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Using formative assessment rubrics in History Continuity and change

Foundation-Level 2

Authorised and published by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment AuthorityLevel 7, 2 Lonsdale StreetMelbourne VIC 3000

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Using formative assessment rubrics in History Level F-2 Continuity and Change

ContentsWhat is formative assessment?.....................................................................................................4

Using formative assessment rubrics in schools..............................................................................4

The formative assessment rubric...................................................................................................5

Links to the Victorian Curriculum F–10...........................................................................................5

The formative assessment task......................................................................................................7

Description of the task (administration guidelines).........................................................................7

Interpreting evidence of student learning.....................................................................................9

Setting the scene............................................................................................................................9

Sample 1...................................................................................................................................10

Sample 1: Evidence of student learning................................................................................11

Any feedback given...............................................................................................................11

Sample 2...................................................................................................................................12



Sample 3...................................................................................................................................14



Using evidence to plan for future teaching and learning...........................................................16

Appendix 1: An example of a selection of photographs............................................................17

Appendix 2: Formative assessment task template.....................................................................18


What is formative assessment?Formative assessment is any assessment that is used to improve teaching and learning. Best-practice formative assessment uses a rigorous approach in which each step of the assessment process is carefully thought through.

Assessment is a three-step process by which evidence is collected, interpreted and used. By definition, the final step of formative assessment requires a use that improves teaching and learning.

For the best results, teachers can work together to interrogate the curriculum and use their professional expertise and knowledge of their students to outline a learning continuum including a rubric of measurable, user-friendly descriptions of skills and knowledge. Teachers can draw on this learning continuum and rubric to collect evidence of each student’s current learning in order to provide formative feedback and understand what they are ready to learn next.

The VCAA’s Guide to Formative Assessment Rubrics outlines how to develop a formative assessment rubric to collect, interpret and use evidence of student learning to plan teaching and learning. For more information about formative assessment and to access a copy of the guide, please go to the Formative Assessment section of the VCAA website.

Using formative assessment rubrics in schoolsThis document is based on the material developed by one group of teachers in the 2019 Formative Assessment Rubrics project. The VCAA acknowledges the valuable contribution to this resource of the following teachers: Rick Foley (Vermont Primary School) and Alicia Pritchard (Vermont Primary School). The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority partnered with the Assessment Research Centre, University of Melbourne, to provide professional learning for teachers interested in strengthening their understanding and use or formative assessment rubrics.

This resource includes a sample formative assessment rubric and task and describes how the teachers implemented the task in their schools and also includes representative student work samples.

Schools have flexibility in how they choose to use this resource, including as:

a model that they adapt to suit their own teaching and learning plans a resource to support them as they develop their own formative assessment rubrics and

tasks.This resource is not an exemplar.

Additional support and advice on high-quality curriculum planning is available from the Curriculum Planning Resource.

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http://curriculumplanning.vcaa.vic.edu.au/


The formative assessment rubricThe rubric in this document was developed to help inform teaching and learning in the Humanities: History. This rubric supports the explicit teaching of the:

understanding change

understanding continuity

definitions of change, continuity, and cause and effect

sequencing of chronology.

Links to the Victorian Curriculum F–10

Curriculum area: History

Strands: Historical Knowledge, Historical Concepts and Skills

Sub-strands: Personal histories, Continuity and change

Levels/Bands: Foundation – Level 2

Achievement standard/s extract: By the end of Level 2, students explain aspects of daily life to identify how some aspects have changed over time, while others have remained the same.

Content Description/s: Identify examples of continuity and change in family life and in the local area by comparing past and present (VCHHC056).

Differences in family structures of families and the role of family groups today, and what they have in common and how these have changed or remained the same over time (VCHHK059).

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https://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Search?q=VCHHK059

https://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Search?q=VCHHC056


Learning continuum HistoryStrands: Historical Knowledge, Historical Concepts and SkillsSub-strands: Personal histories, Continuity and changeFoundation to Level 2

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4

Students recognise continuity and change.

Students explain how continuity and change happen.

Students use sources to explain how continuity and change happen.

Students use sources to explain why continuity and change happen.

Organising Element Action Insufficient evidence Quality criteria

Identifying change and continuity

1. Identifying change 1.0 Insufficient evidence 1.1 Recognise things that have changed.

1.2 Explain how things have changed. 1.3 Use source to explain how things have changed.

1.4 Use source to explain why things have changed.

2. Identifying continuity 2.0 Insufficient evidence 2.1 Recognise things that have stayed the same.

2.2 Explain how things have stayed the same.

2.3 Use source to explain how things have stayed the same.

2.4 Use source to explain why things have stayed the same.

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The formative assessment taskThe following formative assessment task was developed to elicit evidence of each student’s current learning and what they are ready to learn next.

Description of the task (administration guidelines)

Learning goal: To understand that families are different, and that some things have changed and some have stayed the same over time.

Success criteria:

I can compare families from past to present I can identify things that have changed between families from the past to the present I can identify things that have stayed the same between families from the past to the

present

Materials

Two A3 sheets of paper A selection of photographs of families from different time periods

Whole class activity: Photo sort

The following activity can be used as a warm up activity undertaken by the class prior to the formative assessment task.

Use two sheets of A3 paper: One with the heading ‘Change’ and one with the heading ‘Continuity’ (stay the same).

Discuss families and ask whether the students think families have changed or stayed the same over time.

Write students thoughts on the appropriate piece of paper. Show students the selection of photos and ask students when they think each

photograph was taken. Students can be encouraged to respond with ‘a long time ago’ or ‘more recently’.

As a class, sort the photos into the two categories: ‘a long time ago’ or ‘more recently’.

Take students thinking a step further with a discussion using the following questions: What do you see that makes you say that? Select two photos to compare and ask: What are some differences that you notice? What are some similarities that you notice? Note that even though black and white to colour photos can be counted as a

‘change’, not all black and white photos are from ‘a long time ago’. Encourage students to look at details such as the clothes, the placement of people, their facial expression or the background to make a more informed decision about categorising the photo as either ‘a long time ago’ or ‘more recently’.

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Formative assessment task

Provide students with a selection of photographs of families (see Appendix 1 for an example).

Provide students with a copy of the task template (see Appendix 2). Explain to students how to cut and paste the photos into the columns. Explain that students need to identify things that have changed between the photos

in one column and to identify things that have stayed the same between the photos in the other column.

NB: some photo pairs might have change and continuity between them

Evidence collected from this task

Student sorting template

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Interpreting evidence of student learning Evidence collected from each student was mapped against the rubric:

The quality criteria that were achieved was shaded in blue. The phase that the student is ready to learn next was shaded in green.

Please note, the following annotated student work samples are representative examples only.

Setting the scene These student work samples were collected from an eastern metropolitan

Government primary school. The task was undertaken by Year 1 students. Students had one lesson prior to this looking at schools from the past and schools

from today. Students were able to discuss continuity and change in relation to their learning about schools. This task was the second lesson in a unit of work and took place at the beginning of the semester.

After a brief classroom discussion recapping what had previously being learned, the task was explained. Students were asked to sort photos into two categories: ‘a long time ago’ and ‘More recently’, to write statements about things in the photos related to change and things that have stayed the same (continuity). Students were not shown the rubric.

This task was undertaken as part of the History Inquiry Unit. The task was changed slightly to incorporate a writing component so that students’ understanding of change and continuity could be assessed in greater detail. Note that students could be asked to speak instead of write about the photographs.

The students were given approximately 30 minutes to complete the task. The whole lesson took approximately 60 minutes and was administered in one session.

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Sample 1

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Sample 1: Evidence of student learning

Annotations 1.3 Student used the photographs they sorted to write two out of three of their

statements about how change occurred between the sources (the photographs). 2.3 Student used the photographs that they sorted to identify two factors that

showed how there was continuity between the sources (the photographs)

What is the student ready to learn next?This student has demonstrated Phase 3, as they have been able to explain how change or continuity happened and can use a source to support their answer. Future learning activities will focus on Phase 4 where the student will be required to explain why continuity and change happens.

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Any feedback given

Well done on identifying factors that have changed or stayed the same between the photographs. I really like how you gave extra detail into how something has changed, for example, ’A long time ago people were serious now they can smile.’

Next time, can you think a little deeper by asking yourself why something has changed or stayed the same?

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Sample 2

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Annotations 1.1 Student has identified one change. They have written that a change is that they are

not smiling in one group of photographs and smiling in the other group. 2.1 Student was able to group photographs that showed continuity. This student could

not receive the higher criteria for Action 2 because as they made statements about the photographs placed in the more recently column, not how things have stayed the same between the two columns (‘A long time ago’ and ‘More recently’).

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What is the student ready to learn next?This student is ready to learn Phase 2. The student was able to point out something they thought had changed but they didn’t explicitly refer to the photographs. They are ready to learn to start explaining why things stay the same or become different.

Any feedback givenGreat job sorting the photographs into the 2 columns (‘A long time ago’ and ‘More Recently’). You were able to make statements about how factors have changed between the photographs.

Next time, could you look at how factors have stayed the same between the photographs? Could you write about the photo in your description? Something like “as we can see in these two photos…”

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Annotations 1.1 Student was able to sort the photos into the two categories ‘A long time ago’ and

‘More Recently.’ 2.0 Student responses provided insufficient evidence as were not able to identify what

remained the same in their responses. They didn’t mention the actual photos in their response.

What is the student ready to learn next?This student is ready to move towards Phase 1. After analysing the task against the rubric, this student was able to differentiate between photographs from ‘A long time ago’ and ‘More Recently’. However, the student was unable to explain continuity and change, or refer to the sources directly.

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Any feedback givenGreat job sorting the photographs into the two columns.

Next time, could you look at writing down how you think things have changed over time and how things have stayed the same?

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Using evidence to plan for future teaching and learning

The student data revealed that our student cohort were all successful in sorting photographs underneath the two headings ‘A long time ago’ and ‘More recently.’ Most students found it easier to identify change and more difficult to identify and describe evidence of continuity in the photographs.

The task and data collated provided teachers with the information to scaffold students’ learning to help them attain the higher order skill of asking why something has changed or stayed the same. This information can be used to plan subsequent learning activities.

Teacher reflections When the task was delivered, students were not explicitly asked to give a reason for

their change and continuity statements made about their picture sort. Explicitly reminding them to do this prior to the activity may have allowed some students to demonstrate learning associated with Phase 4.

After analysing the data, changes were made to the task and rubric which now allow students to explain why they think change or continuity occurred.

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