Engaging in assessment moderation

Moderation discussion: Literary Recount of three Foundation students

identified at three different levels of
achievement

The Recount assessment task was undertaken near the end of Term two and in the last
week of the Term I met with my Mentor teacher to discuss my interpretations of each piece
of work and what had informed the standard that I had assigned to each one. The aim was
to achieve consistency in interpreting the standards and to also ensure that consistency and
comparable judgements were being made of the student learning.
Resources that I brought to the meeting
3 graded student work samples from Foundation for a recount (at, below and above
level). Sourced from - https://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/english/english-k10/recount/
3 graded student work samples from Foundation for a recount (at, below and above
level).
Sourced from - https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/work-
samples/english-work-samples-portfolios/
Resources that my Mentor Teacher brought to the meeting
A checklist that the school uses to identify different achievement levels for Writing, it is
entitled I Can statements and features a series of statements which are levelled below, at
level and above level for each year level. The statements are aligned with the Victorian
Curriculum and provides a starting point for making judgements of students work against the
standards.
We both completed the I Can checklist separately and compared our results. The results
were similar and it established a really solid basis for investigating deeper into the curriculum
and identifying areas that required further articulation. The responses then provided the
platform for using the following guiding questions -
Can you identify the evidence in the assessment that demonstrates the appropriate
standard? (we each highlighted the evidence in the work samples and linked it to an
I can statement and a curriculum content descriptor.)
Is there enough evidence from the standard to validate the decision made?
Has the above or below standard been adequately checked against?
How the moderation process led to adjustments to the original judgement
Below Achievement level
The student work sample that was identified as below level, achieved just one checkbox on
the 0.5 statements. This prompted further discussion on the students performance and we
narrowed the focus on identifying the achievement level the student currently should be
levelled at. Many indicators matched with the content descriptors of Level B, including the
students difficulty with tracing the letters that the teacher had provided as a prompt, the
judgement after moderation was revised to Level B (rather than simply below standard).
This adjustment identified the need to further cater for the students learning needs and
resulted in further discussions with my Mentor teacher of how we would support the student,
in particular addressing their fine motor skills to strengthen their ability to draw letters with
purposeful intention.

Above Achievement level -

The following is a collection of the annotated judgments that I recorded on the students work
to justify the judgement of above achievement level against the standards.
Has used the structure of a recount. Includes an introduction, who was involved and
what happened.
Has created a text featuring several events in the correct chronological sequence.
Developing use of capital letters. Used correctly for a proper noun i.e. Jeremy.
Has used full stops correctly to show the end of a statement.
Has attempted unknown and difficult words using their knowledge of letters and
sounds. Eg sumtiym (sometime), finliy (finally), femluy (family)
Upon completion of the I can statements checklist, the students work more accurately
represented a student at achievement level rather than above. My Mentor teacher advised
that the use of the capital letter in the name of the book, most likely was achieved from the
student copying the title. The student consistently incorrectly applied the use of capital
letters throughout the text and therefore was not really displaying a developing use of capital
letters. Whilst the text was in correct chronological sequence, there was a certain amount of
important information left out of the writing. Whilst this students writing sample was above
level for the collective group of students in that particular grade, when judging against the
standards it more consistently reflected an at expected level judgement.
Moderation discussion outcomes:
This process has highlighted how moderating builds knowledge surrounding levels of
achievement and how this enhances teachers abilities to assess students performance
consistently. The process really enhanced my understanding of how important it is to use a
range of sources to build understanding, collaborating with other professionals to improve
this process and how it can clearly identify students strengths and areas for improvement.
This process along with the course content of EDBED 4009 has identified literature and
resources that will support my future moderation practices. Literature really highlights the
importance of using exemplars to assist in moderating and the ongoing commitment to
professional conversations in developing teachers understandings of the standards (Adie &
Willis, 2014). I found the annotated student work samples from
https://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/english/english-k10/recount/ and
https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/work-samples/english-work-samples-
portfolios/ to be extremely helpful in the process, using them as exemplars to compare my
own professional judgements with.
Overall, the moderation discussion resulted in modifications to two of the original
judgements, highlighting the importance of bringing together colleagues with different levels
of experiences and understandings. The process also reiterated the importance of using
common assessments frequently to measure student progress on the learning continuum in
a consistent manner, as data to identify next steps for teaching and learning.

References
Adie, L., & Willis, J. (2014). Using annotations to inform an understanding of achievement
standards. Assessment Matters, 6, 112-136.
Australiancurriculum.edu.au. (n.d.). English work samples portfolios. [online] Available at:
https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/work-samples/english-work-
samples-portfolios/ [Accessed 28 Sep. 2017].
NSW Education Standards Authority (n.d.).English K10 :: Early Stage 1 - Activity 3. [online]
Syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au. Available at:
https://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/english/english-k10/recount/ [Accessed 28 Sep.
2017].