The National Curriculum sets out a clear, full and statutory entitlement to larning for all pupils up to the age of 16. It determines the content of what will be taught and sets attainment marks for larning. This probe is concerned with Key Stage 2 reading accomplishments.

Consequently an overview will be provided of the course of study content that covers this country.The following subdivision will critically measure the strengths and failings of the current appraisal methods that are used to mensurate a kid 's reading ability. Finally consideration will be given to how new and more effectual schemes can be formulated to better a kid 's public presentation in this critical country.

1.

Key Stage 2 ( KS2 ) - Reading Ability - Course of study Content

During KS2 students read enthusiastically a scope of stuffs and utilize their cognition of words, sentences and texts to understand and react to their significance. They increase their ability to read disputing and drawn-out texts independently. They reflect on the significance of texts, analyzing discoursing them with others. Pupils learn to alter the manner they speak and write to accommodate different state of affairss, intents and audiences.

They explore the usage of linguistic communication in literary and non-literary texts and larn how linguistic communication works.

2. Attainment Targets

There are eight degrees of attainment. At degree 1 - students recognise familiar words in individual texts.

They use their cognition of letters and sound symbol relationships in order to read words and to set up significance when reading out loud. In these activities they sometimes require support. They express their response to poems, narratives and non-fiction by placing facets they like.At degree 8 - students ' response is shown in their grasp of, and remark on, a scope of texts, and they evaluate how writers achieve their effects through the usage of lingual, structural and presentational devices. They select and analyse information and thoughts, and remark on how they are conveyed in different texts.These National Curriculum degrees step each kid 's advancement in each topic.

They are like the rounds of a ladder. Children move up through the degrees, year-by-year. By the terminal of Key Stage 2 - students should accomplish degree 4 in each topic.

3. KS2 Classroom Assessment Methods

Examples of methods for the appraisal of reading accomplishments in guided reading Sessionss ( for students who are intermediate readers ) :

Reading Area Being Assessed

Assessment Method 1

Assessment Method 2

Letter-sound ( phoneme - character ) correspondence ; ( A - Omega ; harmonic digram ; harmonic bunchs ; vowel phonemes )Can place initial consonant digram in wordsCan place concluding initial consonant digram in wordsPunctuation ( Full stops, capital letters, commas )Recognises and understands usage of taught punctuation in textCorrespondence between spoken and written wordCan indicate to each word as he / she readsCan indicate to syllables and missive bunchs in words as he / she readsExamples of methods for the appraisal of reading accomplishments in guided reading Sessionss ( for students who are nearing eloquence ) :

Reading Area Being Assessed

Assessment Method 1

Assessment Method 2

Ocular acknowledgment of wordsHas sight acknowledgment of most high frequence words in the NLS model for learningHas sight acknowledgment of capable related words in age-appropriate stuffUse of phonic schemes to help readingCan section talk words into syllablesCan section written words into syllablesPunctuation ( Full stops, capital letters, commas )Can utilize cognition of basic punctuation to help apprehension of the text

Beginning: www.

halton.gov.uk/schools/english/english-assess-ks1andks2.htm - Halton Borough Council 2006

4. Standards of Achievement and Pupils ' Advancement

The methods highlighted supra have been used for many old ages to measure students ' reading abilities.

However, between the terminal of Second World War and the mid-1990s the criterions of literacy did non alter significantly. In 1996 merely 57 % of 11 year-olds reached the criterion expected for their age in English. In this twelvemonth - The Literacy Task Force was launched, with the aim of raising accomplishment in all degrees of instruction.A cardinal facet of the new attack towards learning literacy was the launch of national school trials - frequently called SATS - are taken in England by students when aged 7, 11 and 14. The consequences of the trials are published and used to pull up league tabular arraies.

The intent of these trials is to supply a unvarying method of proving throughout the UK. This makes it easier to mensurate the alterations in reading abilities from one twelvemonth to the following. Plus it besides allows the public presentation of schools to be critically evaluated.Between 1999 and 2000 the proportion of students making Level 4 or above in English at the terminal of KS2 rose by 4 % from 71 % to 75 % . There were besides important additions over this 2-year period in the proportion of students accomplishing Level 5.

28 % of students achieved Level 5 in 2000 and now over tierce of misss now transfer to secondary instruction holding attained this higher degree. The greatest betterments at Level 4 and above have been in reading, in which attainment rose by 5 % in 2000.In add-on, a considerable gender spread remains. The overall attainment of misss in English is 9 % in front of that of male childs at the terminal of KS2. The spread between the attainment of male childs and misss narrowed to 6 % in reading in 2000, but remained at 15 % in authorship. This is despite an increased focal point on the instruction of composing during 1999/2000 and the intercession schemes put in topographic point for KS2 students.

Further additions overall are likely to go increasingly more hard to accomplish without significant betterment in authorship, peculiarly that of male childs.In 2004 about 600,000 students took the twelvemonth 6 English trial of reading. 8 % achieved degree 3, 44 % achieved degree 4 and 39 % achieved flat 5.

5.

The Limitations of SATS as an Assessment Method

More than 90 % of instructors want to boycott national trials for 7-year-olds, harmonizing to a canvass carried out by the National Union of Teachers. And 84 % want to abandon all national testing at 7, 11 and 14 because of the tapered focal point the government-led enterprises in literacy and numeracy have on the course of study. Two-thirdss said the trials were non educationally worthwhile for their students.Fewer than 20 % said they helped place countries of betterment for their students and about 44 % said they did non let students to show what they had learnt and understood. Critics of the proving system say other countries of the course of study get neglected.

The caput of school reviews in England, David Bell, highlighted what he called the job of a two-tier course of study, with Maths and English being better taught than other topics.

6. Can Assessment Raise Standards?

The reply to this inquiry is yes? Assessment is one of the most powerful educational tools for advancing effectual acquisition. But it must be used in the right manner.

There is no grounds that increasing the sum of proving will heighten larning. Alternatively the focal point needs to be on assisting instructors use appraisal, in ways that will raise students ' accomplishment.There is an pressing demand to analyze current policy and pattern in the visible radiation of of import new research grounds that appraisal as a regular component in schoolroom work holds the key to better acquisition. The research tells that successful acquisition occurs when pupils have ownership of their acquisition ; when they understand the ends they are taking for ; when, crucially, they are motivated and have the accomplishments to accomplish success. Not merely are these indispensable characteristics of daily acquisition in the schoolroom, they are the cardinal ingredients of successful womb-to-tomb acquisition.

Evidence from research into the impact of the National Curriculum and from inspectors ' studies in England - show that much of the current schoolroom pattern falls short of supplying appraisal for larning. A clear differentiation should be made between appraisal of larning for the intents of scaling and coverage, which has its ain well-established processs, and appraisal for larning which calls for different precedences, new processs and a new committedness.In the recent yesteryear, policy precedences have arguably resulted in excessively much attending being given to happening dependable ways of comparing kids, instructors and schools. The of import message now facing the educational community is that appraisal, which is explicitly designed to advance acquisition, is now the most individual powerful tool we have for both raising criterions and authorising womb-to-tomb scholars.

7. Developing Assessment for Learning in the Classroom

Teachers connect effectual schoolroom pattern with the outlooks embedded in the literacy and numeracy enterprises and with best pattern across all larning countries.

The matrix below illustrates how the rules of appraisal for acquisition could be developed within the instruction of literacy.

Professional Development / Methodology Deductions

Literacy

Sharing larning results with studentsShare larning results at the beginning of the lesson and where appropriate during the hr, in linguistic communication that the students can understandThese aims should organize the footing for oppugning and feedback during the plenary, and inform hereafter planningInvolving students in ego appraisalStudents talk about what they have learnedUse of feedback and marker linked to larning resultsStudents discoursing together or working togetherTime given to reflect on acquisitionFollowing stairss identified on a group or single footingAid pupils to cognize and recognize the criterions they are taking forShowing work that has met standardsGiving clear success standards to students. These will fit the acquisition resultsTeacher patterning good authorship and readingFollowing stairss identified for group or personsProvide feedback which leads to pupils recognizing their following stairss and how to take themOral feedback is the most effectualIdentify what the student has done good, what they need to make to better and how to make itPuting following stairss for groups or persons

Beginning: Guidelines for Primary Assessment Co-ordinators - Association of Assessment Inspectors and Advisers ( www.rmplc.co.

uk/orgs/aaia )

Teachers need to place and reflect on their ain and each other 's classroom day-to-day activities to assist kids larn through clear uping outlooks, supplying specific, constructive and timely feedback and placing following stairss. Here are some inquiries instructors can utilize to reflect on their ain schoolroom pattern.Is the instructor clear about the expected acquisition results and are these shared with the students at the start of the instruction?Does the instructor show and pattern what `` good '' work looks like, to assist exemplify these expected results in pattern?When work is `` pronounced '' does the taging suggest how the work can be improved?Are instructors and kids speaking about how feedback leads to following stairss for larning betterment?Are these following stairss referred to, as a usher to bettering both acquisition and instruction?Do instructors utilize they find out from appraisal to set their programs?

8. Drumhead

In subdivision 3, an overview of schoolroom methods for measuring students ' reading abilities was presented.

These methods have been in usage for a figure of old ages. However, between the terminal of the Second World War and the mid 1990s, there was no important alteration in literacy criterions. To supply a unvarying system of proving throughout the state, SATS were introduced.These trials have a figure of restrictions. Notably excessively much accent is placed on students executing good within these trials.

And broader considerations, such as promoting students to take duty for their ain acquisition have become of secondary importance.It has now been recognised, that while the appraisal of acquisition is of import - of greater significance is the appraisal for larning. The key to bettering the reading ability of KS2 students is to prosecute them in the acquisition procedure. As defined, students will go more motivated, more self-assured and will larn at a faster rate, if they to the full understand what they are seeking to accomplish.The schoolroom appraisal methods and SATS, explored in this probe, will go on to play their portion in bettering literacy criterions. Of greater importance is the demand to develop coherent and feasible schemes with respect to the appraisal for larning as it occurs in the schoolroom.