You have the opportunity to complete forum posts and receive feedback from your peers. Completing these tasks will gain you marks towards your overall grade in this unit.

In order to get these marks, you will need to do the following:
Complete a Forum activity (including a post and feedback to your peers) in Week 4. The details of the task are on the Activities forum (in the Assessment Block).

Take part in a feedback activity designed to give and receive feedback from a small group of peers (Weeks 5, 6 and break week). The details of this task are on the Activities forum (in the Assessment Block).

Complete a quiz that provides evidence that you completed the forum posts, provided your peers with feedback and took part in the feedback activity. You will be asked to use a quiz format to provide information about when you completed the forum posts and which peers you provided with feedback. The quiz is located in the assessment block and should be completed before, or immediately after, submitting Assessment Task 1.

Completion of forum tasks and provision of feedback to peers as described. 

Your task is to demonstrate essential classroom assessment knowledge including the ways in which teachers use data and evidence to know and support students in the classroom. To do this you will prepare a written analysis informed by theory of the ways in which data and evidence would be collected and used to inform the teaching and learning cycle in a unit of work.

In preparation for the task you must:

Access an existing unit of work. This can be a unit that was designed and taught by you, or designed by your mentor teacher.

Any existing work drawn upon MUST be acknowledged (eg. if you prepared this unit of work for another course, or the unit was designed by your mentor teacher).

**The unit that you choose must have a written component as its culminating/summative task (this may not be the whole task, but must be a significant part of the task). If you wish to use a particular unit that you have taught but it does not include this component, you will need to adjust the unit and the assessment task to meet this requirement. Please note, a short answer test does NOT constitute a sufficient written component. Please discuss this with the unit coordinator if you are unsure.**

Collect an appropriate range of system and school data about a class to which this unit has been or could be delivered (this can be a class that you have taught or will be teaching in your next practicum).

**You could use data that you've accessed for previous professional placement units. Consult with the unit coordinator if there are issues associated with this.**

PLEASE NOTE: YOU MUST USE PSEUDONYMS FOR THIS DATA BEFORE INCLUDING IT AS AN APPENDIX IN YOUR ASSIGNMENT.

Summative written components to be submitted

A. Theoretical understandings and analysis of planning – 1000 words (excluding the matrix)

Begin your written assessment with a discussion of the purposes of assessment and your understanding of the roles of teachers and students in assessment in classrooms. Draw on key theories and use examples from your selected unit of work to illustrate your point.

Discuss how you would align curriculum, pedagogy and assessment with a focus on learning in the delivery of this unit of work. Discuss the process of front-ending assessment. Draw on key theories and use examples from your selected unit of work to illustrate your point.

Include a matrix of the different system and school data sets and methods (including diagnostic tools) of collecting evidence that would inform the teaching of this unit of work (see template on Moodle site). **This matrix does not contribute to the word count for this section.**

Using the matrix as evidence, discuss the need to identify suitable data type and methods to collect evidence of learning in order to establish the students’ learning needs and current levels of performance. In your discussion draw on key theories and use examples of the data sets and the methods for collecting evidence of learning that you would use in this unit of work to meet the needs of all learners in your class. Annotate the matrix to describe your thinking.

Identify 2 students of contrasting needs: 1 should be a high achieving students, the other should be a student who is not achieving at the required level. Use these students as examples of the types of diverse learners you would have in your class.

Describe how your understanding of these students (from your initial data collection) would inform how you would plan to teach the unit. Describe how you would continue to collect and analyse data throughout the unit about these 2 students to inform ‘in-the-moment’ decision-making.

B. Practical examples of assessment for learning strategies + discussion - (3 tools + 750 words-max)

Prepare a sample of selected tools that you would use in this unit to engage students with understandings about quality and improvement and to gather evidence about student learning. You will describe how you would use these tools for formative purposes (i.e., gathering data on student learning and making adjustments to your teaching in response):

1. An excerpt of an annotated exemplar of the final/culminating (summative task) the students are asked to complete. The exemplar is to be used to demonstrate features of quality performance. Write a paragraph describing the differentiated pedagogical strategies you could use to engage the two focus learners with the exemplar and how you would gather evidence of their learning. (250 words max, not including the exemplar)

2. A formative assessment instrument (of any type) designed to find out about students’ understanding at a key point in the unit of work. Describe your assumptions about how ready the students are to proceed in their learning based on the teaching you have done. Write a paragraph describing the next steps in teaching for the two focus learners if the data you gather through the use of the instrument demonstrates that one of them understands the concepts taught, and the other does not. (250 words max, not including the instrument)

3. A self-assessment or peer assessment tool designed for students to reflect/get feedback on their performance during preparation for their summative task. Write a paragraph describing how this tool would be used to assist students’ working knowledge of quality criteria and the pedagogical strategies you would use to assist the two focus students to set goals and improve their work. (250 words max, not including the tool)

1. Critically evaluate how assessment can contribute to educational success for the diverse range of students in secondary schools;

2. Apply theory, principles and practice to design and critically evaluate assessment instruments and programs to ensure alignment between curriculum, assessment and learning experiences;

3. Use quality exemplars, feedback and reporting mechanisms to communicate student achievements, learning progress and future learning needs

You have the opportunity to complete forum posts and receive feedback from your peers. Completing these tasks will gain you marks towards your overall grade in this unit.

In order to get these marks, you will need to do the following:

Complete a forum activity by posting to the Activities Forum and provide feedback to peers in Week 8. The details of the task are on the Activities forum (in the Assessment Block).

Take part in a group moderation activity designed to give and receive feedback from a small group of peers (Weeks 11 and 12). The details of the tasks are on the Activities forum (in the Assessment Block).

Complete a quiz that provides evidence that you completed the forum posts, provided your peers with feedback, and took part in the moderation activity. You will be asked to use a quiz format to provide information about when you completed the forum posts and which peers you provided with feedback. The quiz is located in the assessment block and should be completed before, or immediately after, submitting Assessment Task 2.

Completion of forum tasks and provision of feedback to peers as described

Your task is to create an assessment and reporting package for the unit of work you used as the basis of Assessment Task 1.

Summative written components to be submitted

The package will include two written components: A. Design of tasks; B. Marking and moderation.

A. Design of assessment tasks

Design the task sheet for the final or culminating (summative) task for the unit to be distributed to students.

Design an instrument-specific marking criteria and standards rubric for this task (based on the QCAA standards elaborations). If your focus class is in the Senior School, then you will include the appropriate ISMG).

**If you base your task sheet and/or criteria and standards rubric on an existing tool used by the school (or from the relevant Senior Syllabus) you MUST acknowledge this.**

Reflection on task design

Annotate both the task sheet and the rubric to point out features of both that demonstrate your thinking and decision-making about their design (this will apply whether you were able to change the task sheet/rubric or not [e.g., use of senior tasks/ISMGs]). If the task/rubric was based on the school’s work (which you modified), include in your annotations some details about what you changed on the original in order to meet the requirements of the task.

Write an accompanying statement where you refer to key theories and the official curriculum to reflect on the instruments’ validity and the ways in which they adhere to the requirements of quality assessment design as outlined in the Moodle materials. In total, your statement should be 300-400 words.

B. Marking and Moderation

Return to the the exemplar excerpt that you wrote for Assessment task 1 and expand on this to create a student’s full response to the culminating (summative) task.

Using the marking criteria and standards rubric, you will mark the student response to the task, applying the relevant standards and criteria to inform your judgement of the quality of the work and award a grade (note - this does not have to be a response of any particular standard).

Provide feedback to the 'student' on their work, informed by the assessment criteria and aimed at informing student learning for further improvement. Write an accompanying statement (not intended for the student) that identifies key theories about quality feedback for improvement and identify aspects of quality in the feedback you have provided for the student. What does this piece of student work demonstrate about your 'impact' on their learning? Your statement should be approximately 300-400 words.

Provide an explanation (think aloud, or cognitive commentary) in which you justify how you arrived at the overall judgement of the quality of the student work. Discuss how you identified both strengths and limitations of the work in making your judgement. Include references to the criteria and standards. (200 words max)

Engage in a moderation conversation with a small group of peers from the course in Weeks 11/12 of the term (identify these peers and the date of your moderation meeting in your Forum Activities Evidence for Marks quiz). Provide a written statement in which you refer to key theories, describe the process of moderation and discuss what you learned about professional judgement practice including the use of standards. Indicate whether your judgements made prior to moderation (as described in your cognitive commentary) remained the same or changed through moderation. (200-300 words)

Produce a script of a parent-teacher interview (including dialogue from both parents and teacher) that demonstrates understanding of how to communicate with parents about this student and their work. Use this marked final or culminating task, the feedback and the grade to inform parents about:

a) how the needs of this student have been specifically targeted (based on data gathered for AT1 and the particular teaching strategies you employed as a result of data-gathering); and

b) how the summative piece of assessment provides evidence of the student's learning; and

c) how it will inform next steps in teaching and learning.

This task could be submitted as an MP3 file or as a written script.

1. Apply theory, principles and practice to design and critically evaluate assessment instruments programs to ensure alignment between curriculum, assessment and learning experiences;

2. Use quality exemplars, feedback and reporting mechanisms to communicate student achievements, learning progress and future learning needs;

3. Recognise and respond to the accountability of teachers in assessment and reporting in secondary school contexts including moderation processes.