assignment and reflect your expectations?

Designing

Designers at Work, Stock image

reflecting on the self , Stock image

Reflecting on making, designing and Learning

Consider these guides to reflective writing from Monash University and consider how you might support students in their own reflections on their work and learning.

IT report: approaching the task - Research & Learning Online (monash.edu)

Reflective writing in IT - Research & Learning Online (monash.edu)

Oral presentation - Research & Learning Online (monash.edu)

Clustering VET Competencies for Assessment

Various authorities and reports recommend clustering competencies for assessment to reflect work practices and practical settings.

Activity 3.4 Evaluate advice from the following readings and note down some comments:

Clustering units of competency: A guide to how to cluster for delivery and assessment