Evidence for teacher assessment of maths KS1

[bumbleclat]

I do a lot of work using Numicon with my Reception/ KS1 class which means we don't have an abundance of written work from the children as a lot is hands on and practical.
If any of you are KS1 teachers how are you going to carry out your ITA?
Because the SAT test will over ride the TA I don't think they will really moderate maths books, do you?
Thanks

[toomuchicecream]

I'm now, thank goodness, teaching a straight year 1 class rather than a 1/2 mix so I don't have to worry about this this year. But I went to Maths moderation under the old testing regime a couple of years ago and yes, we did all have to take Maths books to share and agree level judgements. (The overwhelming conclusion was that it was very hard to say a child was working at level 3 based on book evidence alone as so much of their mathematical ability is shown through what they say, how they reason, the strategies they select etc.)

I wholeheartedly agree that KS1 Maths should be very practical but in this day and age you have to have evidence of what you've been doing. I absolutely refuse to stick photos into individual children's books as evidence of a practical lesson - life is too short. So I have a whole class scrapbook into which I stick a few photographs of each practical lesson, annotated with the date, objective and brief description of what was learnt. As long as I don't let it go longer than a week between uploading and printing out the photos, it's very manageable.

I will also often spread a lesson over two days, so on day 1 my input is followed by a practical activity which I photograph and sometimes the children choose to record in their Maths journals in their own way. On day 2 I'll repeat my input (adapted and abridged depending on what happened yesterday) and they will do some kind of written recording. That way I get the best of both worlds - they have the practical experience but also are learning to respond to written questions and I have evidence in the books of what they have learnt.

You have my every sympathy trying to manage an R/1/2 mix in one class - 1/2 nearly finished me off as it was so difficult to meet the needs of the children and teach in the way we are now required to, producing the required evidence of what had been going on. But I'm very surprised that your SLT haven't been asking for more written evidence of your Maths, definitely for year 2 and from now on, increasingly for year 1. Don't forget, your year 2s won't be able to use any practical equipment when they do their test so if you don't start to gradually reduce the practical activities and increase the amount of written work, they are going to really struggle with the test.

[bumbleclat]

Oh god, Im worrying now.
Thank you so much for your help, I think I will just get my 8 year twos to record like this... Do you think it might be an idea to plan according to the statements in the teacher assessment doc then it will be very clear?
Thanks :)
I'm an NQT by the way!

[Theimpossiblegirl]

Yes, for your year 1s and 2s you should plan with reference to the statements. maybe use them as your learning objectives so it is obvious in their books.

Do you have TAs to take groups? In year 1 and 2 there is so much more needed in their books with the increased expectation (whether we agree or not).

Your school should really have something in place for this, can you discuss it with your mentor?

[toomuchicecream]

Don't feel bad about it and don't worry about it. It is the job of your mentor to make sure that you know what is required of you and that you are following school policies and procedures. That doesn't just mean telling you to look at policies on the website - it means going through things with you and advising you about how the school expects things to be done, and then helping you to make it happen when you are struggling to put it into practice.

Definitely plan from whatever assessment statements you've been given, according to whatever assessment scheme you are using. Then you can record their attainment (based on what you saw in the lesson, what the pupils said and the work in their books) directly against the statements. If you use a mark book, you might want to consider writing the statements in there so you have a space to record your assessments and evidence of how you are recording your judgements. If you are using an on-line system for recording your assessments you might want to cut that step out and just input the information directly - that's what I do. But it will depend very much on the system in your school, and you should have been told about that.

And definitely yes to turning the statements into learning objectives. I print them off on slips of paper (with the date) for the pupils to stick into their books at the start of their work. When I mark, I highlight the LO in pink/yellow/green according to how well they've done. That makes it easy to see at a glance what the pupils were supposed to have been learning and how they got on with it. I would also get the year 1s working in this way - perhaps give it a couple of weeks to embed the system with year 2 and then the year 1s will want to be like the year 2s. The year 2s can then help the year 1s if they find it a bit tricky to start with. My year 1s have been doing this since September though, and sticking all their own recording sheets into their books - as long as I trim them sufficiently it doesn't matter if they get them in a bit crooked.

Most important of all, keep asking for advice. As I said before, I found it incredibly difficult to balance the competing needs of different aged children in a mixed age class and I've been teaching more than 10 years and am a primary maths specialist. I'm feeling faintly queasy at being an NQT and having 3 year groups together! I'm more than happy for you to pm me or share planning/ideas if you want to bounce some ideas around.

[toomuchicecream]

Oh - and the other thing I now do is to copy and paste the assessment statements from our assessment system for the topic onto the bottom of my weekly plan. That way I can easily check that I've covered all the statements over the week/fortnight that I am on that topic for. I also put the national curriculum statements there too, but that's because I like to be absolutely sure I've got everything covered!

[bumbleclat]

Thank you a thousand times over!
I will use this advice.
I'm very much being left to my own devices (nice in some ways) but not in others, I will spend this week developing a new medium term plan for rest of the spring term.
God this is hard.