TPA Activity 5: Assess, provide feedback and support student learning

Standards: 3.6, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5

Task Overview:
The task provided to students is a summative task based on catapults. This task is completed in an interdisciplinary
science and maths subject called Inquiry Centered Studies (ICS).
Students were provided with a comprehensive outline of the task, and heavily scaffolded lessons in order to
engage in the investigation.
This summative task was completed at the end of the topic, which allowed for students to use all of the knowledge
and skills they had learnt to be applied to the practical task of making a piece of artwork using a catapult. The
topics covered that were required for this investigation included: creating graphs, linear equations, data analysis,
introduction to parabolas and Newton’s Laws of motion.

How did you determine student learning objectives?

The assessment learning objectives were obtained through fine planning and tuning done on this project in the
initial planning stages. This unit was planned using the Backwards by Design (UbD) method where the standards
and curriculum links are made and then the outcomes are obtained. Assignments are created to meet these
standards and the curriculum and then the learning sequence is developed. When planning this project, it was
important to keep in mind that it is run on a two year rotation. Additionally, it is important to constantly reflect
on whether the science and maths is fitting naturally, within the interdisciplinary subject.
The following rubric was used to assess the students.

A B C D E

In-depth and Proficient Sound Partial Attempts to make

Make the comprehensive understanding understanding understanding connections
connections understanding when when making when making when making between algebraic
between algebraic making connections connections connections connections and graphical
and graphical between algebraic between algebraic between algebraic between algebraic representations of
representations of and graphical and graphical and graphical and graphical relations
relations representations of representations of representations of representations of
Mathematics relations relations relations relations
Knowledge and
Understanding Highly efficient and Mostly efficient and Generally efficient Partially efficient Attempts to solve
highly accurate mostly accurate and generally and partially problems involving
Solve problems problem solving problem solving accurate problem accurate problem linear equations
involving linear involving linear involving linear solving involving solving involving and inequalities in
equations and equations and equations and linear equations linear equations familiar contexts
inequalities inequalities in inequalities in and inequalities in and inequalities in
familiar and familiar and some familiar contexts familiar contexts
unfamiliar contexts unfamiliar contexts

Sketch linear and Sketch linear and Sketch linear and Sketch linear and Sketches
Mathematics Sketch non-linear non-linear relations non-linear relations non-linear relations non-linear relations inaccurately
Skills relations in a highly in a mostly in a generally with some relations
competent manner competent manner competent manner competence

Analyse their Comprehensively Well-justified and Adequately Partially justified Attempted

methods and the justified and highly mostly relevant justified and and partially justification, with
quality of their relevant explanation explanation of generally relevant relevant little relevance, to
Science Inquiry data, and explain of specific actions to specific actions to explanation of explanation of explain specific
Skills specific actions to improve the quality improve the quality specific actions to specific actions to actions to improve
improve the of their evidence of their evidence improve the improve the the quality of their
quality of their quality of their quality of their evidence
evidence evidence evidence

Apply relationships Apply relationships Apply relationships Apply relationships Apply relationships
Apply relationships
between force, mass between force, between force, between force, between force,
between force,
and acceleration to mass and mass and mass and mass and
Science mass and
predict changes in acceleration to acceleration to acceleration to acceleration to
Knowledge and acceleration to
the motion of predict changes in predict changes in predict changes in predict changes in
Understanding predict changes in
objects in an the motion of the motion of the motion of the motion of
the motion of
extensively informed objects in a well- objects in a objects in a objects in a simple
objects
manner informed manner manner
 generally informed partially informed
manner manner

To allow students to become familiar with the rubric they were being assessed against, they were given an
opportunity to self-assess their work with the aid of a scaffolded rubric activity, a draft with an estimated grade,
and then time to respond to feedback before completing a final grade.

How does your assessment tool measure individual student learning?

Students have the ability to display their learning that has occurred in class throughout this assignment. Each
student completes the task individually, and their learning can be measured and monitored through both written
and verbal feedback, exit cards and general class discussions. In addition to this, each student in the class is
assessed separately, and when grading I have taken into consideration their class work and what else they have
done in class as supporting evidence. As a class this term, we have also had a large focus on ensuring that we
show our working out when doing mathematical based problems, and also write in full clear sentences for the
writing portion of the investigation. By doing this, I am better able to assess students thinking in the investigation.

How would you summarise the whole class results?

Whole class results would be summarised using a google sheets document so that I can easily see where each of
my students are at. In this google sheet, I also have a comment on each students grade of where they did really
well, and also where they struggled and what could be improved for next time. In addition to this, I have electronic
copies of each students rubric. When discussing the investigation with the class, I made sure to clearly explain
where students did very well and where there was improvement needed. By doing this, students had the
opportunity to self-assess whether they needed to improve on certain sections or note where they have done
well in sections.

What are the gaps in the learning?

From pre-assessment and taking data from a previous summative assessment completed in ICS, it was evident
that the students needed more scaffolding when it came to linking Newton’s 3 Laws of motion. In order to support
students with this a scaffolded lesson was created to support student engagement and achievement in the
assessment piece. Additionally, students struggled in rearranging equations, which was evident through exit cards
and observations of in class activities. In order to support students in this gap, with another PST, we ran a
differentiated lesson on rearranging equations and made sure to make links to the summative assessment very
clear.

What do most students appear to understand and, are the misconceptions, confusions, or needs (including extra
support or greater challenge).
From looking at student work, it is clear that they have a sound understanding of how to create a graph using
technology. In addition to this, most students within the class are able to discuss their data in relation to where
the experiment went wrong, however, struggle to get this down on in full, coherent sentences.
Within the lessons that we worked on the investigation, I used a range of different exit cards to determine where
students were at and their understanding. Image 1 is an example of an exit card that I presented on the board to
students after going through a lesson on errors in experiments. Students were asked to self-select where they
thought they fell on the scale from no understanding at all to I could teach this next lesson by writing their name
on the line. As can be seen in the image below, most of my students fell in the middle, with more towards the
don’t understand side. As a result of this, I decided that in our next lesson we would do a Kahoot based on this
information so that they had another opportunity to engage with the content in a different way. This is the link
to the Kahoot I used: [Link] By running
the Kahoot in the next lesson, it was evident through the ideas and discussions that were coming from the
students that they were really thinking about the concepts being covered and that they were starting to get a
better understanding of the concepts.

Image 1: Exit Card

What written feedback did you provide to students?

This feedback was given to the student in the first draft of their assessment to check that they were on track.
After the student was given this feedback, they had a week (including class time) to finish the assessment, act
on the feedback given and ask me any further questions.
Student 1: Maths working (rearranging and solving for x)

Image 2: Feedback given in red pen to change formatting to student 1 (this was accompanied by an example that I gave in
image 3).

In image 3, the student is using an inefficient problem solving method as they are not using their rearranged
formula found in the prior task. Due to this problem solving method, they were marked at a D level. As well as the
written feedback here and the example rearrangement (image 3), I had a conversation with the student about
what the setting out should look like and referred them to their workbook which has other examples.

A B C D E

Highly efficient and Mostly efficient and Generally efficient Partially efficient Attempts to solve
highly accurate mostly accurate and generally and partially problems
Solve problems problem solving problem solving accurate problem accurate problem involving linear
Mathematics involving linear involving linear involving linear solving involving solving involving equations and
Knowledge and equations and equations and equations and linear equations and linear equations inequalities in
inequalities inequalities in inequalities in inequalities in and inequalities in familiar contexts
Understanding
familiar and familiar and some familiar contexts familiar contexts
unfamiliar contexts unfamiliar contexts
Image 3: Example to accompany feedback in image 2.

Image 4: Student 1 work sample after feedback and example given.

It is evident that in image 4, student 1 has acted on the feedback given to change their mathematical formatting.
Within the maths standard which can be seen in the rubric, this moved his grade from a D level to a C level (taking
into account the other work that he had done in the assignment). Due to his formatting and inefficiency in image
2, student 1 was only showing partially efficient and accurate problem solving, after the student worked on this,
it moved to generally efficient and accurate problem solving.

Image 5: Student’s marked standard (going from D to C).

A B C D E

Highly efficient and Mostly efficient and Generally efficient Partially efficient Attempts to solve
highly accurate mostly accurate and generally and partially problems
Solve problems problem solving problem solving accurate problem accurate problem involving linear
Mathematics
involving linear involving linear involving linear solving involving solving involving equations and
Knowledge and
equations and equations and equations and linear equations and linear equations inequalities in
Understanding
inequalities inequalities in inequalities in inequalities in and inequalities in familiar contexts
familiar and familiar and some familiar contexts familiar contexts
unfamiliar contexts unfamiliar contexts
Student 2: Question 7 (links Newton’s 3 Laws to Catapults).
As 10 weeks is a long term, students were given a literacy activity called Correct and Connect which builds students
notetaking skills and helps them to recall on information regarding Newton’s 3 Laws of motion. After this, we had
a class discussion and did a Kahoot about how the Laws relate to a catapult and the practical that we had done in
the prior lesson. After this revision, the students were asked to write a response in their investigation booklet
(with a scaffolded PowerPoint provided).
As can be seen in image 6, student 2 gave the definitions of Newton’s 3 Laws, however, didn’t link to the
catapult practical which was noted in the comment. As a result of this they received a D for this section in the
rubric:

A B C D E

Apply relationships Apply relationships Apply relationships Apply relationships Apply relationships
Apply
between force, between force, between force, between force, between force,
relationships
mass and mass and mass and mass and mass and
between force,
Science acceleration to acceleration to acceleration to acceleration to acceleration to
mass and
Knowledge and predict changes in predict changes in predict changes in predict changes in predict changes in
acceleration to
Understanding the motion of the motion of the motion of the motion of the motion of
predict changes in
objects in an objects in a well- objects in a objects in a partially objects in a simple
the motion of
extensively informed manner generally informed informed manner manner
objects
informed manner manner

Image 6: Student 2 first attempt

Unfortunately, many students within this class feel that they are satisfied with writing 2 word responses to
questions or just doing the bare minimal (as seen in image 6 where the student just stated Newton’s 3 laws instead
of explaining them). Therefore, in next lesson I created a very explicit PowerPoint to assist students in their writing
for this question in order for them to obtain success. After student 2 received their feedback and engaged in this
explicit lesson, they added an extra page (see image 7) to show their understanding of the laws with the catapult.
Due to these linkages, they were able to display their understanding of Newton’s 3 Laws in a generally informed
manner (there could still be improvement, however, this students was highly satisfied with obtaining a C here).

A B C D E

Apply relationships Apply relationships Apply relationships Apply relationships Apply relationships
Apply
between force, between force, between force, between force, between force,
relationships
mass and mass and mass and mass and mass and
between force,
Science acceleration to acceleration to acceleration to acceleration to acceleration to
mass and
Knowledge and predict changes in predict changes in predict changes in predict changes in predict changes in
acceleration to
Understanding the motion of the motion of the motion of the motion of the motion of
predict changes in
objects in an objects in a well- objects in a objects in a partially objects in a simple
the motion of
extensively informed manner generally informed informed manner manner
objects
informed manner manner
Image 7: Student 2 second attempt.

Through running and assessing a summative assignment, it has become very evident to me the importance of
using student data and feedback to inform my decisions and future lesson planning with the students. By doing
this, it allows the teaching to be tailored to specific student needs and allows the work done in class to be targeted
to the specific areas of improvement for the students. Not only does modifying the teaching to improve student
performance, but it also allows students to feel like they are being catered for and promotes a sense of inclusion
for the students.