ASSESSMENT AND REPORTING

PRINCIPLES OF ASSESSMENT AND REPORTING IN NSW GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS

Assessment is the process of identifying, gathering and interpreting information about students' learning. The central purpose of assessment is to provide information on student achievement and progress and set the direction for ongoing teaching and learning.

STRIKE THE ROOT

Martin Luther King, Jr noted in his Autobiography that his first encounter with the idea of non-violent resistance was reading "On Civil Disobedience", by Henry David Thoreau, in 1944, while attending Morehouse College. He wrote in his autobiography that it was

"Here, in this courageous New Englander's refusal to pay his taxes and his choice of jail rather than support a war that would spread slavery's territory into Mexico, I made my first contact with the theory of nonviolent resistance. Fascinated by the idea of refusing to cooperate with an evil system, I was so deeply moved that I reread the work several times.

I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal witness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest. The teachings of Thoreau came alive in our civil rights movement; indeed, they are more alive than ever before. Whether expressed in a sit-in at lunch counters, a freedom ride into Mississippi, a peaceful protest in Albany, Georgia, a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, these are outgrowths of Thoreau's insistence that evil must be resisted and that no moral man can patiently adjust to injustice."

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE METHODS

Readymade Productions is producing an ongoing series of dramatised video resources designed to support primary and secondary students with a range of issues. The Stories of Us production approach is unique: students collaborate in brainstorming the subjects, developing characters, workshopping the scripts and then perform the key roles in the dramatised videos. Stories of Us has proven so successful in Australia that leading international academics in education are assisting Readymade Productions in remaking the series for students in the USA, Canada and the UK.

Readymade Productions on bullying

BULLYING-RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

Restorative justice methods for addressing social problems include the method of shared concern, the no blame approach, restitution, community conferencing and the formal apology.

Restorative justice approaches use the incident of misbehaviour as an educative opportunity for repairing the harm and fostering more socially responsible relationships and behaviours that take others' perspectives into account. This is achieved through carefully structured opportunities for individuals to understand the impact of their actions, recognise their social responsibilities and make amends to those who have been affected by their actions. The young person is also assisted to reintegrate successfully into the school community. The most common form of restorative justice is community conferencing.

The key principles of these methods are:

* Bullying and harassment occur in the context of group behaviour.
* The aim is to develop empathy and concern for others.
* The dynamics that sustain bullying and harassment can be shifted by working with the perpetrators, and often their family and/or peer group.
* A shift in behaviour can be achieved by developing a sense of shared concern for the bullied or harassed persons.
* Punitive measures model and reinforce the abuse of power to meet individual needs, place the target at greater risk of revenge and may send the bullying underground.

Restorative justice approaches require these factors to be in place first:

* the support of the victimised person who needs to have identified that he/she is being bullied and is confident that the approach advocated will work
* preliminary investigation to clearly understand the issues before the process is implemented
* staff guidelines and professional development to build understanding, skills and confidence in using the strategies
* support within the school community for the approach
* agreement that the goal is to solve the problem rather than to interrogate, punish, blame or label individuals
* respectful facilitation of the process by trained people
* follow up monitoring of the agreement.


Examples

* No blame approach
* Method of shared concern
* Formal apology
* Community conference

BULLYING

BULLYING-ZERO TOLERANCE

The issues

Making informed responses to bullying, harassment, discrimination and violence based on understanding of the issues helps us to create safe school communities.

Your rights

Everyone has the right to safety and respect. We also have the responsibility to help guarantee these same rights for others.

The behaviours

Understanding the role of power in relationships helps us to identify harmful behaviours and to develop a shared approach to these issues.

Deeper issues

Day-to-day relationships in the school community are influenced by underlying factors that maintain behaviours such as bullying, harassment and discrimination in society.

Creating change

Positive change incorporates support for individuals, fair and consistent expectations, and approaches that address the deeper issues and encourage wellbeing for all individuals, groups and the whole school community.

Where to now?

We know that school communities are addressing issues of bullying, harassment and violence. Social capital suggests ways to measure and benchmark these changes.

GRAFITTI MODEL

What is the grafitti method of groupwork?

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Emotional Intelligence, also called EI and often measured as an Emotional Intelligence Quotient or EQ, describes an ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups. However, being a relatively new area, the definition of emotional intelligence is constantly changing. Some psychologists, such as John D. Mayer (2005), prefer to distinguish emotional knowledge from emotional intelligence, as discussed below.
Self-report measures of EQ

Self-report measures of EQ include the Emotional Intelligence Appraisal by Bradberry and Greaves, (2005c). The Emotional Intelligence Appraisal measures the four EQ skills from Daniel Goleman's model:

* Self-Awareness
* Self-Management
* Social Awareness
* Relationship Management
Emotional IQ Test

HOMEWORK

Is homework a waste of time?

Children have long suspected it, and now research confirms it: homework is a waste of time. Anxiety, boredom, fatigue and emotional exhaustion are all side-effects of bringing schoolwork home, according to a review of 75 years of study into the issue.

Even those who believe homework improves their performance in the classroom resent the encroachment on their spare time. How many kids actually enjoy homework? Why do most kids dread homework to the point where each night there is a struggle with parents over whether or not it is done, sometimes ending in tears, anger, fighting and punishment?

Students are in school for up to seven hours per day. What could they be doing instead of homework?



1. Pursuing their own interests and hobbies (art, independent study, building things, writing, role playing, games, etc.)
2. Physical activities or sports (Riding bike, skateboarding, swimming, snowboarding, basketball, gymnastics, dance, etc.)
3. Spending time with family
4. Hanging out with friends
5. Spending time in solitude just thinking or inventing
6. Reading for themselves
7. Exploring and traveling (the woods, the pond, the ocean, the city, etc.)
8. Letting your curiosity run wild
9. Making up adventures

What is the purpose of homework, anyway?
Teachers will tell you that homework helps kids put into practice what they've learned in school.
Not according to one leading academic."Homework generally is worthless. It's all pain and no gain," said Alfie Kohn, author of "The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing." "No study has ever demonstrated any academic benefit to doing homework before high school."




What can you do?

Ask your parents to write a note to the teacher saying that you are only allowed to do � hour of homework per night due to family responsibilities.
Ask your teacher if she/he will allow you to put together an independent study of your choice instead of the regularly assigned homework.
Use academic notes for large reading projects or learn to speed read by skimming headings (you�ll need to learn that skill for uni homework!).
Instead of reading 50 pages of your history textbook, ask if you could read books that aren't textbooks- Textbooks are often biased and don't present the whole truth about history and politics.
Try to get all of your homework done during free periods and lunch time. You'll have more free time later!
If your homework doesn't count for a big portion of your grade, boycott homework and only do work at home for big projects or term papers that account for a big part of your grade.
Do homework only for the classes in which grades and credits are most important and for classes that you enjoy.
If you are in a situation where you cannot sacrifice your grade point average and your parents are unwilling to take your side, try to put homework into perspective: Your high school grades do not determine your career, nor how successful you will be as an adult.

FENG SHUI- DECLUTTER YOUR LIFE

De-clutter Your Life

"Out of clutter, find simplicity."
--Albert Einstein

We live in a world with many more choices than ever before…and it will only continue to get more complex! So how do we manage it all?
Most people have a clutter problem. Life and home full of clutter?
Feeling drained of energy?
Lack of space weighing you down?
Creativity suffocated by everyday obligations?

If the answer to these questions is yes, then you're suffering from too much clutter. You probably already know this fact only too well! And, of course, if your life is full of clutter, all that clutter is draining away your energy and creativity.
The more clutter you have in your environment and in your life, the less space and energy you have available to enjoy your creativity. You're weighed down and your creativity is suffocated and blocked.




Feng shui is the ancient Chinese practice of placement and arrangement of space to achieve harmony with the environment. The literal translation is "wind-water".

Feng shui involves the use of geographical, psychological, philosophical, mathematical, aesthetic and astrological concepts in relation to space and energy flow. It is not simply a decorating style, but a discipline with guidelines compatible with many different techniques of architectural planning.


An individual is usually not described as having bad or incorrect feng shui, but since the practice is linked to Qi, a person's energy can either deplete or add to the energy of his or her surroundings. The space can also affect the individual, especially in matters of luck, health, and prosperity. Feng shui is not only a practice that is related to physical space, but also to the inhabitants of the space itself, as both are interconnected.

GLASSER

"What is the purpose of the student's behavior?"
"How can I help this student learn a replacement behavior?"
Dr. Glasser is an internationally recognized psychiatrist who is best known as the author of Reality Therapy, a method of psychotherapy he created in 1965 and that is now taught all over the world.
http://www.wglasser.com/whoweare.htm



THE TEN AXIOMS OF CHOICE THEORY
* The only person whose behaviour we can control is our own.

* All we can give or get from other people is information.

* All long-lasting psychological problems are relationship problems.

* The problem relationship is always part of our present lives.

* What happened in the past that was painful has a great deal to do with what we are today, but revisiting this painful past can contribute little or nothing to what we need to do now: improve an important, present relationship.

* We are driven by five genetic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.

* We can satisfy these needs only by satisfying a picture or pictures in our quality worlds.

* All we do from birth to death is behave. All behaviour is total behaviour and is made up of four inseparable components: acting, thinking, feeling, and physiology.

* All total behaviour is designated by verbs, usually infinitives and gerunds, and named by the component that is most recognisable.

* All total behaviour is chosen, but we have direct control over only the acting and thinking components.

STUDENT MOTIVATION

ZDP- The lesson must begin with something that will engage all students. Find out what their interests are. Make sure you have something to engage them. We must connect to the students. This sets up a relationship between student and teacher and brings the student into a social relationship with the class. This helps them have a sense of belonging- they must be included and be given attention.
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Motivation-look at every child through Glasser's Choice theory model. For example, if a student is lacking power, devise classroom strategy, ie. lesson planning, that addresses this deficit. A lack of fun could call for a greater sense of play in the classroom.

BOS- these are absolutely critical. You need to make sure that you are addressing all required outcomes. Every lesson should be embedded to address the 3 areas of outcomes: knowledge, skills, values and attitudes.

Knowledge of individuals is essential to a successful lesson, including prior knowledge of students learning.
Concrete activities which are constructive.
Gardener's 3 broad domains-Analytic Domain,
Interactive Domain,Introspective Domain

Bloom's 5 levels of taxonomy-aim for the top- synthesis and evaluation; asking key questions which lead to higher order thinking.
Make sure to include group work in your lesson. Think, pair, share. Jigsaw. Grafetti
Communication. Affirmation, Reflection - Hattie.

GLASSER AND MASLOW

William Glasser, in his 'Control Theory' (later renamed to 'Choice Theory') detailed five needs that are quite close to Maslow's Hierarchy, but with some interesting twists. Maslow (1908-1970) spelled out the basic needs of all humans. Then Glasser, born 1925, came along and deduced and refined these needs into a theory of his own.


1. Survival

This is similar to Maslow's Physiological and Safety level. They are basic needs which are of little interest unless they are threatened.
2. Love and belonging

This is the same as Maslow's Belonging need and recognises how important it is for us as a tribal species to be accepted by our peers.
3. Power or recognition

This maps to some extent to Maslow's Esteem need, although the Power element focuses on our ability to achieve our goals (which is perhaps a lower-level control need).
4. Freedom

This is the ability to do what we want, to have free choice. It is connected with procedural justice where we seek fair play.
5. Fun

An interesting ultimate goal. When all else is satisfied, we just (as Cyndi Lauper sang) 'want to have fun'.

MASLOW

Abraham Maslow (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was an American psychologist. He is mostly noted today for his proposal of a hierarchy of human needs, considered the father of Humanism in psychology

ASSERTIVE DISCIPLINE

Assertive discipline is a structured, systematic approach designed to assist educators in running an organized, teacher-in-charge classroom environment. Lee and Marlene Canter, when consulting for school systems, found that many teachers were unable to control undesirable behavior that occurred in their classrooms. The Cantors, rightfully so, attributed this to a lack of training in the area of behavior management. Based on their research and the foundations of assertiveness training and applied behavior analysis, they developed a common sense, easy-to-learn approach to help teachers become the captains of their classrooms and positively influence their students' behavior. Today, it is the most widely used "canned" (prepared/packaged) behavior management program. Assertive discipline has evolved since the mid 70's from an authoritarian approach to one that is more democratic and cooperative.

DRIEKURS AND GLASSER-NON ASSERTIVE DISCIPLINE

Driekus's theory is more socially driven- students need to belong to a group- they will act out in class if the do not feel they have a sense of belonging to the group. Therefore a social dynamic must be created so all members feel safe secure loved and valued. Driekurs summarises disruptive classroom behaviours by dividing the root causes of these behaviours into 4 different groups. These groups are those who are seeking attention, desiring power or revenge, or those trying to demonstrate their inadequacy


Willaim Glassers theory is more psycolocically based- to be valued and loved as a human being.

William Glasser, in his 'Control Theory' (later renamed to 'Choice Theory') detailed five needs

1. Survival
basic needs which are of little interest unless they are threatened.

2. Love and belonging

This is the same as Maslow's Belonging need and recognises how important it is for us as a tribal species to be accepted by our peers.

3. Power or recognition

4. Freedom

This is the ability to do what we want, to have free choice. It is connected with procedural justice where we seek fair play.

5. Fun

An interesting ultimate goal. When all else is satisfied, we just (as Cyndi Lauper sang) 'want to have fun'.

The theories of Driekurs and Glasser go together,
Driekurs-every child must be part of a social group.This is a fundermental driver in a classroom. Learning environment must foster learning, co-operation, respect. Students need to be aware of their rights and responsibilities.
Glasser- expands on the needs of this social group. Teacher must identify the needs of the individuals within the group. For example, in the introductory time the teacher must capture everyone's attention and place them in the ZDP. At a last resort if the teacher cannot lead they must then resort to pushing the student forward.
The dominant model for education discipline in Australia is Cantor-push and control.

The social setting is determined by the culture at a particular school.
Children neeed to br taught how to operate in a group, they need to develop these skills