Guest Posted February 21, 2007 Posted February 21, 2007 Hey everyone. Right, I'm sure we are all always considering the best way to moderate etc etc. Well, I've been thinking (always dangerous!). There are good examples in the FSG but they are often a little too twee for me. I did get the idea off the forum to compile a moderation file to keep in the classroom that I build up. Have come around to this idea again and was wondering whether we could make this something we do online too. I would be more than willing to submit my observation examples (obviously if either typed up or scanned) and link them to an ELG statement. Children's details would have to be changed for obvious reasons, but if people are willing and the forum feels it is a good idea, we as a team could put together a bank of observations that would generate an online moderation file that we can download to help us moderate against in our own schools. What do people think? Am I causing too much work?! We could save certain files in a distinct folder so it would be accessed when people search for that ELG. Steve would this be possible?! Right, end of brainwave! Thoughts would be appreciated D xxx
Steve Posted February 22, 2007 Posted February 22, 2007 Hi Donna - Sounds good to me. And it wouldn't be difficult at all to organise - that's what the resource library is for (if you haven't found this yet, it's in the Resources part of the navigation menu down the left hand side of the screen - or click here to go straight to it. You just need to agree what categories you'd need me to set up - unless you think it would fit into any of the current ones.
Guest Posted February 22, 2007 Posted February 22, 2007 That sounds great. After following advice from our consultants I have begun to compile a moderation file and would certainly be willing to submit my obs etc for other people to moderate. Would we have a thread alongside each ob so we could moderate online together (not sure if that would be poss???) or would there just be obs for us to print off and moderate in school. An online moderating group sounds dead official though - would quite like that on my cv! Haha.
Steve Posted February 22, 2007 Posted February 22, 2007 Hmm. Currently the system allows comments to be posted on the same screen as a resource item (which would be equivalent to a moderation item). So the particular item could be discussed and commented on with no problems. However, this is fairly basic and doesn't allow you to post anything other than text. I could set this area up to automatically generate a new topic in, for example, the Foundation Stage Profile forum (or a sub-forum of the FSP forum). Don't know if that would be more flexible for you? You would have a linkback to the original observation then, and would also be able to add other supporting stuff - eg photographs of work to back up an observation. The only thing I wonder about is how many different categories of stepping stone/ELG etc., we'd end up with. Just a huge long string of individual items would make it quite difficult to search through if you were after something particular. Let me know how you think it would work best.
Susan Posted February 22, 2007 Posted February 22, 2007 117 Points altogether, 9 in each of 13 scales, over 6 curriculum areas! Thats alot of searching without some sort of classification which may be best set up by points?
Steve Posted February 22, 2007 Posted February 22, 2007 There you see, I knew someone would be able to work out what I was blathering on about!
mundia Posted February 22, 2007 Posted February 22, 2007 Being a bear of little brain, (and big words bother me!), i cant yet visualise. Most obs we do surely cover many scale points all at the same time, so how would this look in practice....
Guest Posted February 22, 2007 Posted February 22, 2007 Wow thanks for quick response and ideas generated! How about we focus on one area to begin with and see how it works out for us. See if it is worth the hassle and whether it would be useful. We could pick something pertinent to recent posts like reading, or LSL, or whatever and focus on that. Yes there will be links elsewhere and that could be commented upon and links could be made at a later stage. However, I think at this moment in time it could be catastrophic for us to try and do all 6 areas and 117 points at once, however organised we are! Could we not set up a pure moderation section, post a number of examples and then somehow (Steve you'll have to help here), allow for a separate section, within that folder, to discuss, reflect etc. We don't want the observations to be in and amongst the moderation discussions. It's almost like we need a branching system and I don't know what or how that would look! It's a shame we couldn't have some form of icons of observations at the top of a page with the threads generated by peoples comments below. Am I making sense? D xxx
Marion Posted February 22, 2007 Posted February 22, 2007 Why not pick out PSE and KUW as they are the areas to be moderated this year???/ Being a bear of little brain, (and big words bother me!), i cant yet visualise. Most obs we do surely cover many scale points all at the same time, so how would this look in practice.... My LA advised reception teachers to start files purely for moderation purposes so the observations put in the files are focused on the moderation points (does that make sense?) and may be edited from longer obs which could cover more than 1 ELG.
Guest Posted February 22, 2007 Posted February 22, 2007 Are those areas the same for every LEA? We'd have to make sure they were to ensure that everyone was gaining from what we are doing. Good idea to link to focus of LEA though! What happens next with this idea? Keep generating suggestions until we agree on a format and then ask the wonderful Steve to magically make it happen for us, smiling sweetly his way of course D xxx
Susan Posted February 22, 2007 Posted February 22, 2007 Unlike you though, Marion, we dont get given points to moderate within the areas but I do think that moderating within this years scales could be a good idea. PSE and K&U.
Marion Posted February 22, 2007 Posted February 22, 2007 Most LAs moderate the same curriculum areas although there is a variation in HOW they do it. Unlike you though, Marion, we dont get given points to moderate within the areas but I do think that moderating within this years scales could be a good idea. PSE and K&U. Its still quite a big job I do realise but between us we should be able to cover 52 points
Guest Posted February 22, 2007 Posted February 22, 2007 We are being moderated in PSE and KUW too. I can't remember exactly which points as the info is at school and I'm not back in until Monday.
Guest Posted February 23, 2007 Posted February 23, 2007 Could anyone tell me a bit more about these moderation files their LA's are advising them to set up.
Marion Posted February 23, 2007 Posted February 23, 2007 What I have is a lever arch style file with dividers and a poly pocket for each of the 117 scale points separated into the 6 learning areas. I put any evidence I collect into the relevant poly pocket so building up a file of evidence for moderation. My LA works a little differently to others in that we are only asked to produce evidence for 5 or 6 points each year to take to moderation. The idea of the file is that it is an ongoing work where evidence for all points are collected over a number of years not all in one go and is purely for moderation. I use Sarah's dividers for my file http://www.foundation-stage.info/forums/in...ost&p=36622
Guest Posted February 23, 2007 Posted February 23, 2007 (edited) My file is a different type to Marion's. My file has in it samples of work, obs, photos etc that have been moderated rather than than are to be moderated. This is the type of file we have been advised to prepare by our LA but all LAs seem to want different things. For example, my LA is moderating in PSE (social) and CLL (Lang for communication) which seems to be different to most others. Each time I go to a moderation cluster meeting I put the sample of work in my moderation file along with a note of who it was moderated by and which school they are from. Consequently if anyone comes in and questions evidence etc I can point them to my moderation file and they can see examples of diff types of evidence that have all been moderated for various scale points by a range of professionals. Am FS coordinator and once a month I ask the staff to bring with them a piece of evidence for a parituclar scale and we spend the beg of each meeting (only 5/10 mins) moderating these. These then go into my moderation file - which I am told is a very useful thing to have although nobody has actually looked at it yet - haha. Edited February 23, 2007 by Guest
Marion Posted February 23, 2007 Posted February 23, 2007 Perhaps I didnt explain very well the evidence that goes into the file is moderated in school by the early years staff and is then further moderated by our LA team and has been for the past 3 years. Mookie when you attend cluster meetings do you get examples of evidence from other schools? Ours are very much about getting together and sharing but we only bring away our own notes.
Guest Posted February 23, 2007 Posted February 23, 2007 Last academic year we just took away our own piece but since Sept as we have been asked to gather a file of evidence we all take away each other's evidence too. It just means that you have to photocopy your piece before the meeting and then each person goes away from the meeting with around 9/12 pieces of moderated evidence instead of just their own three. The consultants decided that this would be good practice and would allow everyone to have a range of diff formats of evidence in their moderation file.
Guest Posted February 25, 2007 Posted February 25, 2007 The range of evidence does sound a good idea - that was mainly my reason for suggesting that we do an online portfolio - because the potential for us covering a range of evidence online is good. Am enjoying reading what everyone else does. Thanks!
Steve Posted February 26, 2007 Posted February 26, 2007 Haven't forgotten about this. I'm just not clear on the best way to structure the resource library area, so I'll give it some thought over the next few days, and keep reading this topic to see how you're all approaching things.
Guest Posted March 1, 2007 Posted March 1, 2007 I set up a moderation folder for our F.S. using mainly photos with notes and observations. I used Powerpoint but have set up one for each area of learning, with the relevant statements from the profile. CLL and MD have more than one powerpoint each as I wasn't sure about the limitations in terms of space and had visions of it crashing! Some examples may appear in more than one area of learning. A programme with the facility to hyperlink bits to cross reference one AOL to another (compatible with our RM network!)would be great! I simply haven't had time to explore other technological ways to do this.
Guest Posted March 4, 2007 Posted March 4, 2007 Welcome from me too. That sounds wonderful, but a bit too technical sadly for me. Did it take long to set up, and how long does it take to up-date. From a technical incompetant
Steve Posted March 7, 2007 Posted March 7, 2007 OK chaps. I've just put together a first attempt at something which allows you to post and discuss moderation of individual wossnames. You can find a topic pointing you to the resource library and a draft document describing how to use it here. Let me know if I've got it all wrong!
Sue R Posted March 9, 2007 Posted March 9, 2007 Somehow I've managed to miss all this completely! Although I'm not involved, being in a DN, it all looks very impressive and will, I am sure, be yet another huge benefit to Forum members. Well done everyone, especially Gater for the idea and Steve, for working it all out! Sue
Guest Posted March 9, 2007 Posted March 9, 2007 this support for moderation is excellent - but can we begin to add in CLL and CD which is what we are moderating in Gloucestershire this year? Only just begining to get to grips with finding my way round etc but finding it all very useful. Thanks to all.
Steve Posted March 9, 2007 Posted March 9, 2007 Hi kali - Welcome to the Forum! Yes, I'll certainly add the other categories in if you need them. We started with the first two as an experiment but it was always intended to create the full set eventually.
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