Base-line+Questioning+Assessment

= = This is the proces that has been used across a range of schools to obtain school-wide data on children's assessment skills. QuEST (Quality Education support and Training) Ltd. provides to schools two spreadsheets in which the data is entered. The spreadsheets produce a range of tables that allow for analysis of school-wide data on the range of questioning levels students are working at. this can be used to identify cohorts of students who need extra help, cohorts who have special abilities and strengths, and any other strong patterns of strengths and weknesses.
 * Base-line Questioning Assessment**

A scenario is provided to every pupil, both in written and oral form. The scenario usually outlines the context of an problem, issue or need and is carefully constructed to contain a range of key contextual words and phrases embedded in the wording that will support the pupils in their question creation. Pupils are given the task to create a number of questions that they could take to a range of sources to find the information they would need to help them formulate a good solution to the problem.

Junior pupils have a one to one contact with the teacher, other adult, or senior pupil who capture and record 3 responses (questions) generated by the scenario task. Senior pupils are asked to record 5 questions.

It is important to note that scenarios require some careful preparation to ensure that students are not disadvantaged by the content or wording (see page on writing scenarios).

At our school we have rubbish bins in the classrooms and around the school playgrounds and a large amount of paper goes into those bins. In the past the caretaker has sorted, collected and burnt the paper, but new clean air laws have been passed that will soon make it illegal for us to burn paper in the school incinerator. We need to develop a new system at school that helps us to generate less paper rubbish, to sort and dispose of our paper rubbish in an eco- friendly way. To do this we may also need to look at the available options for paper re-cycling. Find out about our options are and come up with a proposal to present to the Board of Trustees that will help us sole our paper problem
 * Sample Scenario:**

The studens' questions are collected by staff who use the rubric to mark and rank each question. Professional support is available to help staff to moderate the marking and this is a valuable professional development exercise to help teachers become familiar with the questioning rubric.


 * **Questioning Rubric**

7 Used multiple Servants in a probing question when interviewing an ‘expert’ 6 Used relevant synonyms to edit key questions 5 Used the Seven Servants and relevant key words and phrases to create key questions. 4 Used the Seven Servants and relevant key words to create key questions. 3 Asked a relevant yes/no/maybe question (is can does could may etc) 2 Any non-relevant question (does not contain contextual key words or phrases) 1 Created statements rather than questions (or a nul response) ||
 * Stages Question type**

A student who gives two statements, one Stage 2 question and two stage 3 questions is operating at stage 3 as their highest level of questioning and Stage 1 as their lowest level of questioning. The goal we aiming for is to have the bulk of our students operating with stage 3 as their lowest level and stage 7 as their highest level. If we can achieve this then we have actually achieved something in terms of enabling students as questioners and learners.

If studen's questions and tables are kept then this is your base evidence. The second spreadsheet then generates the tables for school wide analysis. See evidence of success for tables showing outcomes in one of the trial schools.