Jasmine Elder Thies EDUC 4130 Assignment One

ADVANCED TEACHING SKILLS

EDUC 4130

ASSSIGNMENT ONE

ENGLISH WORK SAMPLE: YEAR THREE

JASMINE ELDER THIES

University of Notre Dame, Fremantle

20171284

1
Jasmine Elder Thies EDUC 4130 Assignment One

1. CONTENT DESCRIPTOR
Year 3: Discuss the nature and effects of some language devices used to enhance meaning and shape the reader’s
reaction, including rhythm and onomatopoeia in poetry and prose (ACELT1600), (School Curriculum and Standards
Authority, 2014).

OBJECTIVES
Students will be able to:
1. Identify at least one language device in the poem.
2. Describe how a chosen language device has impacted on their thoughts/emotions/feelings.
3. Change the imagery in a line of poetry to alter the text’s meaning.

2. ASSESSMENT STRATEGY
Formative assessment of this work sample will be returned to students in the form of a rubric and written comment
as outlined below. In addition, the written comment will be read and justified to students in association with their work
in a Screen Recording video. Students must scan the QR Code with the iPad camera to be taken to their assessment
feedback.

BEGINNING DEVELOPING CONSOLIDATING EXTENDING

Objective D C B A
1. Identify at least Recognises the Identifies one Identifies and Identifies three or
one language function of language device. names one more language
device in the poem. particular language language devices. devices.
within the poem but
does not identify a
language device.
Describe how a With assistance, Describes how a Describes in detail Uses Sophisticated
chosen language recognises that a chosen language how a language language to explain
device has chosen language device has impacted devices has and reason how a
impacted on their device has on their impacted on their language device has
thoughts/emotions/f impacted their thoughts/emotions/fe thoughts/ emotions impacted on their
eelings. thoughts/ emotions elings. or feelings. thoughts/ emotions or
or feelings. feelings.

Change the Re-written text Re-written text Re-written text Re-written text
imagery in a line of experiments with includes new includes effective includes effective and
poetry to alter the some language imagery that alters imagery that alters vivid imagery that
text’s meaning. changes in an the meaning of the the meaning of the significantly alters the
attempt to alter text. text. meaning of the text.
meaning.

Overall Grade:

Comment: _________________________________________________________________________________

Use iPad
camera to
scan QR
Code

3. PROVIDE EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK

BEGINNING DEVELOPING CONSOLIDATING EXTENDING

Objective D C B A
1. Identify at least Recognises the Identifies one Identifies and Identifies three or
one language function of language device. names one more language
device in the poem. particular language language devices. devices.
within the poem but

2
Jasmine Elder Thies EDUC 4130 Assignment One
does not identify a
language device.
Describe how a With assistance, Describes how a Describes in detail Uses Sophisticated
chosen language recognises that a chosen language how a language language to explain
device has chosen language device has impacted devices has and reason how a
impacted on their device has on their impacted on their language device has
thoughts/emotions/f impacted their thoughts/emotions/fe thoughts/ emotions impacted on their
eelings. thoughts/ emotions elings. or feelings. thoughts/ emotions or
or feelings. feelings.

Change the Re-written text Re-written text Re-written text Re-written text
imagery in a line of experiments with includes new includes effective includes effective and
poetry to alter the some language imagery that alters imagery that alters vivid imagery that
text’s meaning. changes in an the meaning of the the meaning of the significantly alters the
attempt to alter text. text. meaning of the text.
meaning.

Overall Grade: Beginning - Developing

Comment:

Well done, Ben. You have attempted to describe how a language device has impacted on your thoughts. You have
made a good point: without the imagery created with the words ‘walking’ and ‘juicy’ you would not be able to
understand what the poet meant. Next time, it would be better if you could tell me that these words are an example
of imagery. Imagery helps you to paint a picture in your head and can impact can impact your thoughts, feelings and
emotions.

It is wonderful to see that you have effectively changed the imagery in your re-written text to have the opposite
meaning. You have used great adjectives like ‘disgusting’ to change the meaning of the text and create imagery – I
can picture the poor elephants ‘trudging under old disgusting leaves’.

Questions and Suggestions

 What does the poet’s use of imagery and adjectives like ‘juicy-leaf trees’ make you feel and think about?
Do these words paint a picture in your mind of a horrible and scary place or a nice and happy place?
 You have repeated yourself in your first two sentences. Please read over the edit suggestions I have
written on your work. I would love to see you re-reading and editing your own work to check that your
sentences make sense.
 Try to edit this work and publish it on our classroom Have-a-go Paper.

Ben, you have done a great job at changing the imagery in a line of poetry. It is fantastic to read your creative
adjectives and use of imagery. Maybe someday you will be a famous poet…

Keep up the great work and remember to come and see me if you have any questions!

Ms Elder Thies

Use iPad camera to

scan QR Code

3
Jasmine Elder Thies EDUC 4130 Assignment One

5. ASSESSING, FEEDBACK AND PROFESSIONAL JUDGEMENT COGNITIVE COMMENTARY 800 words

FORMATIVE ACTIVITIES TO SUPPORT STUDENT LEARNING

This assessment strategy exemplifies provision of multimodal feedback that is directed at the student’s age

and level of literacy, to support and enhance student learning. By requesting the student to complete further activities

in the ‘Questions and Suggestions’ section, this scaffolds further learning whilst questions encourage metacognitive

reflection. As Hattie (2009) suggests, this type of teacher feedback, which encourages students to consider next

steps in learning, is an invaluable contributing factor to student achievement.

Metacognitive development refers to Vygotsky’s notions of metacognition, which is defined as the ‘deliberate

conscious control over one’s cognitive actions’ (Brewer, Bruce and Spiro, n.d.). The first question that this

assessment is based upon calls for students to use metacognition as they consider how the poem has affected their

thoughts, emotions and feelings. Whilst it initially appears that this student has limited writing expression in response

to this task, it was noted that a written assessment response would likely not be the most effective form of feedback

for a student who struggles with metacognitive tasks in written form. Therefore, the screen and audio recording of

feedback was deemed the most suitable assessment strategy to support this student’s learning. This assessment

tool allows the student to be explicitly guided to exact points in their work which need to be reconsidered and improved

upon to scaffold conscious control over his or her writing (Pitler and Stone, 2012). In this way, this instructional

feedback can be considered ‘particularly helpful to struggling and novice learners’ (Australian Society for Evidence

Based Teaching, (n.d.), p. 12).

VALIDITY OF ASSESSMENT

This comprehensive assessment strategy of a rubric coupled with a screen recording is a valid form of

formative assessment based on requisites identified in ‘Assessment Principle 4’ in the School Curriculum and

Standards Authority (SCSA) Assessment Principles (2014). For example, this assessment included a range of

assessment procedures in order to guide learning and it involved qualitative feedback to focus on specific knowledge

and skills being learnt. The rubric embodies the nature of an assessment tool for learning purposes as it articulates

the specific adjustments a student can improve upon in their work.

In addition, the structure and content of this rubric parallels the Year 3 English Assessment Pointers (SCSA,

2014), ensuring learning appropriately reflects the ACELT1600 curriculum code. This rubric is organised to match

mandated A-E reporting outcomes, thus it is available as a summative tool for reporting in line with Curriculum grading

and achievement outcomes.

4
Jasmine Elder Thies EDUC 4130 Assignment One
Furthermore, the complimentary use of screen recording exemplifies a valid assessment strategy that is fit

for the formative purpose of providing instructional feedback to students. This tool allows feedback to be pitched at

the appropriate developmental stage of students and ensures that feedback ‘comes alive’, is easy to follow and will

support future learning improvement.

However, it can be argued that the assessment itself does not thoroughly reflect the principles of content

validity as outlined by Brady and Kennedy (2019). The syntax of the assessment question does not entirely reflect

the lesson objectives as the question is convoluted, cramming too many ideas into one question. This lowers the

content validity of this assessment. In line with Brady and Kennedy’s (2019) guidelines, it would be better to arrange

the second question first (‘in level of difficulty’ p.45) to scaffold students’ understanding of imagery, then discuss the

impact of imagery, whilst also simplifying the first question to ‘ask for a single, brief answer’ p. 44.

ACCOUNTING FOR CURRICULUM

The rubric above is centred on three lesson objectives which reflect part of the ACELT1600) curriculum code

(SCSA, 2014). As this rubric underpins the formative assessment process undertaken, the curriculum was essentially

at the heart of the judgements made about this work sample.

Marking was aligned with the Judging Standards for each grade – more specifically noted as ‘Reading Assessment

Pointers’ (SCSA, 2014) – which influenced the creation of the rubric. Furthermore, by examining other work samples

on the same task, which were awarded different grades, compare between strengths and weaknesses of other

students’ work samples occurred. This method promoted discovery of explicit areas for improvement including

suggestion to the student and task redesign.

Arguably, the strengths of this student’s work were not fully accounted for in the final judgement of this work.

When examining the child’s illustration during moderation, it is apparent that the child is capable of interpreting and

manipulating imagery. This is evident in the dark tones and gloomy atmosphere of the illustration to reflect ‘Elephants

truging under old descusting leevs (sic)’. The student appears to be stronger in visual expression and could be

classified as a visual learner. This assessment failed to incorporate assessment of the student’s illustration –

indicating that the scope of this assessment strategy and the judgments based on this rubric were too narrow to

account for the student’s strengths.

However, it can also be argued that the student’s strength (his or her ability to interpret and manipulate

imagery) was assessed in objective three: changing the imagery in a line of poetry. Furthermore, formative feedback

was tailored to this student’s work to adhere to the SCSA First Principle of Assessment (2014). Judgements abided

by the Principles of Assessment outlined in SCSA, such as to ‘contribute to ongoing learning’ and to be ‘educative’.

Feedback was focused to this work sample by suggesting specific improvements needed to reach a C grade;

selective and constructive to provide concise suggestions and only the most important succeeding steps to improve
5
Jasmine Elder Thies EDUC 4130 Assignment One
as advocated by the Australian Society for Evidence Based Teaching (n.d.).

MODERATION OUTCOMES

The process of moderation was beneficial in this assessment process and functioned to improve the validity

of the assessment (Brady & Kennedy, 2019). The moderation provided time to analyse judgements and the thought-

provoking discussion led to more reliable judgements in general.

Although the overall grading remained stable, the moderation highlighted flaws in this assessment and the

gains that would result from redesigning the assessment task and objectives to be more valid, fair and reliable. If

given the opportunity to change the lesson objectives of this task, these would have been altered to incorporate a

broader scope for assessment of the illustration work sample (which would have lifted the overall grade awarded).

Further to this, the task would have been reordered and redesigned to include the illustration and re-writing of imagery

(to scaffold recognition of the effects of imagery within the poem) before the higher order, metacognitive task of

analysing the impact of imagery upon the student’s own thoughts, emotions and feelings.

To maintain the front-end design of this assessment, it is imperative to use the knowledge gained from this

assessment and moderation process to inform the next steps of planning, teaching and learning (Learning Sciences

Institute Australia Catholic University, 2018). The discussion surrounding this student’s strengths as a visual learner

during the moderation contributed significantly to the next step planning. Preceding tasks will focus on assessment

modes of expression other than writing, such as verbal expression in the form of conferencing; and further visual

tasks, such as use of the ‘Explain Everything’ app. The idea behind this is to research whether the student

understands this curriculum concept better than they have been able to express in this given writing task which, as

discussed in moderation, is centred on a convoluted question in the first place. Furthermore, this formative

assessment strategy reflects front-end design by distinctively providing assessment for learning (rather than an end-

point after teaching).

6
Jasmine Elder Thies EDUC 4130 Assignment One

REFERENCES

Australian Society for Evidence Based Teaching. (n.d.). How to give feedback to students: The advanced

guide. Retrieved from: http://www.evidencebasedteaching.org.au/how-to-give-feedback-to-

students.pdf

Brady, L. & Kennedy, K (2019) Celebrating Student Achievement: Assessment and Reporting (5th ed.)

NSW; Pearson

Brewer, W., Bruce, B. and Spiro, R. (n.d.). Theoretical issues in reading comprehension. Hillsdale, NJ:

Laurence Earlbaum Associates.

Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London:

Routledge Ltd. doi:10.4324/9780203887332

Hattie, J., & Marsh, H. W. (1996). The Relationship Between Research and Teaching: A Meta-

Analysis. Review of educational research, 66(4), 507–

542. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543066004507

Learning Sciences Institute Australia Catholic University. (2018). Graduate teacher performance

assessment. Retrieved from:

file:///Users/jelderthies/Downloads/GTPA%20Instructions%20for%20PSTs%202018.pdf

Pitler, H., & Stone, B. (2012). A handbook for classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, Va:

ASCD

School Curriculum and Standards Authority. (2014). K-10 outline. Retrieved from:

http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/