|
A moderation process
A moderation process enables teachers to undertake
professional development within and across school communities so as
to understand more accurately what is meant by the attainment of profile levels by students.
This process is central to
ensuring comparability of student awards. In the interests of fairness
and equity it is crucial that a student who achieves level 3 in Grade
4 demonstrates a similar standard of achievement as a student who may
be awarded level 3 when in Grade 7.
Units of work called Quality
Assessment Tasks are one way of introducing a moderation process.
An moderation
process at Zeehan Primary School
The staff at Zeehan Primary
School recognise the importance of the moderation process and saw Arbor
Week Challenges as an opportunity to design and engage in this process.
Prior to the in-school moderation activities, ZPS had:
- informed staff, parents
and students of issues associated with the DECCD Reporting on Student
Development policy and Records of Development Policy simultaneously
with the introduction of the national SOSE Statement and Profile
- reviewed and renewed
their SOSE curriculum as a member of the Lyell Cluster K-8
- ensured that units of
work included authentic assessment opportunities
- designed a report proforma
which was submitted to the School Council for approval.
The moderation process was
a natural progression within the school's renewal of the learning area.
With the context chosen, staff at ZPS:
- selected the Design a
Postcard - Grow us a Home Challenge as the moderation task
- identified relevant SOSE
outcomes from the Place and Space strand on which to focus for moderating
purposes
- provided students P-6
with the opportunity to complete the task
- collected a random selection
of student work samples from each grade
- used the profile outcomes,
pointers and work samples, along with professional judgement, to moderate
some work profile levels collaboratively during a staff meeting.
As was expected, the process
saw a range of profile levels being demonstrated across all grades.
The following outline of the task and accompanying student work samples
is evidence of Zeehan Primary School's commitment to providing parents
and students with accurate assessment information.
return
to top of page
| Zeehan Primary
School - Moderation Task |
Place and
Space Strand
Task
- Students from Grades P-6 were asked to design a postcard about their
local habitat as part of Arbor Week Challenges. They were required
to draw what it looked like and how different types of plants, animals,
insects and reptiles used the habitat.
Background
- Arbor Week activities supported Zeehan Primary School's commitment
to ecological sustainability within the local community and SOSE programs
K-8 within the cluster. It therefore provided an excellent context
and audience for students and an ideal opportunity for staff to
design a moderation process.
Key SOSE
Outcomes for Moderation
Place and
Space
1.4 identifies natural
and built features of places using direct observation
2.4 uses symbols to describe the location of places relative to
each other
3.4 describes places
according to their location and natural
and built features
Grade 5/6 Work Sample
The image below shows
evidence of a Grade 6 student's work which indicated achievement at
Level 3 for the Place and Space strand, with Towards Level 4 viewed
as a more appropriate rating.
Some key questions for
consideration when designing moderation tasks:
- How are a range of
intelligences catered for?
- Will the tasks allow
negotiation of end products? Can students negotiate the ways in
which they will communicate their understandings?
- How do students know
the conventions to be followed?
- Will the task require
students to have prior knowledge?
- What outcomes are students
required to meet? In literacy? Numeracy? or learning areas?
- What criteria will
teachers use when making judgements? What are the indicators of
success? Do students have access to this information prior to the
task?
In summary
- Fair and accurate summative
assessment of student performance is an equity issue. Because of this,
moderators must ensure that both task design and moderation discussions
reflect the intentions of the SOSE strands and do not, for example,
reflect only, students literacy, numeracy or artistic abilities.
return
to top of page
|
