Assessment for Learning (AfL) is any assessment activity which informs the next steps to learning. Teachers can only plan effective future lessons if they are fully aware of what stage children have reached in previous lessons. There needs to be a clear link between the children’s learning and lesson planning.  Equally, children need to be given a clear idea of how well they are progressing in different areas of language and how they might improve.

Since AfL is now strongly embedded in the primary school, it should provide a framework on which primary languages, too, is based.

Questions

- How is assessment for learning used in your school?

- How do you use assessment for learning to inform short-term planning in your language sessions?

Activities

Playing a game can give teachers the opportunity to recognise the progress of individual children in the class. Group activities provide a non-threatening environment.

Try combining new vocabulary with classroom commands to identify those children who show understanding. Give each table group a name from a vocabulary topic (for example animals) that they have been learning. Combine this with a classroom command, for example Levez-vous les moutons. 

Children have to listen first for the command and then for the animal. Who is able to watch you and respond correctly without hesitation? Who is relying on the support of other children by watching what they do? Who is performing some of the actions correctly but not responding to the nouns?