Changing the tide

My perception on student achievement and learning has been challenged this year. Challenged in way where I am starting to look at the program that is offered for Level 3 English and I am starting to think what is going on? The program for Level 1 and Level 2 English are at the place where student achievement and engagement is good, not great but definitely not in crisis. For Level 3 English, I have noticed that our students are not where they should be.

I have started to look at the current program for Level 3 English. At this stage we offering the following assessments:

• 91480 - Close Viewing - 3 Credits
• 91475 - Writing Portfolio - 6 Credits
• 91478 - Connections Report - 4 Credits
• 91476 - Speech - 3 Credits
• 91479 - Critical Analysis of texts - 3 Credits

My view is that there is an assessment overload and that there are two assessments that our students' are not engaged with. In my planning for next year, I am hoping on cutting down on what is not needed and focus on what is working and how I can deliver it as best as I can for our students.

My plan for next year is to remove:

• 91479 (Critical Analysis of texts) - I believe that the analysis of texts at a critical level is already happening with through our Extended text and Visual text study. There is no need to double hand students with assessments. 
• 91476 (Speech) - I believe that rich discussions should be happening in the classroom. Students should not be assessed on something that we should be doing in the classroom already. 

This leaves 91480, 91475 and 91478 as the remaining assessments. One assessment per term, this implies that the quality of the assessment is given time and the students can take their time and not rush through the assessment. This also implies that the expectation is that they do pass the assessment given the healthy time to discuss, learn, share and create in class.