Beyond The Crib Sheet - An Idea For Low Stakes Assessment

I was thinking about the panel discussion from Primary Rocks Live 2016. The dreaded KS2 SATs was mentioned. Jon Brunskill suggested that we should have SATs every year. Jon is someone whose opinion I respect enormously and I found myself agreeing with this idea. It got me thinking about how this could be drilled down to low stakes assessment on a regular basis in the classroom. Recently, I saw a post on Twitter about a marking crib sheet. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the teacher who initially shared it but I thought it was a great idea. I thought, why not do a combination of the two. A quick system for assessing while marking that would act as a form of low stakes assessment which in turn would inform teaching and learning for the following week.

Anyway, I am not suggesting I am inventing anything original. In fact, I am using great ideas from other people (such as the afore mentioned teacher). This has led me to come up with simple assessment grids for English and Maths (see links below). I intend to use them weekly as a way of gathering data quickly following some form of assessment activity carried out by the children. In English, this might take the form of a long write/short write based on some form of stimulus and include elements of SPAG that you have been working on as part of the success criteria. For maths, I would ask the children to complete a weekly skills check in whatever form suits. This will include work covered that week and previous weeks.

When I collect the books in, I will then complete the English Weekly Assessment and the Maths Weekly Assessment. This will enable me to adjust my plans for the following week if necessary.


English Weekly Assessment Grid

Maths Weekly Assessment Grid

The 'Extra Mile' children mentioned in the grids would be the children who have exceeded/gone into greater depth or whatever you want to call it.

The 'Star Models' would be examples of vocabulary, sentences that you would like to share with the class in the following week.

Please bear in mind that this is my first attempt at this so it may need adjusting. However, I am going to give it a try next half-term. By all means feel free to use the grids in your classrooms.