The range of evidence for pupils' achievements and progress in speaking and listening

A key finding from the joint SNS and QCA research project on monitoring pupils' progress in reading and writing (which resulted in the APP guidance and materials) was that some English teachers had too limited a range of evidence on which to base their assessment of reading at Key Stage 3. Many English departments recognised this as they began to use the APP materials and subsequently reviewed their schemes of work to ensure they were teaching the full range of reading objectives and collecting evidence of progress over the full range of assessment focuses. This helped to ensure that any gaps in teaching, learning and pupil progress in reading have been more systematically addressed.

In doing so, many teachers found it useful to relate the assessment focuses back to their planning and teaching by using the 'matrix for teaching reading'. (These illustrate the relationship between English framework teaching objectives, learning outcomes and classroom approaches.) For both reading and writing the matrices are linked or 'clustered' around QCA's assessment focuses.

For speaking and listening, however, there has not been an equivalent set of assessment focuses. Currently, the SNS 'matrix for teaching speaking and listening' indicates a range of focuses to help teachers plan assessment opportunities more systematically. These are:

• Spoken texts and presentation
• Questioning and responding
• Talking together
• Standard English and degrees of formality
• Drama skills