Negotiated Grid Assessment (second part)

First published in Teaching Drama Magazine in May 2010.

Assessments - informal, formal, teacher/student, self, peer.

So it is time for performance/presentation of and response to the students' work. The NAG provides the structure for the performer and perhaps more unusually for the audience. Instead of waiting for their turn or sitting back in the warm glow of satisfaction after their performance, the audience has the criteria by which each group needs to be assessed. Post performance discussion and reflection has a clear direction and language framework.

Using the NAGs with a challenging year 9 group I was aware that rehearsals were more productive, but they were bored by the evaluative process. Using the grids to focus the audience gave them a motivation to engage in the performances. They now had a structure for responding and a responsibility to the performers. Students treated this with some gravitas. The attitude towards responding to drama was changing. They settled down to watch performances a lot quicker and the atmosphere in the room changed from enforced silence to a focused stillness. Some chose to note down marks during the performance and post performance discussion was on comparative assessments and not on whose turn it would be to go next or if Abdul's mum really was a hamster. The discussion between performer/audience and teacher was prepared for by all and everyone had a framework for their criticism.

Responding to performances becomes as structured as the warm up or rehearsal. As tired teachers reach the end of a long day there is no need to search for the language or attempt to improvise a whole class discussion to convince students that their work was genuinely valued by the audience.

Perhaps most successful evaluative structure is paired peer assessment with groups performing to one another and time allocated after all performances for students to fill in individual NAGs. Students can agree targets discretely between themselves that they would never speak aloud in public. Public criticism is replaced with private reflection and during the discussion there is self-assessment and self reflection at a surprisingly advanced level of understanding. Students who rarely look at one another outside the drama classroom engage in a meaningful, positive assessment of work.

Assessment, recording and reporting

The initial trials with the NAGs resulted in a great deal of evidence being recorded on large sheets of paper or on the board; not the easiest medium for collating evidence or developing comparative assessment data over time. In order to streamline the emerging assessment procedures and ensure we were not creating a system that burdened teachers with more paperwork it was essential to give over the responsibility for the NAGs to the students completely.

Early in the GCSE foundation course, year 10 students are guided towards a stack of blank NAGs which can be used by groups and individuals for assessed tasks. Often the NAG is a blend of teacher directed criteria for individuals or groups but students have responsibility for completing the proforma and storing the evidence. Students grab a blank NAG at the beginning of an assessed task tailoring it for the activity and assessment type (creation, response, performance for example). As their familiarity with the system increases they strive to use appropriate language and subject specific terminology. Their paired peer assessment becomes particularly good and the problem of being able to assess large groups of performers at one time is solved. At times the targets which come from the reflection at the end of one session can slot straight into the next NAG and so individual target setting at the task level with large groups of ‘untrained' year 10 is completed with no additional paperwork for the teacher.

This profiling system allows students to come to their own conclusion about their curriculum level which is then monitored by the teacher, discussed and altered where necessary; often being raised above the student's own prediction. The data on these profiling documents over time is used to track student progress, easily identifying achievement and underachievement. End of year reports include students own summative assessments and the department's ability to offer statistics on achievement in Drama means I no longer have to hide from the Assessment Coordinator.

Negotiated Assessment formalises that which is at the core of good teaching in Drama: creating frameworks that allow the students to take control of their own learning, deconstruct tasks and skills and empowering students to succeed as reflective autonomous learners.

Negotiated Assessment Grid Quick Start Guide

1. Propose the question: ‘What makes a successful/engaging/Grade A...........? (Improvisation, character, motif, tension etc...)
2. Ask students to create checklist of ideas (as a class, small group or individually). Use their language in the first instance.
3. Reflect back to the students the quality of their ideas and suggest any developments in vocabulary.
4. Add in 1 or 2 key criteria of your choosing.
5. Give each group a copy of the checklist to place in their working area. As the group works the teacher provides written feedback on the sheet in column 1. Students can then choose when to examine and respond to this. Praise/criticism is discrete and personalised.
6. Stop the groups and ask them to reflect on their successes and complete column 1.
7. Now ask each group to show their work to another group and swap grids. Enforce the rule that groups must write 3 positive comments before they can set a target.
8. Groups re-rehearse focusing on the target(s) setNow keep the grid to act...

1. As a mechanism for holding ideas, setting targets, recording progress.
2. As a reflective tool for self evaluation (individual or group).
3. As a language frame for oral feedback.
4. As a marking scheme for teacher assessment.
5. As an aide memoir for written work.
6. As a prompt sheet of key vocabulary.