Sandra Cultrera
Primary School Teacher
5. Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning
My mentor teacher and I assessed students reading and comprehension before school commenced using the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmarking. The first thing that we did was look at the students previous year result as a starting point, but not as a definitive answer. Though most students were able to proceed to a higher level, we soon realised that not only were students to reach an independent level of reading and comprehension, but a hard level also.
Formal and informal assessment of students is essential for the guidance of best teaching practice and modification of teaching in order to provide the best learning opportunities and outcomes for each individual child.
The most interesting feature i found from the Fountas and Pinell benchmarking test was that most grade 5 students were able to read competently up to a hard level and beyond, as indicated by the running record, however the comprehension part of the assessment they scored quiet low in. They then remained at the level where the comprehension was significantly difficult.
Using these results, I was able to adjust the way morning reading proceeded every day. Knowing that low comprehension was a feature that became evident with some students, after the morning reading session, I began asking students to bring their reading books to the floor as a class and asked comprehension questions to the students. This modification to teaching practice in reading and comprehension can be achieved every day, not solely with reading comprehension tests, but within all aspects of students reading and writing that we, as teachers, observed and identified as needing improvement.
One of the most important aspects of using assessments to modify my teaching practice is keeping the results of all assessments close at hand, in particular in the teacher school diary. This allows myself as a teacher to constantly go back and be reminded of areas that need improvement. It also allows for the creation of learning focuses for the class or individual children within an ILP (Individual Learning Plan). It is also useful for parent teacher interviews if a parent wishes to know results from a previous year to the present.
I have participated in weekly Literacy and Numeracy PLT's
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Implementing and assessing Fountas & Pinnell Benchmarking
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Assessing, recording student progress and areas of improvement
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The strengths and weaknesses of Fountas & Pinell Benchmarking
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Teaching and learning strategies for Literacy and Numeracy within the classroom e.g. reading groups, maths resources from EMU for student use
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Determine students who need extra assistance: Reading Recovery, EMU or Rainbows Program
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Moderated grade 5 and 6 writing according to AusVELS and Australian Curriculum
Mentor Teacher Comments
​After reviewing results from the Maths Interview, my mentor teacher and I noticed that place value was another learning area within Mathematics that needed improvement. Therefore, as the majority of the grade 5 and 6 class possessed Fixed Mindsets towards Mathematics which evoked anxiety, my mentor teacher and I decided that it would be best to start Mathematics teaching with Geometry and angles in order to gain the students confidence, and then move into place value.

Another way in which I modified my teaching in mathematics was to begin my maths sessions with a 10 question quiz that contained the basic knowledge in regards to the current topic that were investigating, with additional questions regarding what we had already learnt in the last topic. This allows students to constantly be revising mathematical concepts and practices, not simply completing a topic and moving on. Currently, students are also completing a timetables quiz every second lesson in order to improve their mental computation which was also below standard. This was a concern for myself as a teacher as this in turn effected the learning of fractions, division, and other key learning areas.
My Student Benchmarking Recordings
I have conducted and am confident in all of the following formal assessments with senior and junior students:
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Maths Assessment Interview (MAI).
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Observational Survey.
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Fountas and Pinell reading and comprehension assessment.
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Torch tests.
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Benchmarking reading assessment.
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SAST (South Australian Spelling Test).
Most of these formal assessments were conducted at the beginning of the year to see where the students were at in numeracy and literacy. I used this data for creating guided reading groups and maths focuses for the beginning of term one. By conducting these formal assessments created a foundation, along with previous year reporting, for beginning where the student are at and determining how to differentiate with a range of abilities within numeracy and literacy.
During guided reading sessions was a time I was able to provide feedback to a very small group of students on our focus for the session and used what challenges they came across as a way to provide instruction and feedback that they then could take with them or note down in their reading diaries that they could then remember for next time they were practicing a skill on their own or with a carer/parent at home.
Observational Sheets
Another form of assessment that I would consistently engage in was general observations on a learning area within literacy and numeracy. This was my ‘Observation Sheets’. On them they had my learning focus and what I wanted the children to be able to achieve. Each sheet has a box with the child’s name where I could take observations. I did this throughout a learning session with each child, asking them questions about their findings and noted down difficulties they were having. These observations allowed me to identify common misconceptions that the majority of the class had, or common trends that I was observing the children doing. It is from these that I then write in the ‘what next’ box to determine where to go for the next session. This might be only for a particular group of children or with the whole class. It allows me to modify lessons that were previously planned.
An example: Decomposing numbers lesson.
I took observations from the first lesson whereby students were showing me what they already knew from a previous time we had done it. As I noted down what they could do, something that I noticed was that they were not re-checking their number that they were decomposing, and therefore some of their combinations were incorrect. The question that I posed that would guide my next lesson was ‘How do you know if your combinations are correct? Why is this important?’ Through this task I also noticed that some student were choosing very easy numbers that were not challenging them.
The next lesson, the students and I created a Success Criteria for decomposing numbers.
The ongoing assessment of student learning within Literacy and Numeracy allowed for our team as a school to present findings and patterns in student learning and collaborate on strategies to assist teachers in improving practice in particular areas.
Example. At Sacred Heart School at the end of 2014, we noticed that Place Value within student data results was an area that students tended not to extend in but stay stagnant at their own progression point within their MAI assessments. Through this data analysis we were able to focus our PLT’s around this topic, including our diocese mathematics specialist Carol Levesey.
Children identifying and accepting feedback
In the classroom, I provide students with the opportunity to be able to give and receive feedback. I believe this is an invaluable life-long skill that will apply to them throughout their schooling and beyond. Before introducing the term ‘feedback’, students need to know that it should always remain constructive to better ones understanding and learn for next time.
Ways that I approached identifying, giving and receiving feedback.
Focus student wall and roster
Each morning, pairs of students are given the opportunity to place the day, date, and future dates, weather and how many days we had been at school (linking with place value) on a focus student wall. Some students would get confused sometimes with what the day would be ‘tomorrow’ or ‘yesterday’. Instead of students quickly saying that their classmates were ‘wrong’ they were allowed to put up their hand and give some constructive feedback. This also gave the students practise choosing their words carefully and considerately whilst speaking and fostered the opportunity for the receiver to listen and process and not take offence.
Good Learning Choice: ‘Kids teaching kids/adults’
This good learning choice was decided by the students as a way to alleviate ‘dobbing’ by teaching students if they were making a poor choice. It encouraged the students to receive feedback from their peers and allowed for students to try and solve problems on their own first without coming to a teacher as their first mode of action. Every time a student did this, they placed a sticker on this good learning choice to acknowledge that they had done it. This also built resilience amongst the group and gave them strategies for speaking and listening to others especially when the situation was difficult or outside of the classroom.