Tag Archives: Graeme Smith

Teach Better Now – Where’s the new content for Assessment 5 of the NZCALNE on literacy and numeracy diagnostic?

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Kia ora ano and welcome to the next exciting instalment

If you’re reading this it’s likely that you’re up to Assessment 5 in the new and improved NZCALNE (Voc). Well done you…!

Like the other content, it will be live on Pathways Awarua as soon as possible. But as always, you can find it on Graeme’s blog in the meantime.

If you do stop by the blog, make sure you leave a comment if you find something helpful. It’s a useful way of letting us know what’s working for you and what’s not. Your comments help us make the content better for everyone.

The new Assessment 5 has the best of what was in the old qualification as well as some new material. The focus is on diagnostic assessment and all the things that should be in place before you deliver your embedded literacy and numeracy teaching.

Here’s an overview of the four sections:

5.1 What are the tools and processes?

5.2 Just do it: Using diagnostic assessment?

5.3 What does it all mean?

5.4 Using learning plans

There’s a lot of content included in this Collection. And if you already know something or you’re already doing something that’s discussed, then feel free to skip ahead to the next relevant section. You can always come back to it later.

Also, we recommend that you download the assessment template early in the process. This is so that you know what the task involves. That way you can start working on the different sections as soon as you are ready.

What’s Assessment 5 all about?

The idea with this Collection and the assessment task is to make sure that you understand what assessment is and how you can use it in the context of adult literacy and numeracy education.

We need to make sure that you understand some of the different kinds of assessment, including diagnostic assessment. And you need to have a go at using some different tools and processes.

Once you’ve tried some of these different kinds of assessments with your learners, you’ll need to tells us what your results mean. And as part of that, we’ll also have a look at learning plans and how to use them for literacy and numeracy learning.

Follow the links below

Like we said before, it’s a good idea to start with the assessment template. You can always come back and dip into these resources as you need to. Email us if you don’t already have the template and checklist.

Otherwise, here’s the new and revised content for Assessment 5.

5.1 What are the tools and processes?

In this module, we look at the kinds of assessment tools and processes appropriate to your learners. This includes a look at different kinds of assessments including diagnostic. We also talk about how to how to create a more positive environment for assessing your learners.

A brief review of Collections 1 to 4 and an overview of Collection 5

What are our tools and processes?

How do I deal with learners’ stress and anxieties about assessment?

5.2 Just do it: Using diagnostic assessment?

This is where the rubber starts to hit the road. We’ll set you up for this, but you’ll need to conduct literacy and numeracy diagnostic assessment of your learners.

We’ll look at a range of different tools you can use and adapt. Chances are you’ll already know some of this. And you won’t need all of the examples. So just pick and choose the parts that are relevant to helping you complete the assessment.

Things you need to know

The Assessment Tool

Self Assessment

Developing your own contextualised literacy diagnostics

Examples of literacy diagnostic assessments

Developing your own contextualised numeracy assessments

Examples of numeracy diagnostics

5.3 What does it all mean?

In this module, we cover what you need to do to make sense of your learners’ literacy and numeracy diagnostic assessment results. This includes mapping your learners and working out any implications for teaching. You’ll also need to review some aspects of how you administered the assessments to your learners.

5.4 Using learning plans

You’ll learn how to write up learning plans showing goals, strengths, and needs.

If you’re stuck, please get in touch with us by email here: assess@alec.ac.nz or by texting or calling Graeme on 021-857-786.

What does a literacy and numeracy-focused learning plan look like?

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What does a good learning plan look like?

You’ll need to complete two learning plans for your NZCALNE (Voc). One for each of the two learners that you’re tracking through this project work.

Happily, we have an easy-to-use format for learning plans. And we’ve built this into the template for Assessment 5.

If you’re ready to write up the learning plans you can do this directly in the template for Assessment 5. If you’re not ready, you have a look at the format below. Or 5.4MASTERLearningPlanTemplate.

Individual Learning Plan

Name:

Tutor:  

Class or group:  

Date:

Literacy Focus

What specific literacy goal did you set?

  • The main literacy goal is to …

Which specific literacy progression are you focusing on?

  • We’re targeting the following literacy progression:

How will they know when they’ve achieved the goal?

  • We’ll both know when we’ve achieved this because …

What strategies are you going to use? How are they going to achieve the goal?

  • One strategy that we will use is …
  • Another strategy we might try is …

What’s the timeframe for this?

  • We’re going to try and complete this by …

What changes do they need to make in order to succeed?

  • One change they will need to make is …
  • Another possible change is …

Numeracy Focus

What specific numeracy goal did you set?

  • The main literacy goal is to …

Which specific numeracy progression are you focusing on?

  • We’re targeting the following numeracy progression:

How will they know when they’ve achieved the goal?

  • We’ll both know when we’ve achieved this because …

What strategies are you going to use? How are they going to achieve the goal?

  • One strategy that we will use is …
  • Another strategy we might try is …

What’s the timeframe for this?

  • We’re going to try and complete this by …

What changes do they need to make in order to succeed?

  • One change they will need to make is …
  • Another possible change is …

 

BEFORE: How do you write learning plans with a focus on literacy and numeracy?

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Good work… One final short module and we will have covered everything that you need for Collection 5.

The last thing here is how to write learning plans that focus on literacy and numeracy. Specifically, we want you to use the data that you’re getting from your diagnostic assessments and use it in a constructive way.

Here’s what you need to do next:

  • Write up learning plans showing learner goals, strengths, and needs.
  • Discuss these with your learners as appropriate

You may already have learning plans in place for your learners that focus on the unit standards that they need to achieve or other milestones in your programme.

What we’re after now relates to the next steps for your learners in terms of their literacy and numeracy development.

Why do I have to make learning plans for my learners?

We think that it’s important to do something sensible with the rich information that you’re now getting from the diagnostic questions that you ask. One simple action here is to create literacy and numeracy-focused learning plans for your learners.

You may already have learning plans in place for your learners. If that’s the case, you might want to just add the relevant literacy and numeracy step that your learners need to focus on.

Using learning plans are good practice for any kind of teaching. Here are some guidelines for developing learning plans. You should

Do it together

Develop and negotiate them together with your learners if you can. Not all learners will have the capacity to think about their learning. But it’s a goal you should be working towards.

Set specific goals

These goals need to be SMART. This means that the goals need to be:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Achievable
  • Realistic; and have a sensible
  • Timeframe

Be explicit

We need you to be explicit about which particular progression (or progressions) you are focusing on. For example, “We’re targeting the vocabulary and reading comprehension progressions”.

Begin with the end in mind

Your learner needs to know when they’ve achieved the goal. If it’s too broad they’ll never achieve it. Likewise, if they can’t see a clear end or some way of knowing that they’ve achieved the goal they will lose motivation.

Describe the strategies you’ll use

You need strategies in place if you want to see real gains. You’ve had plenty of time to think about how you’re going to work on this. Say what the strategies are that you intend to use.

Set a clear time frame

This is part of SMART goal setting. Your goals should be specific enough that they are achievable within a relatively short timeframe. For example, three months or less.

The more pushed for time you are, the narrower, and more specific you should be about everything.

Identify changes needed

The specific gains that you want are not going to happen in the timeframe you’ve set without effort. Learning can be fun, but it does require effort from your learner. Identify the changes that your learner will need to make if they want to achieve the goal.

If you think back to the idea that our definitions for literacy and numeracy include observable behaviours then you can highlight some of the behaviours that you expect to see.

BEFORE: What does it all mean? Understanding your learners’ diagnostic assessment results

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What do I do with the results of my learners’ diagnostic assessments?

Once you’ve marked your learners’ diagnostic, you need to tell us what it all means. We’ve made this easy in the template by asking a series of questions that you answer for each of your two learners.

If you follow the format and respond to the questions, you’ll be able to:

  • Analyse diagnostic assessment results in relation to key programme demands.
  • Summarise your learners’ key diagnostic results including identifying strengths and needs.
  • Describe implications for designing literacy and numeracy teaching and learning strategies.

Here are the questions. In Assessment template 5 you’ll see these questions twice. Once for learner A and once for Learner B.

In answering the questions in the template, you’ll also need to have a go at mapping your learners. The process is exactly the same as what you did in Assessment 3 apart from one difference. This time your focus is on what your learners know and can do (as opposed to the demands of the tasks or texts).

If you’re ready to write this up in the assessment template you should do it now.  If you’re not ready or you want to take some notes, you can read the questions below, or download them as a worksheet.

Learner Results

Assessment Tool score

What was their Reading or Starting points score and step?

Reading or Starting points score was:

According to the report, this learner is at step:

What was their Numeracy score and step?

Numeracy score was:  

According to the report, this learner is at step:  

Attitudes survey results

Can you summarise the results of the Reading attitudes self-assessment?

In terms of reading, this learner feels that …

Can you summarise the results of the Maths attitudes self-assessment?

In terms of maths and numeracy, this learner feels that …

Contextualised assessments

What was their score of the contextualised literacy diagnostic?

For the contextualised literacy diagnostic, their score was:  

I think this relates to roughly step:   

What was their score of the contextualised numeracy diagnostic?

For the contextualised numeracy diagnostic, their score was:  

I think this relates to roughly step:   

Mapping the learner

Map your learners against the relevant strands and progressions of the learning progressions.

Screenshot 2017-05-11 16.11.51

Screenshot 2017-05-11 16.11.59

Strengths

Learner A’s main strengths seem to be …

For example, …

Needs

Learner A’s main needs seem to be …

For example, …

One big gap between what they know, and what they need to do is …

Another area where they might struggle is …

Implications for learning design

Based on the results of the diagnostic, there are several implications when it comes to designing my embedded literacy and numeracy teaching sessions. One implication for learning is …

When it comes to thinking about what strategies to use with these learners, I think that …

Based on these results, some specific areas to focus on for teaching could be …

Another thing that I need to make sure of when I design my embedded literacy and numeracy teaching sessions is …

BEFORE: Review questions for when you’ve collected your diagnostic assessment results from your learners

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Hopefully, you’ve been able to dip into this Collection and find or use the parts that are relevant to what you teach.

We’ve covered a lot of ground. Here’s a quick recap of what we’ve discussed in terms of diagnostic assessment:

  • Using the Assessment Tool for literacy and numeracy.
  • Using learner self-assessment to measure confidence.
  • Designing and using your own contextualised literacy and numeracy “mini” diagnostics that align with your own context and content.

In addition, we’ve also talked through a whole range of different examples of literacy and numeracy diagnostics. Some of these were contextualised and others were generic.

From here, we’ll leave it to you to finish off adapting or developing your diagnostic assessments and get on with using them with your learners

Once you’ve used your suite of diagnostic assessments with your learners, you’ll be able to collect the supporting evidence you need for this part of the course. Also, you’ll be able to answer these questions which are part of the template for Assessment 5.

Read through the review questions below. If you’ve already downloaded the template, you can write your responses directly into it.

Otherwise, you can download this worksheet with the questions and prompts if you want to take notes right now. The worksheet is not part of your assessed work.

Here are the questions you’ll need to answer when you’ve collected your diagnostic assessment results from your learners.

Tutor review questions

Did you design your contextualised assessments yourself or were they
already designed?

My contextualised assessments were designed by:
I used …

How did your assessment process deal with environmental and affective factors?

Here’s how I dealt with some of the factors I identified earlier. First, to try and prevent test anxiety I …
Another thing I did was …

What was your process for preparing the learners, venue and resources?

Here’s how I dealt with some of the factors I identified earlier. First, to try and prevent test anxiety I …

Also, with regards to preparing my learners, Another thing I did was …In terms of getting the venue ready, I …
As far as preparing the resources, …

Were there any organisational requirements you had to stick to?

Our policy when it comes to using the LNAAT is …

In my organisation when we assess students we have to make sure that …

How did you record the results?

Here’s how we record the LNAAT results. First, …
For recording the other assessment results, I …

How did you provide feedback on the assessments?

One of the things I did was …
I tried to make the results accessible to the learners by …
I tried to make the process meaningful to the learners by …

BEFORE: More examples – Measurement diagnostics

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Screenshot 2017-05-09 16.49.20

If you work in trades and your learners need to measure things, the simplest way to diagnose their ability is to set them practical tasks that involve using the right tools to do simple measurements.

For example, estimating and then measuring the length of a table using a tape measure would be a practical way of approaching diagnostic assessment for measurement. You could ask questions like these

  • How long do you think the table is?
  • Using the tape measure, how long is it actually?
  • What’s the appropriate unit of measurement to use in this trade?
  • How many millimetres (or metres) is that?

If you teach trades or workplace literacy, it’s almost a given that your learners will need to work with some kind of measurement.

Guidelines for using the measurement diagnostic assessments

  • There are only two diagnostic assessments in this resource. But they’re both practical and similar to what we described above.
  • Both relate to estimation and measurement and you can read more about how to use them on page 7.

Estimating and measuring length and weight

  • This one covers width, units, measurement with a ruler and scales, weight, conversion, perimeter, area and volume.
  • While it’s useful to have a range of questions, we have a couple of suggestions. One is that you focus on either linear measurement or weight. And the other is that you reduce the number things you’re testing here.
  • Aside from being practical, one of the nice things is that you can see how the complexity increases as the questions advance.
  • This diagnostic is on page 8.

Estimating and measuring dimensions

  • Again, this assessment covers a lot of ground so you might want to strip it back to the parts that you need. It covers estimation, units, using a measuring instrument for capacity, linear measurement, conversion diameter, radius, circumference, and volume.
  • Again, it’s easy to see the increase in complexity as the questions progress.
  • You can find this one on page 9.

BEFORE: More examples – Diagnostics for statistics

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Screenshot 2017-05-09 16.49.35

The Reason Statistically strand is not relevant for most tutors. We haven’t talked about it at all. If you don’t need to deal with data collection or statistics in your training then you can move right along.

However, if you do need to deal with statistics or probability in your training then there are also various diagnostic questions that you can adapt and use.

We have had tutors from tourism and farming embed statistical understanding into their teaching.

There are also many everyday contexts where an understanding of statistics can increase our enjoyment or ability to make sense of the world.

One example would include sports. Sports commentators have access to and use massive amounts of statistical data.

Another example is the news. News reports, opinion pieces and all kinds of reporting and advertising all use statistics to convince and persuade us. Sometimes the news media uses statistics to distort the truth.

In these cases, it’s always useful to think about how a better understanding of statistics can help our learners make sense of the world.

You can find diagnostic questions and resources on the following pages:

General guidelines for using the diagnostic processes

  • There are only two diagnostic assessments in this resource. One relates to understanding information presented on a dot plot and bar graph. The other is about probability.
  • The explanations on how to use these are on page 8.

Diagnostic questions for analysing and interpreting data from a bar graph

  • If your learners need to read and understand graphs, then this one might be for you.
  • The instructions are detailed and there are two graphs. So you could split this into two smaller assessments.
  • You can find the diagnostic on pages 9 to 10.

Diagnostic questions for probability

  • Probability is part of daily life. However, it’s not something that many tutors teach as part of their course work.
  • If you’re interested, there is a detailed diagnostic including ideas for hands-on resources on pages 11 to 13.