Both teachers and TAs play an important role in monitoring and assessing the children’s learning. Assessments are carried on daily, throughout the day. It is the responsibility of the teacher to know how each child in the class is progressing, how to ‘push’ the children to reach age related levels and to be able to set achievable targets in order for the children to progress.
Assessment is an aid to this and is an ongoing process used in many ways. As TAs we need to be able to support teaches in this process.
Teachers should plan lessons and set out clear S.M.A.R.T learning objectives so that learners’ progression can be measured. TAs must be aware of these objectives in order to support the children with their learning.
Example:
On arrival into the classroom, it is my responsibility to have dialogue with the teacher of her expectations, of me, in the day’s activities. We discuss the learning objectives, the aims of the lesson, groups I will be working with and how and why objectives are differentiated to suit ability groups. It is also my responsibility to gather materials or resources which I may need to support the lesson. At the end of each lesson, the teacher and I have a formal discussion where we identify any gaps, barriers, difficulties and/or progression made by pupils. These points can also be identified through marking of work. At this stage, amendments will be made to the planning, for the following day/week, to ensure effective teaching and learning can be implemented.