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Assessing Communication at Key Stage 3: Guidance What are the Requirements for Communication? Across the curriculum, at a level appropriate to their ability, pupils should be enabled to develop skills in: Talking and Listening • listen to and take part in discussions, explanations, role plays and presentations; • contribute comments, ask questions and respond to others’ points of view; • communicate information, ideas, opinions, feelings and imaginings using an expanding vocabulary; • structure talk so that ideas can be understood by others; • speak clearly and adapt ways of speaking to audience and situation; • use non­verbal methods to express ideas and engage with the listener. Reading • read a range of texts* for information, ideas and enjoyment; • use a range of strategies to read with increasing independence; • find, select and use information from a range of sources; • understand and explore ideas, events and features in texts*; • use evidence from texts* to explain opinions. Writing • talk about, plan and edit work; • communicate information, meaning, feelings, imaginings and ideas in a clear and organised way; • develop, express and present ideas in a variety of forms and formats, using traditional and digital resources, for different audiences and purposes; • write with increasing accuracy and proficiency. * Note on texts: Texts refer to ideas that are organised to communicate and present a message in written, spoken, visual, digital and symbolic forms. Activity List activities in your subject which involve Communication. Map an activity in your subject to the requirements for Communication. (For detail, see Facilitators’ Notes and Appendix 4) 1 What are the Statutory Requirements in connection with Communication? Within the NI Curriculum, there is a requirement for pupils to be assessed annually in the cross­ curricular skills of Communication, Using Mathematics and Using ICT. In Years 3 to 10, (from 2009­10) this assessment will be with reference to levels of progression. There is also a requirement for pupils to acquire and develop their cross­curricular skills within the context of the areas of learning. What is the relationship between Literacy and Communication? How will pupils acquire and develop their skills? Within Literacy, pupils will acquire and develop knowledge, understanding and skills. There is flexibility, within and beyond the statutory minimum content, for learning and teaching in relation to literacy to be tailored to the needs of the pupil and the context of the school. Communication encompasses those core aspects which are common to all schools in Northern Ireland and which form consistent standards for assessment and reporting. There is a focus on using the skill in a range of contexts across the curriculum. Pupils should therefore be given opportunities to demonstrate, apply and transfer their knowledge, understanding and skills in a variety of contexts across the curriculum. Development Acquisition Assessment Promoting Demonstrating Applying Reporting Transferring Acquisition Pupils need to be taught both the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of Communication before they can demonstrate their learning in a wide range of different situations. This acquisition may naturally occur within English, but can also be acquired in other relevant contexts across the curriculum. For example, pupils may learn how to ‘understand and explore ideas, events and features in texts’ within Environment and Society, through investigating a range of evidence in a History context. 2 Development Pupils should be given opportunities to demonstrate, apply and transfer their Communication knowledge, understanding and skills in a variety of contexts across the curriculum. All subjects potentially have a role to play in developing pupils’ Communication skills by providing opportunities for them to demonstrate, practise, apply and transfer these skills. Teachers will already be engaged in this process via the delivery of the Learning Outcomes. All subjects can also contribute to the ongoing formative assessment of Communication, e.g. through feedback to pupils, peer and self­assessment and on a day­to­day basis. Assessment and Reporting In the academic year 09/10 there is a requirement to formally assess Communication each year with reference to the levels of progression. This formal assessment should build on the acquisition and development that is taking place across the curriculum. However, while all subjects are required through their Learning Outcomes to contribute, as appropriate, to the acquisition and development of Communication, not all are expected to contribute to the formal assessment or reporting. Schools, therefore, have the flexibility to create a model of coordination for assessment and reporting which is manageable and meaningful within their own particular school context. Proposal Assessment evidence for Communication should be drawn from at least two Areas of Learning across the Key Stage. Each pupil’s progress in Communication will be reported annually in the Pupil Profile. Customisable comment banks, referenced to the levels of progression, are available as part of the Profiles 7 report writing software package. These comment banks provide points of reference for teachers’ own comments on individual pupil progress. Use of these comment banks is optional. 3 What are the Levels of Progression for Communication? It should be noted that, at the time of writing (April 08), the Levels of Progression are draft. The Levels of Progression form the standards which will be used make annual judgements about pupils’ progress. There are seven levels which provide consistent standards across Key Stages 1, 2 and 3: • At Key Stage 1 (Years 3&4), pupils will be working up to and including Level 3. • At Key Stage 2 (Years 5­7), pupils will be working up to and including Level 5. • At Key Stage 3 (Years 8­10), pupils will be working up to and including Level 7. The Levels of Progression include: • the requirements for Communication; • context statements (straplines) at each level; • the expected standard at each level, expressed as competence­based ‘Pupils can…’ statements. The requirements for Communication can be found at the left of the Levels of Progression document. They are colour coded so that progression in the requirements can be tracked throughout the levels. Expected standard at a level Requirements ‘Pupils can…’ Context statements Three strands of Communication: Talking and Listening; Reading; Writing. Progression in the Requirements 4 Progression Progression in the requirements for Communication can be tracked by using the colour coding. Activity Track one of the Communication requirements (i.e. one colour strip) from Level 1 to Level 7, looking at progression. Read down all level descriptions for Level 4 and 5, annotating key words in the context statements and in the bullet points which pinpoint progression. (For detail, see Facilitators’ notes) Progression can also be seen in the context statements at each level (for example, Level 4 Reading: ‘In a range of texts of varying lengths for a variety of purposes….’. These indicate the contexts and nature of activities at each level. When identifying and designing assessment opportunities, you should look carefully at the context statement to consider whether the activity allows pupils to achieve at the appropriate level. From… (Level 1) To… (Level 7) Context familiar unfamiliar informal formal Nature of activity structured free response closed open­ended simple complex Independence demonstrate transfer supported independent Activity Look at the context statements at each level. Think of an activity for Communication within your subject. How do the context statements impact on an assessment activity planned for pupils? 5 Assessment In Years 3 to 10, pupils’ progress in Communication will be assessed with reference to the Levels of Progression. How will pupils be assessed? The Process… Pupils can be assigned a level on the completion of a Communication task. Any one assessment can only provide a snapshot of pupil progress. At the end of each year, teachers will make a holistic, ‘best fit’ judgement about the level which best describes the pupil’s progress and performance. This judgement is likely to be based on ongoing assessments and observations throughout the year. In order to build up a broader picture over time, you will need to carry out a number of assessments which together cover the three strands of Communication. These assessments will include planned activities across a range of contexts and using a variety of assessment methods. Some assessments may be based on observation of day­to­day work within the classroom. However, activities to assess Communication should ideally include opportunities for pupils to demonstrate their ability to use their communication skills appropriately for specific purposes across the curriculum. To build up a picture over time it is good practice to retain evidence of pupils’ achievement in their learning. Evidence could include a combination of: • teacher observation of groups and individuals (planned and incidental) recorded as brief, concise notes; • teacher interaction with groups and individuals recorded as brief, concise notes; • practical, oral and written work (including evidence of work in progress to illustrate process); • digital evidence (e.g. video, computer or wider ICT based assessments); • observation/evidence of peer and self­assessment (including pupil records, notes, self and peer assessment sheets etc). How

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