Page 17 - Year 1 SOW 2020

4. Formative Assessment

Formative Assessment involves teachers in identifying pupils’ strengths and weaknesses as
language learners, and in communicating this information clearly to pupils through feedback.

As formative assessment involves clear communication with pupils, effective formative assessment is
therefore also informative. Formative assessment of listening or reading may involve talking with
pupils about different listening and reading strategies they can use. Some of this discussion may be
in L1, as the focus is on learning, not on language performance. Formative assessment of speaking,
may involve highlighting how well a pupil has communicated a message, as well as some explicit or
implicit correction of pronunciation, vocabulary or grammar. The picture is similar with formative
assessment of writing, with spelling and punctuation replacing pronunciation.

There are five common ways of collecting information in order to find out what pupils have done well,
and what they need to improve:

1. observing pupils in class
2. reading and marking their written work
3. asking pupils about their learning, e.g. what they find easy and difficult, what task types and
topics they enjoy
4. asking pupils to self- or peer assess their work
5. testing pupils.

Formative assessment also involves teachers reflecting on the learning in a lesson in order to plan
upcoming lessons effectively. This is of particular value when considering the non-textbook-based
lessons, where learning from the textbook can be reviewed and/or enriched.

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Primary Year 1 Scheme of Work