Assessment focuses
AF2, AF3, AF4
Context
The class shared the book, Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? The pupils were keen to communicate and then investigate their ideas to help Little Bear in the dark cave.
Little Bear is afraid of the dark and Big Bear provides lanterns of increasing size to light up their cave. Finally, they go outside and Big Bear shows Little Bear the Moon.
The pupils were asked to brainstorm the names of some light sources. They each then chose five or more of them to make drawings and to order them, from the brightest to the dimmest.
In the following lesson, without any initial discussion, they were given four pictures of light sources to sequence.
Waddell, M. illustrated by Firth, B (2005) Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? Walker Books Ltd., UK
The evidence
Teacher's notes
When Trenyce was prompted, encouraged and supported, she could show her understanding of this topic in different ways: verbally by sharing ideas and describing observations, presenting evidence in a template provided, and through her own drawings.
Her responses were not always correct and she often referred to an adult to seek clarification. She remembered using candles for birthday cakes and, when asked, said that they were not any good for lighting up a whole room.
Next steps
- Use of bright and dim torches to explore things in the dark (using a very large box with various objects inside).
- Investigating the differences between light sources and objects that reflect light.
Assessment commentary
Trenyce can begin to order objects according to their features and can use a fixed format to present a conclusion based on previous learning. She is beginning to show awareness of links between ideas developed at school and her prior experiences at home.
