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Welcome to the Damai Primary School (DPS) Staff Professional Development (PD) Committee's website on Assessment Literacy! This website is a completely ground-up initiative that aims to provide DPS teachers with a platform to share resources, best practices, exchange ideas and connect like-minded, passionate teachers to keep on implementing effective and meaningful assessment for our students.
Our DPS Staff PD Committee
Mrs Elise Lee (SSD), Mr Shahizan Ahmad (LT PE), Mdm Zahrah Ali (LT MA), Mdm Rozi Bahari (ST EL), Mr Sunny Goh (ST SC), Ms Sally Koh (ST LP), Mdm Sanisa Saleh (ST ML), Ms Stella Teoh (ST CL), Mrs Christine Lim, Mr Foo CH.
Self-Reflection Tool on Assessment Practices.pdfSelf-Reflection Tool on Assessment Practices
As a reflection of continual practice to provide a learner-centered and balanced assessment, teachers can use the Self-Reflection Tool on Assessment Practices.
The reflection tool on assessment practices comprises of 17 statements based on the 4 key assessment competencies in SFEd.
What is Assessment Literacy?
Assessment Literacy refers to having the knowledge of and ability to apply assessment concepts to plan and design assessments which involve and support learners, and to use assessment information to evaluate and improve teaching and learning.
It taps a teacher's skills in knowing how students have learnt and leveraging assessment information to further improve students' learning
Source: Assessment Policy & Practice Session, CPO
The 4 Key Assessment Competencies in SFEd
The 4 assessment competencies that are important for teachers to develop under the SFEd are:
Planning and designing assessment to assess student learning
aligned with the syllabus and learning outcomes
Understanding and communicating purposes and success criteria for assessment
for both summative and formative assessment
Involving the students in assessment
Co-construct assessment criteria with the students
Provide feedback and guide the students to act on that feedback
Equip the students with the necessary skills
Provide opportunities for the students to do self and peer assessment on a regular basis
Using assessment information
Reflect and modify teaching practices
Make decisions about students' learning
Close students' learning gaps
Communicate the student's learning progress and to their parents in ways they understand
Involving Students in Assessment (Assessment Competency 3) *our focus in 2023
Assessment Literacy is a multi-dimensional concepts that involves teachers, students and other stakeholders (Stiggins, 1991). Evidently, it is not enough to just focus on teacher's assessment literacy without the considering the role of students in assessment.
We need to gradually shift the responsibility of learning and assessment from teacher-directed experiences to empowering students.
Hence, the 3 key areas of Assessment Literacy to prepare students to be future-ready, we must be able to:
Involve students in assessment
Assessment must be a class culture or routine. It is ongoing for all students especially when addressing what they know/able to do in assessment.
Student to understand and communicate the purpose of assessment
Teachers model, provide scaffold, questioning and giving feedback
Making peer and self-assessment as part of the learning sequence
Develop the students' assessment literacy
Co-construction of success criteria
Describe and explain the success criteria to teachers and peers
Reflect and act on feedback from peers and teachers
Able to answer 'how well have I done?'
Enable students to learn for life
The students pursue excellence but their marks or grades does not define who they are
The students know where they are in their learning. They make informed decisions about pathways that best suit them.
The students are self-directed and intrinsically motivated to make goals, monitor and evaluate their own learning.
How involved are your students in assessment?
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
Teachers asking students to check their knowledge, performance or skill level (based on what teacher defines as success criteria)
Level 2
Level 2
Teachers and students discussing and negotiating success criteria - "we do together"
level 3
level 3
Decision-making by students - "I am self-assessing and making sense of what I need/want to learn next"
Students' Assessment Literacy
Students' Assessment Literacy is actually what the students need to know and able to do when they are involved in assessment.
The students will have to reflect and on these 3 questions to help strengthen their own assessment literacy
Where am i going?
Where am i going?
(Goals)
(Goals)
I know and understand the learning targets and success criteria to be reflected in the assessment tasks and rubrics
I understand the differences between good and weak responses, and to learn to self-assess my progress towards mastery
Where am i now?
Where am i now?
I receive communication of my assessment performance in a timely and understandable way that reflects the assessments' intended purpose or success criteria
I manage my emotional and responses to assessment
I have the skills and knowledge to engage in self- and peer-assessment
how do i get there? How do i close the gap? (Progress toward goals)
how do i get there? How do i close the gap? (Progress toward goals)
I am receptive towards and understand feedback
I receive actionable feedback, am motivated to and make certain decisions on what aspects to follow-up on
Assessment for Learning (AfL) - Dr Tay Hui Yong.mp4Assessment for Learning (AfL)
AfL puts the ownership of learning back into the hands of students. By informing students of their progress, teachers empower them to take the necessary action.
You can watch the video by Dr Tay Hui Yong (NIE) on AfL using the 3 Es (Explaining, Exploring and Engaging)
Explaining intended learning outcomes & standards
Explaining intended learning outcomes & standards
Make known specific skills or content students have to learn, and the differing standards of learning outcomes
Discuss success criteria regularly
Possible tools: checklists, student-friendly language, student exemplars
Focus on learning outcomes rather than covering syllabus
Exploring process of learning
Exploring process of learning
Use variety of ways (e.g. questioning, observations, group discussions, exit cards, portfolios) to elicit evidence on where students are in their learning)
Emphasize more on mastery of skills and content rather than marks/grades
Highlight specific gaps that student learning and provide concrete, actionable steps that students can take to move to the next level
Engaging in quality feedback
Engaging in quality feedback
Offer specific actions that students can act on to move their learning forward
Simply highlighting what is wrong or focusing on giving students the correct answers may not help the students to know what to do next
Help students take responsibility to act on feedback
Personalized feedback for individual students (as opposed to general feedback to the class) may be meaningful to some students.
7 Strategies of Assessment for Learning
D. Williams has actually proposed the 5 Strategies for Assessment Learning (AfL) in one of his books.
However, as part of our school's PD, we will focus instead on the 7 Strategies for AfL by J. Chappius.
Please refer to this handout to familiarize yourself to the 7 strategies of AfL (J. Chappius) to help address our students' point of view at the different phases of:
Where am I going?
Where am I now?
How do I close the gap? How do I get there?
We will also make use of the 7 strategies for AfL in our SFEd Introductory Assessment Literacy Workshop and how it would look like in the different subject areas.
SFEd Introductory Assessment Literacy Workshop for Teachers on 13-Apr 2022
Assessment for Learning (AfL) strengthens students' assessment literacy. AfL involves formative tasks which inform both the students and the teachers about where the students are at in their learning, remind them of where they are aiming to go, and help them better understand what they can do in order to get there.
In the workshop, each department met to discuss how does AfL look like in their lessons and subject area. Please refer to the individual department's Padlet for easy reference.
English (Upper Primary)
English (Lower Primary)
Mathematics
Science
Mother Tongue - Chinese Language
Mother Tongue - Malay and Tamil Language
Physical Education
Art and Music
You can also retrieve good references and resources on Assessment Literacy via OPAL 2.0
SFEd Assessment Literacy
2. Assessment Portal
3. Assessment Literacy Online Modules and Microlearning Units MLU
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