Involving pupils in their learning in Stonelaw Learning Community
Focus and context
Assessment FOR and AS Learning
- Our pupils and staff are fully involved in deciding next steps in their learning and identifying who can help.
- Our pupils and staff practise peer and self-assessment.
Project summary
The Group in South Lanarkshire consisted of representatives from the English Department of the secondary school and primary staff who were P6 or P7 classroom teachers. They wanted to focus on sharing technical writing criteria with pupils so that they could self and peer assess their work.
First of all they looked at existing criteria and adapted these for the project to form two sets of criteria focused on technical skills: a set for levels A-B and a set for levels C-E. They then developed a set of lessons designed to train pupils to use these criteria to assess their own and their peers’ writing using stars and wishes. They also later held a moderation event to which members of the group brought samples of work, which pupils had assessed. Although they felt this event was limited in scope because the methodology was not yet thoroughly embedded, staff felt that time spent sharing the standard and discussing criteria reinforced the impact of the project on their professional development.
Case study extract
The Group copied and laminated cards for pupil use in class. The exemplar pieces of writing used to teach the pupils how to use the stars and wishes were taken from a national document called Formative and Summative Assessment of Writing. Pupils responded really well to looking at the work of another young person. They were extremely focused on the task and didn’t fail to find more errors than the teachers on every occasion.
Pupils became more able to accept criticism from teachers and peers as well as becoming much more adept at self-analysis. They became positive and supportive of one another when assessing writing. Teachers noticed a marked improvement between first and final drafts when pupils had been given more specific advice by peers.
The Group would like to extend further the scope of the project next year by offering more detailed criteria for different aspects of writing. In addition, the Group would like to perhaps plan modelling lessons for the content of writing pieces so that pupils can then ‘star and wish’ this aspect of their work.
Staff taking part in the project noted that pupils really enjoyed using the stars and wishes checklist to assess other pupils’ writing. They were highly critical and perceptive in their comments. Particularly at S1 and S2 level, they were able to make highly perceptive remarks about the suitability of content in the writing of others. Comments about whether something made sense were common. They often commented on how well a story flowed; and some even made comments about characterisation, for example: ‘He wouldn’t have done that. He was too quiet at the start.’ This was not included in the stars and wishes criteria and will be an area of development for the group next year.
Comments from pupils
‘The stars and wishes helped me to focus when I was reading through my work. They gave me something in particular to look for.’
‘They helped me to look for things to improve.’
Points to consider
The teachers in this group used anonymous exemplars to share the standard with pupils. What other sources of exemplar work could you use to model qualities of work for pupils?
When pupils begin to assess each other’s work, how can you help them to supply appropriate and relevant feedback to each other?
The teachers in this group used technical criteria but found that pupils sometimes gave each other feedback which went beyond these limitations. Do you think pupils should be encouraged to do this and, if so, how could you help them to do this?
Date posted October 2006
Contact details
If you would like further information on this case study, please contact the local authority assessment co-ordinator. You can find contact details for each authority area on our local authority co-ordinators' contacts page.