As I approach the end of my second year of teaching, I have now experienced all phases of the SACE Quality Assurance Cycle (albeit for different SACE subjects for the respective phases).
Planning
I have had two Stage 1 English Learning and Assessment Plans that I have developed approved by the SACE Board. Each plan is for a 10 unit course but they designed to complement each other in Semester 1 and Semester 2 (and hence students will receive the compulsory 20 units of literacy for their SACE). Two of the main aims of my LAP design was to provide students planning to undertake English in Stage 2 to have opportunities to practice the skills required for our current English Communications course and also to offer a variety of assessment task formats (written/oral/multimodal) to engage the widest range of students possible. I attended the Stage 1 Semester 1 Planning Support workshop before submitting Semester 1 LAP to absolutely ensure it met the requirements. One thing I learned that I did not already realise was that the Extended Study does not have to be worth 30% to align with Stage 2 courses but I have elected to leave it this way to enable students to get used to having a major assignment.
I am currently implementing the Semester 1 course for the second time and have modified the course based on feedback from last year's cohort and the needs of this year's cohort. For example, the Extended Study on Language has been narrowed down from a negotiated focus and context to a negotiated aspect of social media. This was because last year's students were somewhat paralysed by the free choice and procrastination ensued. It also gives me more opportunity to include some explicit instruction about social media vocabulary and language study techniques. Further refinement of the courses will be required, as the curriculum is undergoing significant changes. The Subject Outline for 2016 onwards will align with the Senior Secondary Australian Curriculum. I am engaging with the implementation process by attended the SACE Board's session at the upcoming SA English Teachers Association conference and monitoring when they will run further workshops in Term 3.
Clarifying
Last year I inherited a Stage 2 Society and Culture class at the start of Term 3 and received approximately two hours of 1:1 support from a SACE Board officer to help me judge the performance standards. It was enough to get me through but now that I am teaching the course for the full year, I have been able to attend the official Clarifying Forum held in Term 1. I went armed with a breakdown of data from moderation of my class's results from the previous year, so I knew where I had been too hard or too generous. Of most benefit was working as a group to determine grades for the investigation, which is the 30 per cent of the course which is externally marked. It confirmed for me that seemingly narrow, local topics can still lead to success in the A-band grade. I have recommended that some student choose local topics this year and will continue showing students the A grade exemplar regarding driving on Aldinga Beach.
I also attended the Stage 2 Research Project Clarifying Forum as I am new to this subject in 2015. It was helpful on one hand because it helped to understand how students tackling such a wide range of topics can meet the assessment criteria. On the other hand, it was a bit disheartening to see the high standard required for the A-grade band (especially for the Research Folio). I remain concerned that most of my cohort will not be able to achieve higher than the C grade band based on their current performance and work ethic. If I teach it again in 2016, I will seek to work with my colleagues in the RP teaching team to provide more structure to the Folio assessment task (especially with regard to deadlines for milestones and scaffolds that align more obviously with the assessment criteria).
Confirming
I participated in two moderation processes in 2014 and will be subject to at least two more in 2015. I had my C and D grades confirmed for the Stage 1 Personal Learning Plan and there were some alterations to my school assessment grades for Stage 2 Society and Culture. My predicted grades for the Investigations were too harsh in some instances, probably due to the amount of support I felt I had to provide to particular students to get them up to a passable standard. I met with the Head of Senior Years to analyse the data for Society and Culture and she concluded that my results were quite accurate for a first time teacher who took over a class under difficult circumstances. We agreed that I would attend the Clarifying Forum and volunteer to act as a moderator in 2016.
This semester my two Stage 1 English classes will be moderated and later in the year my Stage 2 school assessment results will be subject to moderation. It helps having been through the process before, as I now know the logistics of preparing the materials. As I noticed last year and as it was flagged at the Clarifying Forum, the Group Interaction assessment task for Stage 2 Society and Culture is one of the most difficult ones for which to provide evidence of each student's achievement against the performance standards. Annotating the group display with SACE numbers and providing a key of student photos with SACE numbers for the recorded round table discussion worked well, so I will seek to use these methods for presenting evidence again this year.
Improving
With regard to monitoring and analysing my quality assurance processes, I find that I am constantly reflecting on how I can improve my SACE courses to maximise student performance. Much of this involves using the "levers" within SACE and school policy to increase student motivation, e.g. staggering deadlines to match the school's reporting framework and SACE deadlines and knowing when intervention is needed and appropriate. One of the most successful strategies I use is to provide a semester (for Stage 1) or annual (for Stage 2) course "map", which clearly shows what time is available to work on the specified number of tasks. "Catch up" time is built in because my cohorts generally have relatively poor average attendance, have to allow for attendance at VET, and overall there is a limited work ethic (it is especially rare that students will attempt homework). A copy of this map is provided to students on day one, plus parents/caregivers, the Year Level manager and other stakeholders, to make sure everyone is clear of assessment expectations. While it is not standard practice at my school, I also provide students with a rubric for every task they complete, so they can come to understand how their performance is judged. This means the assessment criteria specified on task sheets also start to mean something!
Examples of relevant files
I have had two Stage 1 English Learning and Assessment Plans that I have developed approved by the SACE Board. Each plan is for a 10 unit course but they designed to complement each other in Semester 1 and Semester 2 (and hence students will receive the compulsory 20 units of literacy for their SACE). Two of the main aims of my LAP design was to provide students planning to undertake English in Stage 2 to have opportunities to practice the skills required for our current English Communications course and also to offer a variety of assessment task formats (written/oral/multimodal) to engage the widest range of students possible. I attended the Stage 1 Semester 1 Planning Support workshop before submitting Semester 1 LAP to absolutely ensure it met the requirements. One thing I learned that I did not already realise was that the Extended Study does not have to be worth 30% to align with Stage 2 courses but I have elected to leave it this way to enable students to get used to having a major assignment.
I am currently implementing the Semester 1 course for the second time and have modified the course based on feedback from last year's cohort and the needs of this year's cohort. For example, the Extended Study on Language has been narrowed down from a negotiated focus and context to a negotiated aspect of social media. This was because last year's students were somewhat paralysed by the free choice and procrastination ensued. It also gives me more opportunity to include some explicit instruction about social media vocabulary and language study techniques. Further refinement of the courses will be required, as the curriculum is undergoing significant changes. The Subject Outline for 2016 onwards will align with the Senior Secondary Australian Curriculum. I am engaging with the implementation process by attended the SACE Board's session at the upcoming SA English Teachers Association conference and monitoring when they will run further workshops in Term 3.
Clarifying
Last year I inherited a Stage 2 Society and Culture class at the start of Term 3 and received approximately two hours of 1:1 support from a SACE Board officer to help me judge the performance standards. It was enough to get me through but now that I am teaching the course for the full year, I have been able to attend the official Clarifying Forum held in Term 1. I went armed with a breakdown of data from moderation of my class's results from the previous year, so I knew where I had been too hard or too generous. Of most benefit was working as a group to determine grades for the investigation, which is the 30 per cent of the course which is externally marked. It confirmed for me that seemingly narrow, local topics can still lead to success in the A-band grade. I have recommended that some student choose local topics this year and will continue showing students the A grade exemplar regarding driving on Aldinga Beach.
I also attended the Stage 2 Research Project Clarifying Forum as I am new to this subject in 2015. It was helpful on one hand because it helped to understand how students tackling such a wide range of topics can meet the assessment criteria. On the other hand, it was a bit disheartening to see the high standard required for the A-grade band (especially for the Research Folio). I remain concerned that most of my cohort will not be able to achieve higher than the C grade band based on their current performance and work ethic. If I teach it again in 2016, I will seek to work with my colleagues in the RP teaching team to provide more structure to the Folio assessment task (especially with regard to deadlines for milestones and scaffolds that align more obviously with the assessment criteria).
Confirming
I participated in two moderation processes in 2014 and will be subject to at least two more in 2015. I had my C and D grades confirmed for the Stage 1 Personal Learning Plan and there were some alterations to my school assessment grades for Stage 2 Society and Culture. My predicted grades for the Investigations were too harsh in some instances, probably due to the amount of support I felt I had to provide to particular students to get them up to a passable standard. I met with the Head of Senior Years to analyse the data for Society and Culture and she concluded that my results were quite accurate for a first time teacher who took over a class under difficult circumstances. We agreed that I would attend the Clarifying Forum and volunteer to act as a moderator in 2016.
This semester my two Stage 1 English classes will be moderated and later in the year my Stage 2 school assessment results will be subject to moderation. It helps having been through the process before, as I now know the logistics of preparing the materials. As I noticed last year and as it was flagged at the Clarifying Forum, the Group Interaction assessment task for Stage 2 Society and Culture is one of the most difficult ones for which to provide evidence of each student's achievement against the performance standards. Annotating the group display with SACE numbers and providing a key of student photos with SACE numbers for the recorded round table discussion worked well, so I will seek to use these methods for presenting evidence again this year.
Improving
With regard to monitoring and analysing my quality assurance processes, I find that I am constantly reflecting on how I can improve my SACE courses to maximise student performance. Much of this involves using the "levers" within SACE and school policy to increase student motivation, e.g. staggering deadlines to match the school's reporting framework and SACE deadlines and knowing when intervention is needed and appropriate. One of the most successful strategies I use is to provide a semester (for Stage 1) or annual (for Stage 2) course "map", which clearly shows what time is available to work on the specified number of tasks. "Catch up" time is built in because my cohorts generally have relatively poor average attendance, have to allow for attendance at VET, and overall there is a limited work ethic (it is especially rare that students will attempt homework). A copy of this map is provided to students on day one, plus parents/caregivers, the Year Level manager and other stakeholders, to make sure everyone is clear of assessment expectations. While it is not standard practice at my school, I also provide students with a rubric for every task they complete, so they can come to understand how their performance is judged. This means the assessment criteria specified on task sheets also start to mean something!
Examples of relevant files
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Standards:
2.2 Organise content into coherent, well-sequenced learning and teaching programs.
2.3 Design and implement learning and teaching programs using knowledge of curriculum, assessment and reporting requirements.
3.1 Set explicit, challenging and achievable learning goals for all students.
3.2 Plan and implement well-structured learning and teaching programs or lesson sequences that engage students and promote learning.
5.2 Provide timely, effective and appropriate feedback to students about their achievement relative to their learning goals.
5.3 Understand and participate in assessment moderation activities to support consistent and comparable judgements of student learning.
5.4 Use student assessment data to analyse and evaluate student understanding of subject/content, identifying interventions and modifying teaching practice.
5.5 Report clearly, accurately and respectfully to students and parents/carers about student achievement, making use of accurate and reliable records.
6.2 Participate in learning to update knowledge and practice, targeted to professional needs and school and/or system priorities.
2.2 Organise content into coherent, well-sequenced learning and teaching programs.
2.3 Design and implement learning and teaching programs using knowledge of curriculum, assessment and reporting requirements.
3.1 Set explicit, challenging and achievable learning goals for all students.
3.2 Plan and implement well-structured learning and teaching programs or lesson sequences that engage students and promote learning.
5.2 Provide timely, effective and appropriate feedback to students about their achievement relative to their learning goals.
5.3 Understand and participate in assessment moderation activities to support consistent and comparable judgements of student learning.
5.4 Use student assessment data to analyse and evaluate student understanding of subject/content, identifying interventions and modifying teaching practice.
5.5 Report clearly, accurately and respectfully to students and parents/carers about student achievement, making use of accurate and reliable records.
6.2 Participate in learning to update knowledge and practice, targeted to professional needs and school and/or system priorities.