CQUniversity Unit Profile.

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 Written 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.
 
Preparation for the Task
In preparation for the task you must:
1.      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 w 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.**
 
2.      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 STUDENT DATA BEFORE INCLUDING IT AS AN APPENDIX IN YOUR ASSIGNMENT.
 
Summative written components to be submitted
A.     Theoretical understandings and analysis of planning – 1000-1300 words (excluding the matrix)
 
Begin this section 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. Discuss the purpose of keeping accurate and reliable data records to inform teaching decisions. 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. 

Identify 2 students of contrasting needs: 1 should be a high achieving student, 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 and the whole class (from your initial data collection) will 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 (and the whole class) to inform ‘in-the-moment’ decision-making.
 
B.     Practical examples of assessment for learning strategies + discussion - (3 tools + 750-900 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. Describe the pedagogical strategies you will draw on in using these tools with your focus learners and the whole class for formative purposes (i.e., gathering data on student learning and making adjustments to your teaching in response):

1.      A model response of the final/culminating (summative task) the students are asked to complete. This model response is to be used to demonstrate features of quality performance. Annotate the model response, pointing out key aspects of the work to show how it is a quality example of this type of writing. Write a paragraph describing the differentiated pedagogical strategies you could use to engage the two focus learners with the model response and how you would gather evidence of their learning. (Paragraph - 250-300 words, not including the model response)
**The model response does not need to be the whole summative task that you will ask students to complete, but it should be long enough to demonstrate to students what they are required to do in (at least) one section of their summative task.**
 
2.      A formative assessment instrument (of any type) designed to find out about students’ understanding at a key point in the unit of work. Write a paragraph that describes your assumptions about how ready the students are to proceed in their learning based on the teaching you have done. You will describe 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. (Paragraph - 250-300 words, 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. (Paragraph - 250-300 words, 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 (including a post and feedback to your 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 Written 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 Written 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 model response that you wrote for Written Assessment Task 1. Remove the annotations that you wrote on Written Assessment Task 1 as part of your pedagogical strategy. This model sample will now be used as an example student response that you will now mark.

Making judgements and providing feedback
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). *Please note – because the student response is only an excerpt of the summative task (not the full summative task), you may not be able to use all individual criteria on the rubric. Only use those criteria that are applicable to that part of the task when you are marking.**

Provide an explanation (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)

Provide feedback to the 'student' on their work, informed by the assessment criteria and aimed at informing student learning for further improvement. This feedback will take the form of comments written on both the student response and the marked criteria and standards rubric.

Write an accompanying statement (not intended for the student) that uses key theories about quality feedback for improvement and identifies aspects of quality in the feedback you have provided for the student. Your statement should be approximately 250-300 words.

Moderation and Reporting
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. 
Discuss the range of strategies that you would draw on for reporting to students and parents/carers.

Describe the purpose of keeping accurate and reliable records of student achievement and how you would do this. (250-300 words)
 
Impact and Evaluation
Reflect on the work you completed in Written Assessment Task 1 (preparing specific strategies to support your students) and the marked and moderated student response in Written Assessment Task 2 to demonstrate your impact on this student’s learning. In particular you will discuss:

a)     how the summative piece of assessment provides evidence of your impact on the student's learning
b)     how the needs of this student were specifically targeted (based on data gathered for AT1 that informed your planning and the particular teaching you employed)
c)      how you evaluated your planning, teaching and assessment strategies during the unit of work in order to adjust your teaching to improve this student’s learning 
d)     how successful these strategies were (based on the student’s response to the assessment task)
e)     how this evidence will inform next steps in teaching and learning.  (300-400 words)

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.