Narrative assessment

Narrative assessment is an approach to assessing and describing a student’s learning that allows a far richer depiction of that learning than is possible through more traditional criterion-referenced assessment. It compels the assessor to know the learner. It requires the assessor to notice, respond to, extend, reflect upon and communicate about important learning in which the student engages that can easily be overlooked by more conventional modes of assessment. It also requires careful response to and reflection on the teaching strategies.

Narrative assessment is becoming increasingly used with special needs students to assess important moments of achievement, with what teachers describe as a remarkable effect on learning. It can also be used to recognise progress in areas such as inquiry learning, where there is an absence of conventional assessment tools.

A rich narrative assessment record consists of:  

• a captured learning event – captured through observation, picture or video
• an analysis of that event through the eyes of the observer – be it teacher, teacher aide, parent, student – that details

- what learning was observed (evidence of learning)

- what teaching was observed

- why this was important

- what the next steps in the learning sequence might be

- how those next steps might be promoted

- a description of how the assessed learning links to the NZ Curriculum

• strength based description, acknowledging through the narrative what abilities have been noticed and what processes have strengthened these.
• repeated records which provide a picture of progress.

We can support schools through seminars, coaching and modelling to become skilled in all aspects of narrative assessment.

Contact us for more information or to request a free initial consultation.