Thoughts and musings
During the summer break, thoughts may be turning to changes, alterations and explorations that may be made in the new academic year. I have previously shared my thoughts on writing moderation in a previous ‘glimmer’1. I would now like to continue the celebrations, when writing moderation processes become ones that add meaningful impact to staff confidence and expertise.
Today’s ‘glimmer’ is a summary of my complete blog, written in collaboration with Pobble, sharing my experiences of working with their Head of Assessment and Moderation, Laura Bailey. The full post can be read here: https://lauraspargo.com/writing-moderation-a-celebration-with-pobble/
Ideas and practical suggestions
So, when does writing moderation become a celebration? Below are two suggestions which I hope can be actioned with minimal time spent preparing. Think of these more as an intentional move to investing in resources and training which support teachers in making robust judgements throughout the academic year - and across the year groups.
To summarise my reflections and experiences you may want to consider:
1. How writing moderation is framed as a professional learning experience across the academic year.
Are staff meetings allocated for teachers and teams to read, discuss and have collaborative conversations about writing?
How are collections of writing captured and stored so that exemplars of internal judgements are easily accessed by team members?
Is training available from external experts to support teachers with their judgements?
2. The writing experiences which are curated for pupils so that they feel motivated to write and can demonstrate their abilities.
Are high-quality texts used to exemplify effective writing for purpose and audience?
Do children have ample opportunity to write? This writing includes low stakes opportunities not only outcomes from a complete writing cycle.
Is choice factored into the writing outcomes which the children are presented with? Whether this be a choice of audience, purpose, genre or concept.
To explore further I would suggest:
Reading the full article, celebrating Pobble’s online moderation tool:
The DfE’s ‘The Writing Framework’ was recently released and has lots of valuable advice around curating effective writing experiences:
It was a pleasure to contribute to The English Association’s response to ‘The Writing Framework’:
You may be interested in revisiting:
