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Session 5. Assessing the Process and Putting It Together
Objective. Assess how students inquire with a simple rubric, observation notes and exit tickets; give forward-looking feedback; and assemble a one-page inquiry lesson plan that is peer-reviewed.
If the only mark in an inquiry is for the final answer, the safest strategy for students is to copy a neighbour. Process assessment changes what students value: asking, planning fairly, using evidence and explaining. It does not need to be heavy. A rubric with three criteria, a five-minute observation of three groups and a one-minute exit ticket give you enough evidence to give useful feedback and to improve your own plan. This session also asks you to pull the whole course into one page.
Key ideas
What to assess in an inquiry
- If you mark only the final answer, students learn to copy answers. Assess the steps of inquiry: the question, the plan, the data, the claim, the reasoning and the reflection.
- Pedaste and colleagues reviewed research and described a cycle of phases (orientation, conceptualisation, investigation, conclusion, discussion). You can borrow these as headings for what to look for.
- Keep it small: pick 3 criteria per inquiry, not 10. Tell students the criteria before they start.
Simple tools: rubric, observation, exit ticket
- Rubric: 3 criteria x 4 levels in plain words, e.g. 'Fair test': 1 changes many things, 2 changes one but does not repeat, 3 changes one and repeats, 4 also explains why it is fair.
- Observation note: in a 45-minute lesson watch three groups for five minutes each with a checklist, and rotate next time. Write what students said and did, not your opinion.
- Exit ticket: 'Claim, evidence, reasoning' in three lines. One minute to write. Sort the slips in three piles tonight: ready, nearly, not yet.
Feedback that moves students forward
- Black and Wiliam's review of classroom assessment argues that formative assessment, using evidence to adapt teaching, can raise achievement. In inquiry this means giving feedback during the work, not only after it.
- Use one praise and one next step, both tied to the criteria: 'You repeated the test three times (praise). Now check whether the cup size was the same each time (next step).'
- Not every step needs a mark. Grade a small number of products (the plan sheet, the claim sheet) and give oral feedback for the rest. Let groups also use the rubric on each other's gallery sheets.
Try it in your next lessons
- Run your inquiry lesson with a 3-criterion rubric shared with students. Use observation notes on three groups for five minutes each.
- Evidence to bring back: five exit tickets sorted into ready / nearly / not yet, and one observation note. Write what you will change next time.
- Show your one-page plan to a colleague before the lesson and ask for one change.
Three simple ways to collect evidence
Rubric
3 criteria x 4 levels
- Shared before the work
- Used by groups on gallery sheets
- Marks only a few products
Observation note
5 minutes x 3 groups
- Checklist, not a story
- What students said and did
- Rotate groups next lesson
Exit ticket
1 minute at the end
- Claim, evidence, reasoning
- Sorted in three piles
- Shows each student's thinking
Choosing criteria and writing plain levels
Start from what you want students to practise in this inquiry, not from a long list. Pedaste and colleagues name phases such as orientation, conceptualisation, investigation, conclusion and discussion. You can turn three of them into criteria, for example 'asks a testable question', 'plans a fair test', 'supports a claim with data'. Write each level in words a Grade 6 student can read aloud, with a concrete behaviour.
Share the rubric before the work starts and let students use it on each other's sheets in the gallery. A rubric that only the teacher sees is a mark; a rubric that students use is a teaching tool.
Evidence you can collect in a 45-minute lesson
You cannot watch 36 students. Watch three groups for five minutes each with a short checklist and rotate the groups next time. Write what students said and did. Collect exit tickets in the form claim, evidence, reasoning, and sort them into three piles. Keep one or two work samples. Together these take about 15 minutes of your evening and show where the class is.
Feedback should name one strength and one next step in the language of the criteria. The EEF guidance on metacognition suggests that students gain when they plan, monitor and evaluate their own work, so end with one question for the student: 'What will you change next time?'
Examples from the classroom
Marking the thinking in Khiva
Scene. Aziz, Grade 7, Khiva, compares canal and tap water by cloudiness. Before, he marked only the sentence 'the canal sample is cloudier'. Now his three criteria are fair test, claim and evidence, teamwork. A group that copied the sentence but could not show its three repeats gets level 1 for fair test. A group with the opposite claim but careful repeats gets level 3 and a next step.
Insight. Process criteria reward the thinking, not the copied sentence.
A five-minute note in Tashkent
Scene. Dilnoza's Grade 6 class in Tashkent has 36 students. During the investigation she stands at three groups for five minutes each with a checklist: roles kept, units written, uses table to explain. She writes one sentence per group, such as 'Group 4: recorder wrote, but nobody timed; asked about repeats'. Next lesson she observes three other groups.
Insight. Sampling a few groups per lesson gives usable evidence for a large class.
Peer review in Samarkand
Scene. Malika and Jasur teach Grade 6 science in neighbouring Samarkand schools. They swap one-page inquiry plans. Jasur notices that Malika's minutes add up to 50, not 45, and her rubric has six criteria. Malika notices that Jasur's driving question has a one-word answer. Each changes one thing, writes 'Peer review changed: ...' and agrees to share exit tickets in two weeks.
Insight. A short peer review with a checklist finds what the author cannot see.
Common pitfalls
- Using ten criteria, so that nobody, including the teacher, can use the rubric during the lesson.
- Marking every step of the work, which turns the inquiry into a paperwork exercise.
- Giving only a grade or 'good job' without a next step tied to a criterion.
- Collecting exit tickets and never reading them, so the next lesson is planned without the evidence.
Write, Swap and Improve an Inquiry Plan
- Choose one real lesson you will teach in the next two weeks. Alone (15 min): fill the one-page inquiry plan template: level, driving question, materials, timetable (5 stages), guidance (3 hint cards), process rubric (3 criteria) and the evidence you will collect.
- Swap plans with a partner (10 min). Read silently for 4 minutes and use the peer-review checklist: tick or cross each of 8 items and write two comments.
- Talk it over (5 min): the reviewer says one thing that is strong and one thing that would not work in a class of 36. The author asks one question.
- Revise (10 min): change the plan using the feedback, and write at the bottom 'Peer review changed: ...'. Agree a date to share the evidence with your partner.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- What did your partner notice in your plan that you had missed?
- Which rubric criterion was hardest to write in plain words?
- What is the first lesson in the next two weeks that deserves this kind of plan?
Reflect
- Which of your current marks reward only the final answer?
- Which colleague could review your inquiry plans regularly?
- What did the evidence from the earlier sessions teach you about your class?
Try it tomorrow
- Share a three-criterion rubric with students before the next investigation and use it for oral feedback only.
- Observe three groups for five minutes each and write one sentence per group.
- Sort five exit tickets into ready / nearly / not yet and decide one change for the next lesson.
Further reading and links
Assess the process with three clear criteria, collect small evidence, give one praise and one next step, and improve your plan with a colleague.