Leadership and Management
|
Targets and OFSTED> Curricular Target Setting
Process
|
The Curricular Target Setting Process
|
Why do we need Curricular Targets?
|
- They break down substantive targets into more manageable
steps.
- They help establish priorities and focus resources
- They are a way of ensuring that all key players have a
grasp of the learning issues involved in any curricular
area.
|
Making a Start
|
- Setting curricular targets involves:
- Analysing data
- Sampling work
- Matching findings against an understood developmental
framework in a given curricular area.
- Curricular targets can be set at work, sentence or text
level.
|
Process of setting curricular targets - 1
|
- School has substantive target of 88% L4+ in English;
- School asks: What is it that will raise levels of
attainment most?
- Answers: Improvements in writing;
- Asks: What is it about writing that will improve
writing most / greatly?
- Answers: Spelling;
- Asks: What aspects of spelling will make a
significant difference to children's writing?
- Answers: Vowel phonemes - and notably long vowel
phonemes and vowel digraphs;
- School, therefore, needs a curricular target related to
the spelling of vowel phonemes.
|
Whole school curricular target for spelling = to increase
accuracy of spelling choices for vowel phonemes
|
This could be refined, if desired or necessary, into separate
KS1 & KS2 targets:
- To increase accuracy of spelling choices for vowel
phonemes, including the common long vowel phonemes and split
digraphs (magic 3) at KS1;
- To increase accuracy of spelling choices for vowel
digraphs at KS2.
|
Numerical targets and assessment
|
Schools wishing for a numerical target need to find an
appropriate measure. Suggestions:
- Schools with KS2 pupils can use SATs scores:
- E.g. to raise the school's average spelling mark
- Equal / exceed the LEA spelling average by 1; (or the
national average);
- Look for a trend over time.
- Schools could use commercial / standardised spelling
tests.
|
Assessment of progress could also be considered in other
contexts:
- Work sampling;
- Pupil tracking.
|
|
A spelling target for writing is an example of a word level
curricular target.
|
A spelling curricular target is a sound choice if a school wants
a word level target because:
- Poor spelling is a great inhibitor of confidence in
writing;
- Spelling has a significant role in the KS2 mark scheme.
|
Vowel phonemes are a particularly good choice because:
- There's a lot of them about! All words (indeed, all
syllables) in English contain a vowel phoneme and there a
lot of spelling choices to be made; many of these choices
are tricky.
- The spelling vowel digraphs remains a concern in secondary
education, and on into adult life.
|
Other sound choices for spelling targets (where a school can be
guaranteeing to do some good) are:
- Adding inflectional endings (i.e. those which influence
the number or tense of a verb) like 'ed' and 'ing' (KS1);
- Consonant doubling (KS2)
- Unstressed vowels in polysyllabic words (KS2)
|
Process of setting curricular targets - 2
|
(following the principle of greatest impact - the significant
piece of work)
- School has substantive target of 88% L4+ in English;
- School asks: What is it that will raise levels of
attainment most?
- Answers: Improvement in writing
- Asks: What is it about writing that will improve
writing most / greatly?
- Answers: Sentences;
- Asks: What aspect of sentences will make a
significant difference to children's writing?
- Answers: The accuracy of their construction,
including punctuation, and their range and variety;
- School, therefore, needs a curricular target related to
the sentence structure and punctuation.
|
Whole school curricular target for sentences = to improve
sentence construction and punctuation
|
This could be refined if desired, or necessary, into separate
KS1 & KS2 targets:
- To improve the accuracy and punctuation of sentences
(notably simple sentences) in writing in KS1.
- To improve the range, variety and accuracy (including
punctuation) of sentences in writing in KS2.
|
Numerical targets and assessment
|
Schools wishing for a numerical target would need to find an
appropriate measure. There are few options.
Only suggestion for schools with KS2 pupils:
- use the grammar marks on the SAT paper;
- calculate school's average (from individual pupil data)
and set improvement target: time consuming.
Assessment of progress in other contexts (like work sampling
and pupil tracking) may be felt to be preferable.
A sentence target is an example of a sentence level
curricular target (!)
A sentence curricular target is a sound choice if a school
wants a sentence level target because:
- sentences are a prime building block in English (although
not the only one; 'word,phrase,clause,sentence,paragraph,chapter'
is a fuller range of building blocks;
- you cannot write English prose without understanding the
concept of sentences and constructing them; you cannot write
good English prose without manipulating that concept and
producing a range of sentences.
No other area of sentence level work has such high priority.
|
Process of setting curricular targets - 3
|
(following the principle of greatest impact - the significant
piece of work)
- school has substantive target of 88% L4+ in English
- school asks: what is it that will raise levels of
attainment most?
- answers: improvements in writing;
- asks: what is it about writing that will improve writing
most/greatly?
- answers: improving the purpose and organisation if
writing;
- asks: what aspects of purpose and organisation will make a
significant difference to children's writing?
- answers: shaping the overall structure of a text and the
order and sequence of its components;
- school, therefore, needs a curricular target related to
structure and sequence in writing.
|
Whole school curricular target for text structure and
sequence = to increase competence in structuring and sequencing
narrative and non-narrative written tests.
|
This could be refined, if desired
or necessary, into separate KS1 & KS2 targets (and perhaps
broken down into narrative and non-narrative texts);
- to improve the sequencing and linking of events or ideas
in narrative and non-narrative texts at KS1;
- to sustain and strengthen the direction of narrative
texts at KS2 and improve endings;
- to structure effectively non-narrative texts, either by
order of event (chronological texts) or by other means
(non-chronological texts) at KS2.
|
| Numerical targets and assessment |
Schools wishing for a numerical target would
need to find an appropriate measure. There are few
options. Only suggestion for schools with KS2 pupils:
- Use the text structure and organisation marks on the SAT
paper
- Calculate school's average (from individual pupil data)
and set improvement target; time consuming.
|
Assessment of progress in other contexts (like
work sampling and pupil tracking) may be felt to be
preferable.
A target for structure and sequence in writing is an example
of a text level curricular target.
An aspect of text structure organisation is a sound choice if
a school wants a text level curricular target because:
- Text structure and organisation are the core of a
written text; understanding the manipulating these aspects
is the crux of the writing process;
- You cannot write any sort of text effectively without
sequencing and structuring ideas and events, function and
format;
- Are awarded the lion's share of writing marks on SATs
papers.
|
| Having chosen an area to form a whole school
curricular target, the next step is to pick that target into
smaller learning targets and decide how they are to be
achieved.
|
|
Top |
