End of Topic Low-Stakes Tests
These are to be used at the end of each 2-week unit as low-stakes quizzes or tests to assess what students can successfully do after teaching of the topic. This is something required by some MATs so I hope you find them useful if you need them. For each unit I have created a foundation and higher test, but I'm going to experiment with them this term before I decide if I need more. Please let me know your thoughts!
Mixed Assessments
There are 3 types of assessment that I use to monitor students' progress. All the assessments are roughly 50 marks so can be done in a single 1-hour lesson. Markschemes and gap analyses are included for all. Please read the supporting material below before beginning.
The baseline assessment does what it says - it establishes a rough baseline for the content that students know. This assessment features only number and ratio/proportion content from grades 1-3. I have found it to be accurate enough to determine which set to put students in and which assessment each student does the following term.
The leveled skills assessment is designed to eliminate gaps. Throughout all of them they feature almost every objective on the new maths specification. They took a long time to create - I cut out every objective and ordered them by difficulty/prerequisites then sorted them into leveled assessments. The outcome corresponds to the numbers on the schemes of learn in which will help you ensure the pitch of your lessons is right. A student will achieve a .0, .3 or .7 for each assessment which corresponds to 25%, 50% and 75% of the marks. Once a student has achieved a .7 (75%), they can move up to the next level test in the following assessment period. Each assessment for each level (term 1, 2 and 3) feature exactly the same objectives and gap analyses to allow for direct comparison from both you and students.
The problem solving assessments assess students' ability to reason as it is required more and more in the maths GCSE. The test students do should correspond to what they achieved in the levelled assessment so the content is not too hard. Ie., if a student is a 3.7, put them on the 2-4 PS assessment. Students will receive a descriptor (No or little skill, Developing, Securing or Extending) rather than a number for these assessments.
As I said above, all these assessments include gap analyses. We are moving away from levels so the numbers are for our tracking purposes as teachers. Levels mean little to students, so the gap analyses provide rich information of their success and areas for development. Red denotes no marks for a question, Amber some, Green full marks. They are conditionally formatted to automatically colour depending on the score you enter into each cell. We ask students to stick one copy in their exercise book and one in their planner to aid revision and show progress. Ask your admin team to print them for you. These have become a vital planning tool for personalisation of each unit - if your whole class understand HCF and LCM, there's no need to spend a whole lesson on it.
Please contact me if you need further clarification and I'll be happy to help.