Meeting the Assessment Criteria in the RE Agreed Syllabus. How frequently should we assess? What happens if we can’t see how pupils’ work matches the levels? We do a lot of discussion work – so can we assess a pupil’s contribution that way?

Step One - when preparing a unit – decide which of the bullet points in the levels you want to meet with the final assessment piece. Don’t expect to cover all of them! (Just keep a record to make sure all are covered over a two year cycle.) Step Two - Before you do any other planning decide what form the final assessment needs to take so that you can work towards it over the half term. What information do pupils need to gather to reach this point?

What do you need to do to assess this? Warning!!! If you set a low level final assessment task you will get a low level result……………….. What do you need to do to assess this?

It can help to prepare an assessment sheet for the unit early on laying out your expectations

Assessment for RE (Upper KS2) Levels Assessment for RE (Upper KS2) Unit title Date AT1 Level 3 *use a developing religious vocabulary to describe some key features of religions, recognizing similarities and differences * make links between beliefs and sources, including religious stories and sacred texts * begin to identify impact religion has on believers’ lifestyles * describe some forms of religious expression. AT2 Level 3 * making links between aspects of their own and others’ experiences * ask important questions about religious beliefs and lifestyles, linking their own and others’ responses * make links between values and commitments, and their own attitudes and behaviour. AT1 Level 4 * use developing religious vocabulary to describe and show understanding of sources, authorities, practices, beliefs, lifestyles, ideas, feelings and experiences * make links between them, describe some similarities and differences both within and between religions * describe the impact of religion on people’s lifestyles AT2 Level 4 * raise and suggest answers to questions of sacredness, identity, diversity, belonging, meaning, purpose, truth, values and commitments * apply their ideas simply to their own and other people’s lives * describe what inspires and influences themselves and others. AT1 Level 5   *use increasingly wide religious vocabulary to explain impact of beliefs upon individuals and communities * describe why people belong to religions * know that similarities/differences illustrate distinctive beliefs within/between religions, suggest possible reasons * explain how religious sources are used to provide authoritative answers to ultimate questions & ethical issues, recognizing diversity in forms of religious, spiritual and moral expression within/between religions. AT 2 Level 5 * pose, and suggest answers to questions of sacredness, identity, diversity, belonging, meaning, purpose and truth, values and commitments, relating them to their own and others’ lives * explain what inspires and influences them, expressing own/others’ views on challenges of belonging to a religion. Level Comment: If you want to keep your record in a pupil’s book you could stick an assessment grid in at the end of a unit of work. Highlight the statements that provide the most accurate assessment to give a ‘best fit’ level. Comment only as necessary. All statements are cut and paste off the syllabus documents and so the same form can be used for each piece of work. Alternatively, one form for the whole year, rather than each unit, will allow you to “tick off” what is covered and (hopefully) show progression in skills over the year…..

You could encourage the children to think of the learning journey as a treasure hunt or a detective story – you have a big question which needs a big answer and you will be accumulating “clues” along the way. The clues are the subsidiary questions and may be pieces of written work, the results of a class discussion, personal research etc etc Importantly, you need to decide how you are going to record any lesson which did not include a written task. So the record of the learning journey could include: “Rough” notes from watching a video Photographs of a visit or activity (but give the pupil the opportunity of personalising / annotating these) Personalised screen shots of contemporaneous discussion mind maps A piece of artwork (with a commentary – which could be scribed by an amanuensis for younger pupils)

With older pupils you could use a summarising leaflet at the end of each lesson…………………. These Ideas could serve as a reminder to help the pupil with their final assessment piece Questions which will assist your planning of the next session or identify misconceptions or support next steps learning Something important I discovered today…… Something which surprised me……… Something I would like to find out more about……….. A question I would still like to ask….

How are we levelling the assessment pieces? As one of three steps: What are we looking for? Religious Literacy How are we levelling the assessment pieces? As one of three steps: Simple response Standard response Deep thinking Simple L1 L3 Standard L2 L4 Deep Thinking L5

In theory, when you reach the end of a half term unit: Pupils should have encountered on their enquiry journey: Relevant technical faith based vocabulary and its meaning; Various pieces of evidence relating to the unit question which they have had the opportunity to share and discuss; A chance to think about important questions and form their own opinions. And had an opportunity to bring these together in an assessment piece (which over a class will probably be differentiated by outcome, although some pupils may require help such as scaffolding) The teacher marking and levelling the assessment piece will know: What areas the enquiry covered and what it would be reasonable to expect in a summative piece of writing from each child; Where the pupil has shown evidence of critical thinking and questioning; Whether the pupil has worked to the best of their ability and shown evidence of deep thinking. To an extent, the level recorded will always depend on the quality of the teacher’s planning and their high expectations.