Charles Darwin University

EPR300: Professional Experience 4: The Professional Teacher

Component 4: Standards and Moderation
Student: Leander Hellet (S220801)

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Factual record and reflection on moderation discussions

On Tuesday the 24th of October and Monday the 31st of October I participated in the
whole school moderation process for writing at Driver Primary School. On the first date
teachers were asked to attend moderation and to bring three pieces of work for each focus
student. The focus students were selected as one exceeding, one meeting and one performing
below the expectations for students in their current year level. Teachers were asked to
moderate any year level other than their own. I was in a group with two experienced teachers
and we took turns choosing a piece of writing, moderating and discussing discrepancies
against the rubrics provided. Each piece of writing needed to be moderated three times. The
latter date is when I participated in the moderation process for my three focus students with
my Classroom Teacher. In component 3, I provided an annotated procedural text and
marking rubric with regard to my three focus students. Moderation is a collaborative process,
which helps teachers to better understand where their students are academically and how we
can help them work toward the best possible outcome. The teacher and I took turns reading
the procedural text and marking against a widely used Palmerston City Schools 3-point scale-
writing rubric for Year 4. Decisions were made against the achievement standards for
receptive (listening, reading and viewing) or productive modes (speaking, writing and
creating). We each checked the piece of work for text structure, sentence structure,
vocabulary, punctuation, spelling and editing. Where a slight difference of opinion occurred
we were able to discuss this and focus more on what the evidence presented instead of what
was missing.

Having never participated in the moderation process I was surprised by the amount of
time consumed on one students assignment. Unfortunately, due to time constraints the
second half of the school moderation process was cancelled. Mostly, the whole school
personal development training helped me to better understand the process of moderation, the
purpose and importance of it. Lastly, the Australian Council for Educational Research
(ACER) (2007), states that there is five elements necessary for effective moderation
processes. They are

teachers knowledge and understanding of the standards;

curriculum planning, opportunities for students to demonstrate achievement of
standards;

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 evidence of student achievement;
assessment of the evidence against the standards; and
validation of teachers judgements

Professional judgement practice including the use standards to inform practice

According to the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (2016), professional

judgement is defined as a judgement which is informed by professional knowledge, evidence
of learning, teaching methods, assessment, success criteria and standards that measure
success in learning.

Groundwater-Smith (1998), affirms that professional teacher judgement can be

strategic in developing and informing policies both within and beyond schools. The
standards used to guide the judgement were clearly stated on the Writing Rubric. This
provides a basis for the student to demonstrate their understanding of the topic and at the
same time it allows the teacher to see what the student cant do. The tool for making a
judgement in this instance is the Writing Rubric as it clearly states what the criteria for the
assessment or any piece of writing at the time.

Student A My judgement prior to moderation for this student has remained stable
regardless of moderation. I believe this is true because this student
consistently strives to do better. The initial data collection of writing genres
supports this statement. I am also able to reflect on this students participation
in class, general work ethic and comparison against persuasive and narrative
text types. The cognitive commentaries stated in component 3, remain the
same.
Student B My judgement prior to moderation changed slightly for this student. The data
collection of information shows that she is where she should be however, there
is scope for improvement. Behaviour can be challenging and this often affects
this students quality of work. I have compared the recent procedural
summative assessment against a persuasive and narrative text piece as evidence
of writing and this student could with a little effort achieve a B grade for
English.

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 Student C My judgement prior to moderation for this student has remained this same.
This student is an ESL learner and NAPLAN results are indicative of limited
understandings at times. Narrative, persuasive and procedural text types were
compared. For example, a persuasive text written by this student was marked
below the standard for text structure, sentence structure, vocabulary and
grammar. It is evident this student needs considerable support to help him
achieve the outcomes. For the teacher this may require delivering information
differently, checking for understanding, keeping diagnostic records and
providing regular verbal and written feedback.

Collaboration in assessment and the use of evidence in moderation to demonstrate

reliability

Firstly, assessment is a process of collating, analysing and reflecting on evidence to

make informed and consistent judgement to improve future student learning (Victoria State
Government, 2017). During collaboration in assessment I learned that it is important to
have your own personal view but to give all teachers a chance to share their opinion while
being respectful of the difference of opinion in judgements.

The importance of evidence for moderation purposes is reliable because it supports

assessment for learning. The evidence ensures decisions are valid and consistent across the
curriculum and moderation is especially important when teachers report to parents twice a
year.

Student A The data and moderated evidence for this student is reliable and consistent.
Student B The data and moderated evidence for this student is varied.
Student C The data and moderated evidence for this student is more or less the same.

The contribution of moderation to next-step planning and teaching

The purpose of assessment reinforces the curriculum outcomes and moderation is a

collaborative process to measure a students progress and achievement for a specific unit of
work. For this to be successful the assessment should fit the purpose and be valid and
reliable. For next-step planning and teaching I understand this to be the point where the
teachers determine the direction to take in furthering the students education. The teacher can

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then see where students are at and where they are going and need to be in their learning
journey. The Australian Curriculum provides guidance for the next step. In terms of
moderation teachers will know what their students can do and at the same time embed poorly
performing areas in writing in this case into future units of work. Overall the English
language curriculum provides teachers with explicit learning outcomes, elaborations, support
materials and examples of student work for moderation. The destination for students learning
needs to be both realistic and achievable.

The comments below are a result of three different moderated pieces of writing
(narrative, persuasive and procedural texts).

Student A For persuasive text this student achieved above for all areas except editing.
This has been identified throughout these components. For narrative text this
student once again excelled in all areas except editing. However, for
procedural texts This student achieved at or above in all areas. The topic
selected for this piece of writing was too simple for this student. I made
recommendations in component 3 to address this issue. Also, as this student is
mostly achieving at level for editing he is very capable of achieving above
level. Future teaching and planning would entail explicit instruction about
proofreading, editing and the use of checklists in the hope that it would become
a habit to proofread and check work prior to marking. The strengths and
limitations identified in component 3 remain unchanged.
Student B In terms of narrative writing this student has achieved most however, she
scored below for text and sentence structure. For persuasive text she achieved
most areas but scored below for vocabulary, punctuation, spelling and editing.
For procedural text she achieved at level or above in all areas except for
editing.

It is evident that this student excels in other genres more than others. I believe
regular feedback to address areas where improvement can be made will benefit
this student. The data and evidence that has been screened throughout these
components supports my findings. The strengths and limitation in component
3 remain unchanged.

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 Student C In terms of future planning and teaching this student according to the
moderated evidence and 3-point scale rubric understands the format of a
procedural text, however, he has scored below level for sentence structure,
punctuation, spelling and editing. For the persuasive text piece this student
scored below for text and sentence structure and vocabulary. This student has
written the persuasive text as a consequence and there is no convincing
argument. This student scored better in his narrative text piece however, text
structure, vocabulary and editing were scored below level.

To inform future teaching, I am aware that this student will need modelled
instruction and explicit instructions for the genre being taught in terms of what
it is, the stages of writing and a conclusion (British Council, nod). To further
support this student I writing activities can also be differentiated for English
Second Language (ESL) Learners. The comment here is consistent with the
data and evidence collated for component 1 and the strengths and limitations
listed in component 3.

Culminating Statement
In order to synthesise the key insights and evidence from my teaching and completed
components the initial data included a NAPLAN test, formative and summative assessments
and a reporting rubric. Standardised testing such as the Australia wide NAPLAN test may not
provide an accurate reflection of a students ability. One reason for this inadequacy may be
that testing conditions can overwhelm some students and not others. There is also the issue
of teachers teaching to the test, which means other curriculum areas can be neglected due to
the pressure for students to perform well. The samples of evidence provided throughout this
unit show a much clearer pattern for what the students can and cant do, strengths and
limitations are much clearer and having participated in the moderation process I have a better
understanding of how to read and interpret data.

The impact of teaching and classroom learning can be a positive or negative

experience for any student. While it is my ambition to be the best teacher I can be a student
grade and results of standardised testing can reflect on a teachers performance in the
classroom. Pearson (2010) suggests that the classroom environment is important because by
putting an average ability student in the least effective, as opposed to the most effective

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classroom environment could affect their academic progress by as much as the average
improvement across a year. It is evident that I need to review my current classroom design.
Student B (at year level student) may work better alongside Student A (above year level
student). Student C (below year level), would benefit sitting closer to the teacher for
prompting and support. For students to achieve their highest potential academically
classroom design needs to strike the balance between the teaching methods and learning
styles that take place in class (Pearson, 2010). While it is necessary to pay attention to the
layout of a classroom Rand Education (2017), confirms that students that are taught be an
effective teacher improve student achievement. I have made every effort to get to know my
students. To be an even better teacher I need to extend Student A and attempt to motivate
Student B with encouragement and positive criticisms. For Student C I need to seek
alternative methods such as the reliable and tested ESL curricula.

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 References

Australian Council for Educational Research, (2007). Improving consistency in teacher

judgements. Retrieved from
https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1020&context=tll_misc

British Council, (n.d.). Planning a writing lesson. Retrieved from

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/planning-a-writing-lesson

Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, (2016). Understanding your professional

judgement. Retrieved from
http://www.etfo.ca/SupportingMembers/Professionals/PJdocs/PJflyer.pdf

Groundwater-Smith, S (1998), Putting teaching professional judgement to work: Educational

action research. Retrieved from
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09650799800200051

Pearson, (2010). How does the classroom environment affect learning. Retrieved from
http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/TheImpactOfClassroomEn
vironmentOnLearning.aspx
Rand Education, (2017). Teachers Matter: Understanding Teachers' Impact on Student
Achievement. Retrieved from https://www.rand.org/education/projects/measuring-
teacher-effectiveness/teachers-matter.html
Victoria State Government, (2017). Assessment advice. Retrieved from:
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/support/Pages/advice.aspx