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All teachers need to be able to confidently plan and implement appropriate forms of assessment

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All teachers need to be able to confidently plan and implement appropriate forms of assessment. The successful completion of this assignment will enable you to:

Develop an assessment instrument based upon a given content area from one Stage 6 syllabus;

Practise catering for individual differences when planning assessments;

Identify different sorts of assessment instruments for different purposes;

Recognise the links between syllabus statements, classroom objectives/outcomes and assessment indicators and criteria;

Map assessment to the successful achievement of predetermined outcomes.

Task Overview

Your task for this assignment is divided into 3 closely related parts:

Part A (c. 400 words) – Write a brief analysis of the relevance and role of “assessment for learning” in Stage 6 science.

Part B (c. 1100 words) – Develop an assessment instrument (i.e. task) for either a Year 11 or year 12 class.

Part C – Self-Assessment

 

2. Task Instructions

General Instructions

1. Before commencing please ensure you have acquainted yourself thoroughly with the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) science support documents available on their website and the APA 7th edition referencing system.

2. You may choose any one of the senior secondary science syllabuses within your jurisdiction to work from.

3. You must use the assignment template provided for all parts of the assignment.

4. Use of other sources and referencing: It is fine to use some ideas or materials from other sources (e.g. texts, discussion boards, research articles, course notes) as long as you are not relying largely on a previously published assessment item or one you may have accessed from a school. Any ideas that you source from elsewhere must be acknowledged and cited correctly.

5. Word Count: The following are not counted in the word count: Assignment template, extracts from the syllabus such as outcomes and module content points, situation analysis, reference list, table of contents.

6. Presentation: It would be helpful if you include:1.Your name and the page number in a footer on each page in your finalassignment2.A table of contents

Part A: 400 words

Relevance and role of “assessment for learning” in stage 6 science. Write a brief analysis of assessment for learning and how it relates to assessment of learning. To do this well you need to refer to the appropriate literature. Include:

your definition of assessment for learning and how it differs from assessment of learning and assessment as learning;

the purpose and timing of assessment for learning;

the roles of the teacher and student in assessment for learning;

one specific example of using ‘assessment for learning’ in which you make formative use of a summative assessment task

Part B: 1100 words

Assessment context and Task

The overall goal for Part B of this assignment is for you to develop an assessment instrument that should be very polished and suitable to administer to a Year 11 or Year 12 class, and that conforms strictly to the syllabus requirements of NSW state.

Your assessment instrument should be designed to assess about 20% of the year's work for the grade you select (i.e. 20% of year 11 mark or 20% of the year 12 mark). As most schools purchase ready-made exam papers, and to encourage you to think about alternatives to assessment-by-exam, it is expected that your task is NOT an examination paper or a predominantly summative practical examination (Tests will not be accepted for the purposes of this assignment and will result in a failing mark).

In choosing and developing your task you do not have to reinvent the wheel. There is a vast amount of data on Websites that suggest assessment procedures. You are advised to be aware of these, be critically selective in their use and reference them if you use them. (Warning – If yo u borrowed or acquired an assessment task from a school and think it will do to meet the criteria of this assignment you might be very disappointed. Please ensure you have appropriately addressed the assessable criteria. You must also acknowledge the original source of the task).

You can use the exact same situation analysis as for Assignment 1 (there will be no plagiarism issues here as this instruction provides the necessary permission to re-use just that part of your work from a previous assignment). If for some reason you want to write a different situation analysis that’s fine, but in this case it must include comparable diversity as that specified for Assignment 1. Part B comprises the following four components.

Assessment context, situational analysis and any special allowances

In this section specify

which State syllabus documents you are using;

provide a concise summary of your State  mandated assessment requirements; and

how your assessment task relates to and satisfies these and any other mandated requirements relating to assessment components, weightings and tasks.

You will need to refer to the sections of NSW state’s syllabus addressing “assessment and reporting”.

Use the situational analysis from Assignment 1 (after making any necessary corrections eg differntiation gifted student … chk ) or write a new one if you prefer.

Include a paragraph clearly outlining any allowances you will make in relation to your assessment task to ensure equity in your class situation. You must make reference to appropriate state and/or federal policies relating to special needs and equity – dot points are fine.

Assessment mapping and outcomes

This section should contain a table of an appropriate assessment program for either the Preliminary or HSC year that would be suitable to hand out to students at the start of the school year. Examples are provided on the NESA website for each senior science subject. "Sample Assessment Schedules" (Plz chk this web site  sample for chemistry subject) for Biology can be seen here (you will find them under "Support Materials" section). Make sure that the single assessment task you are developing in the rest of the assignment is indicated clearly in this overall grid.

The assessment instrument for a single assessment task

The instrument needs to contain the following two parts:

Information Sheet - This is to be given to the students at least two weeks before the actual task is given to the students, and at a minimum should include: Subject and Year, Title of assessment task: a brief description of the task written so that the students and their parents can understand it, the outcomes to be assessed (both the code AND the written outcome please), task weighting (both of which MUST match the overall assessment map for the year), word length, presentation format.

Assessment Task - This is to be a clear description of the task, in a form that you would give out for a Yr 11 or 12 assessment. In practice you would include the cover sheet again, but you don't need to for the purposes of the assignment.

Task Description - The description of the task and instructions for completing it –making them as clear and unambiguous as possible. It should also include any necessary or desirable details about how students should address the task: e.g., answer templates or books, specified headings or formats.

Submission Procedures: To whom and how should they submit it, consequences for late submission, any plagiarism declarations or other things you might like to include.

Assignment Marking Criteria*: These should be given to students at the same time as the task -they are part of the assignment instructions. These must comply with any assessment guidelines/policies in your State or Territory, so in NSW they need to relate explicitly to the OUTCOMES that the assessment claims to be assessing. The criteria also need to relate coherently to the weightings for each domain on the assignment (i.e if the assessment weighting is 10% knowledge and understanding the marking criteria need to reflect this). For the purposes of this assignment, I suggest you develop an assessment rubric. Clearly indicate how you would allocate marks. For example, for a 5 mark item, you would need to show what responses get 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 or 0 marks. Include an explanation of how an individual's work will be assessed if there is any group work or self/peer assessment involved.

*The rubric content is NOT included in the work count.

Additional feedback

Include an example of the kind of written feedback you might give for one component of the task, to a student who has performed badly in that component.

Part C:

Bibliography

Using APA, list all the references you have used in preparing this assignment (including URLs) as well as those cited in the text of the assignment. This is especially important if you are using documentation from another jurisdiction so we can assess how well you are meeting requirements.

 

Part D: 

Self-Assessment

You must use the checklist provided to assess the quality of your own work.