ICT Resources

ICT assessment has often relied heavily on teachers' intuition. Not confident in their own ICT abilities, many teachers have been even less confident in assessing pupils' ICT work. As a result, there have been large discrepancies in levelling of ICT work in both primary and secondary schools. This project aims to provide guidance and practical solutions in the area of ICT Assessment.

There are four main aspects to this project - an Electronic Portfolio, a Scheme of Work,Lesson Ideas and Recording and Monitoring Strategies. The Electronic Portfolio is divided into Levels 1-8, giving examples of pupil work related to the level descriptors. The Northern Grid Scheme of Work is currently limited to Key Stages 1 and 2.

The Scheme of Work has links with Lesson Plans and Shorter Focused Tasks which provide more detailed explanations of activities. The Recording and Monitoring Strategies include Teacher Assessment Sheets related to the Scheme of Work and Self-assessment computer activities for pupils. All of the material on the site can be downloaded for teachers to adapt to the particular needs of their school.

Most documents on this page are in PDF format so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader or any other software that can read PDF files. Some documents are in XLS and DOC formats.

Electronic Portfolio

The Electronic Portfolio has been created to develop consistency in the levelling of ICT work. It should be used as a general reference guide to the expectations in ICT according to the National Curriculum level descriptors. The portfolio should help to inform planning, teaching and assessment. The levelling of ICT work is most effective when the assessment activity is clearly planned and the expected outcomes of the activity are defined in advance.

Or  choose a specific level      - Please Choose a Level - Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7 Level 8

Scheme of Work

This scheme of work, based closely on the QCA Scheme of Work, provides activities to teach the techniques and understandings while the integrated projects each term act as the assessment opportunity and allow the pupils to demonstrate their ability to use these techniques and understandings effectively.

In most cases, year groups are assigned one integrated project each term based on the techniques and understandings covered. It is expected that some projects will take a number of weeks to be completed. The integrated projects are only suggested activities and should be incorporated into individual schools' curriculum topics, where possible. ICT co-ordinators will have to work with co-ordinators in other subject areas to see where more detailed links can be made.

The new National Curriculum document for ICT has replaced the old categories of 'Communicating Information,' 'Control,' 'Modelling,' etc with broader terms such as 'Developing ideas and making things happen.' The integrated projects, which often include many different strands of ICT, have tried to reflect this change and also try to encourage teachers to use more children-led activities where their true ICT capability can be assessed.

Or  choose a specific year      - Please Choose a Year - Reception Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6

Lesson Plans and Shorter Focused Tasks

Some lesson plans and shorter focused tasks have been developed to support the Scheme of Work. The Lesson Plans are listed by year group while the Shorter Focused Task ideas are listed by unit. (Some of the teaching activities might be covered in more than one year).

Many of the lesson plans suggest that some pupils carry out the activity away from the computer. This serves two purposes. Some schools may have a small number of computers in a suite or may have access to only one computer per classroom which means that it can be time consuming for every pupil to work on the computer for each activity. Having some pupils carry out similar activities away from the computer also gives pupils the opportunity during a plenary session to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using ICT. If teachers have any additional lesson ideas, please submit them to be included on the website.

Download Lesson Plans below

Or choose a specific year       - Please Choose a Lesson - Lesson 1 - Reception Lesson 2 - Year 1 Lesson 3 - Year 2 Lesson 4 - Year 3 Lesson 5 - Year 4 Lesson 6 - Year 5 Term 1 Lesson 7 - Year 5 Term 3 Lesson 8 - Year 6 Term 1 Lesson 9 - Year 6 Term 2

Download Shorter Focused Tasks below

Recording and Monitoring Strategies

Recording

It is important to note that assessment of an integrated project should not be limited to examining a final result but, rather, involves discussions and observations while the project is in progress. Effective questioning is a useful way of assessing a pupil's understanding of the use of ICT. This can be a time-consuming task for teachers so it is essential to make the most of any available classroom support. If the teacher does not have to spend all of their time offering technical support, she has more time to focus on individuals or a small group of pupils. Classroom support can take on many different forms - it might be useful to train some parents and make use of pupils' expertise. Dr John Ingram at Durham University recommends doing an inventory of skills in a class to find the 'digital experts'. Some children might be very confident in using the Internet; others might be good with word processing skills, etc. These children could offer support to other children in the class (or in younger classes), freeing up the teacher's time to focus on assessment.

The 'digital experts' could be highlighted using the Self-Assessment Activities which allow pupils to assess their own confidence with ICT.

Monitoring

Classroom portfolios are a useful way for ICT co-ordinators to monitor continuity and progression throughout a school. A teacher should keep a few examples of the different integrated projects - two lower ability, two middle ability and two higher ability pupils. The work should be levelled, but it should also be annotated, in order to put the work into context.

Teacher Assessment Sheets

These assessment sheets are to be used in conjunction with the integrated projects from the Scheme of Work. They set out the expectations (based on the QCA document) for each project. On the whole-class assessment sheets, the first column indicates what most children would expect to achieve, while the second and third columns take into account that some children may not reach those expectations and others will exceed them.

Some schools may prefer to use individual pupil assessment sheets and highlight the appropriate statements for each pupil. These cover the expectations for an entire year while the whole-class sheets are termly. With both types of assessment sheets the expectations for the integrated projects have been levelled in relation to National Curriculum level descriptors. These assessment sheets are not an assessment of pupils' skills but are a way to record their ability to use ICT effectively.

The individual assessment sheats are in PDF format, the Assessment Records are in .doc format

Self Assessment Activities

Self-Assessment Activities These self-assessment activities list the techniques that pupils need in order to develop their ICT capabilities in Key Stages 1 and 2 and Key Stage 3. While some schools may want to use the activities as 'tick sheets' for teachers to monitor the pupils' techniques, a more effective use would be to use them as self-assessment tools for pupils to monitor their own progress. These activities may be easier with older children, but younger children could either do them as a whole-class activity, focusing on only one area at a time or with ICT partners from older classes. When used on the computer the pupils are given a score and (for Key Stages 1 and 2) simple feedback based on their responses.

The activities can also be printed out and completed away from the computer. Ideally, Year 4 and older would carry out the self-assessment activity at the end of each term. The pupil would fill in their score and date in the chart and save their work. The next term they would change any necessary answers and add their new score in the chart. They would be able to monitor their own progress and see what areas they needed to focus on. In order to use a self-assessment activity, the file must be run in Excel. The pupils type a 'y' in the appropriate column for each statement. The program automatically totals their score. If two 'y's are placed on the same line the computer will read the first one. The 'y' that is no longer relevant must be deleted.

The following documents are in Excel format (.xls), if you do not have Excel you can get a Free Excel Viewer