ENGLISH DEPT.

ASSESSMENT POLICY FOR THE BROAD GENERAL EDUCATION STAGE (S1 S3) We want every pupil to have the communication skills to operate confidently in the world and to have the skills to access learning throughout the rest of their lives. EXPERIENCES & OUTCOMES All of our courses in S1 S3 are designed to allow pupils to overtake the published Experiences and Outcomes of Curriculum for Excellence. These take the form of I can or I have statements eg. Third Level
I regularly select and read, listen to or watch texts for enjoyment and interest, and I can express how well they meet my needs and expectations and give reasons, with evidence, for my personal response. I can identify sources to develop the range of my reading. LIT 3-11a
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Fourth Level
I regularly select and read, listen to or watch texts for enjoyment and interest, and I can express how well they meet my needs and expectations and give reasons, with evidence, for my personal response. I can independently identify sources to develop the range of my reading. LIT 4-11a

These Experiences are far too numerous to list here but can be accessed at the following web address: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/literacy_english_experiences_outcomes_tcm4539867.pdf

SIGNIFICANT ASPECTS OF LEARNING LITERACY In day-to-day teaching, the Experiences and Outcomes are too unwieldy, so we concentrate on the following skills:
engages with and creates a broad range of texts uses reading strategies to understand, analyse and evaluate texts finds and uses information develops critical literacy skills, including evaluating sources writes with increasing accuracy, making effective use of spelling, grammar and punctuation creates texts of increasing complexity using more sophisticated language develops and uses higherorder thinking skills uses higher order questions and critical skills takes the initiative (including asking for help) and sustains communication

STANDARDS IN READING this is what we are aiming for by the end of S3.
Reads young adult and adult literature Chooses and comprehends a wide variety of sophisticated materials with ease (e.g. newspapers, magazines, manuals, novels and poetry) Reads and understands informational texts (e.g. manuals, consumer reports, applications and form) Reads challenging material for pleasure independently Reads challenging material for information and to solve problems independently Perseveres through complex reading tasks Gathers, analyses and uses information from graphs, charts, tables and maps independently Analyses literary devices (e.g. metaphors, imagery, irony and satire) Contributes unique insights and supports opinions in discussions of complex literature Adds depth to responses to literature by making insightful connections to other reading and experiences Evaluates, interprets and analyses reading content critically Develops and articulates criteria for evaluating literature Pursues a widening community of readers independently

STANDARDS IN WRITING This is the scale that we use to assess Writing across the school and which allows teachers to agree common targets for pupils to aim for. WRITING SCOTTISH CRITERION SCALE again, most pupils should reach this level by the end of S3.
Pupils should be able to write 350 500 words or more in 40 minutes. Can use ambitious and adventurous language for a purpose, with some words particularly well chosen. (must pick up from F4 and include adjectives and adverbs for description) There should be a minimum of five examples at this level. Can use a range of sophisticated connectives confidently and accurately, sometimes to shape meaning. (e.g. furthermore, moreover, similarly, yet, despite, whereas...) Can attempt a range of sophisticated openers (e.g. words ending with ing ed ly and connective as openers. For example Panicking, she corrected the writing, Stunned, he accepted his prize..., Angrily I stormed off..., Although we waited for hours, we were... Can use a wide range of punctuation accurately and to create effect. (e.g. full stops, commas, question marks, exclamation marks, inverted commas, ellipsis, dashes, brackets, colons, semi-colons and apostrophes) Almost all spelling is accurate. Can confidently link and relate events (including past, present and future); link points in functional tasks (e.g. subsequently, before, also, after a while, eventually, moreover, furthermore, in addition to this, on the contrary...) Can adapt form for purpose confidently as appropriate to task. (e.g. formal and informal letters, notes and diaries) Can write in the designated style in a lively and coherent way with clear confidence and as appropriate to task. (must consciously vary sentence length) Can organise ideas appropriately for both purpose and reader as appropriate to task. (e.g. captions, headings, fonts, chapters, letter formats, paragraphs, logically sequenced events, contextual and background information) Can develop ideas in creative and interesting ways (including the development of characters, description of setting and exploration of feelings or emotions as appropriate to task) Can produce thoughtful and considered writing as appropriate to task. (e.g. providing explanation, opinion, justification, deduction, effective openings and endings to stories...) Can use grammatical structures confidently and attempt grammatically complex structures. (e.g. expansion before and after the noun The little old man who lived on the hill, subordinating clauses I felt better when... ...who taught me the guitar.) Can use nouns, pronouns and tenses accurately and consistently throughout. Can use paragraphs confidently and accurately. Can use accurate, consistent and linked handwriting.

STANDARDS IN TALKING AND LISTENING

Selects subject, purpose, format and resources for talk. Is developing an individual style to communicate information, ideas or opinions or explain processes, concepts or ideas. Engages with others, making a relevant contribution, encouraging others to contribute and acknowledging that they have the right to a different opinion. Responds in ways appropriate to the role and uses contributions to reflect on, clarify or adapt thinking. Can explore and analyse the features of spoken language, and use these to suit purpose and audience. Can discuss the similarities and differences between different types of text and can comment, with evidence, on the content and form of short and extended texts. Uses suitable vocabulary to communicate effectively with an audience. Is aware of the techniques used to influence opinion and how to assess the value of sources, and recognise persuasion. Identifies issues raised, summarises findings and draws conclusions. Engages confidently with others within and beyond the school. Communicates in a clear, expressive way.

ASSESSMENT FOR PUPILS Pupils produce examples of their work in class or for homework, alone or in small groups. Some evidence is intangible (it might be a spoken performance, a discussion or a response to something they have read or heard). Other work can be kept and reviewed. The assessment process compares the pupils work against previously agreed success criteria or an example of a good performance. This might be done through traditional teacher marking in red pen at the end of an essay but these days its more likely to happen in the classroom as a conversation with the teacher or with the other members of the class sometimes with both. This needs to be a positive process. Whether it is the teacher or classmates feeding back with an assessment, they have to start by concentrating on the successful elements of the product. Then they should pick up any unsuccessful aspects, but only if they can suggest remedies. The end result should be that a pupil comes away from a task with a clear idea of what went right and not only what went wrong, but how to fix or improve it, next time. We are working towards every pupil being confident with self-assessment. This will happen at a different stage for each pupil, but there will come a point where pupils can judge their own work and sort out any problems. There is a feedback loop in assessment: a pupil produces work and then receives feedback from the teacher and/or peers which ensures that they are confident about how to improve. For their next similar exercise they will then receive further feedback on how well they have accomplished that improvement.

ASSESSMENT FOR TEACHERS Assessment is an important tool to evaluate the extent to which a lesson or a project or a stimulus has worked with a class. It forms a feedback loop for a teacher: if a proportion of the class does not seem to have understood the success criteria for a task or have not acted on that understanding, it is time to have another look at the lesson or the materials in an effort to see areas for improvement. Meanwhile, the teacher will have to look for another opportunity to deal with the problem that the original lesson was meant to address. Marking is undertaken regularly and pupils always have an opportunity to discuss their work shortly after it is completed. Our marking is intended to bring about improvement it is not about grades and numbers which can be a distraction from the progress required. Once a term teachers should share the work of their classes with colleagues, both in school and across Highland, to discuss the standards and the rate of progress in each class. Once a term, in common with other departments, teachers submit grades based on progress against national standards and progress against the pupils own capability. ASSESSMENT FOR PARENTS Assessment is now largely competency based, so you wont be receiving a report that boils your childs performance down to a single letter or number that ranks him or her against national standards. Unless there is something wrong, you will probably only receive one report in the course of a year. So what do you do if you want to keep a closer eye on your childs progress in English? You might like to look at how he or she is performing against the criteria for writing and reading that weve listed above. They were designed for non-English teachers and they seem to be working: in this school the Science, Social Subjects and Art teachers all use the criteria for Writing when they are assessing work. The one thing that will make the biggest difference to your childs progress in English is that they read as much as possible and as widely as possible: novels, newspapers, webpages, magazines and that you provide opportunities to discuss their reading. The important thing is to talk to your child about the feedback that is being received and give congratulations for work that is going well, while pointing him/her in the right direction where areas of weakness have been identified. Remember that English is mostly a skill and you arent likely to see overnight improvement any more than someone would suddenly become competent on a musical instrument or at a sport. Progress will be slow and steady: we like to look back to the start of each school session in August and measure progress from there.

What we record Pupils record their areas for improvement at the end of each piece of work and refer to these before starting another similar piece of work. Pupils keep a record of literacy targets in their homework diaries, generated from work in English and elsewhere in the school. This involves assessing vocabulary, connectives, openers and punctuation (VCOP). We use the Big Writing Scottish Criterion Scale to assess pupils and they become familiar with its terms. Assistance with this is published in their homework diaries. Learning Support staff keep a record of pupils reading: they have a few minutes each week to discuss their progress with personal reading and a record is kept of this. Teachers submit a summative grade each term which informs the Pupil Support Team about pupil progress. In addition there are twice yearly discussions with all staff about whole year groups; progress in Literacy features prominently in these discussions. There is an on-going dialogue with Learning Support to ensure that the needs of every pupil are being met and that we are aware of any areas where we need to adapt our teaching or assessment methods to suit pupils. We write an annual report, in the summer term, which informs parents and Pupil Support of our detailed judgement on the pupil over the whole year. As pupils come towards the end of S3 some more formal assessments will be used so that pupils can make informed choices about courses in the Senior School.