Effective feedback provides students with relevant, explicit, ongoing, constructive and actionable information about their performance against learning outcomes from the syllabus.
Students and their teachers receive feedback on the HSC minimum standard testing through Schools Online and additionally, teachers can access feedback through the HSC App in Scout.
The HSC minimum standard Scout showcase (requires Adobe Connect) also supports teachers to interpret the feedback in Scout and use this information to work with students.
Teachers can view a School Discovery that demonstrates how teacher feedback supports the explicit teaching of writing skills at Elizabeth Macarthur High School (staff only).
Narrator:
New South Wales high schools are using several tools and strategies to develop students’ literacy and numeracy skills. These will support students’ preparation for the HSC minimum standard online tests.
At Elizabeth Macarthur High School support for students at risk of not achieving the HSC minimum standard starts early.
In Year 7, classroom teachers find evidence in work samples to support the student information from transition meetings and a range of assessments.
This data combined with observations of student literacy and numeracy behaviours based on the learning progressions, is used to develop a class scope and sequence.
All Year 7 and 8 classes have an extra lesson each week with one of their class teachers and a learning and support teacher the content of which is determined by the class scope and sequence.
These lessons use explicit teaching and commence with clear learning intentions.
The students then practice the skill working on small whiteboards to encourage experimentation and receive feedback from their teachers.
Students further practice and are assessed in this skill using a differentiated online program in Google Classroom.
The learning and support teacher updates the table of observable behaviours created for each student, which is discussed with the students after which they give a self-reflection of their progress.
Students are then encouraged to use and apply the skill in everyday classwork.
This intervention is sustainable, because as more teachers team-teach with the learning and support teacher, they are becoming familiar with the learning progressions and explicit literacy teaching strategies.
It also provides the school with the learning information to be able to have a conversation with parents.
We know your student really well.
[End of transcript]
Effective feedback resources:
- Scout – HSC App
- Supporting the HSC minimum standard
- Scout showcase – HSC minimum standard (requires Adobe Connect)
- School Discovery: Elizabeth Macarthur High School (staff only).