Assessment exemplar: Magdalen Road

Assessment of children's learning using a local study exemplar: Magdalen Road, Exeter

The assessment task was done in the final hour of the last afternoon of this short historical enquiry into the local area. We asked the children to tell us something about what it was like in the area 50 years ago (i.e. knowledge and understanding), and also to say how they knew what they were telling us (i.e. the skills of history).

Analysing written accounts

In our analysis of their written accounts, we focused on the children's explanations: we wanted to see whether they could begin to work in the same way as historians, backing up statements with evidence from their sources.

The children's information was relevant and selected from the various sources encountered over four weeks. All demonstrated understanding of the task and of a past situation, and were able to write at least four relevant statements on the topic set. There were a few specific misconceptions; for example, two children's statements that people had to live in shelters.

All but three of the children specifically stated at least one source for their accounts. The children have understood, however crudely, a basic historical tenet: that statements about the past must be backed up and sources of evidence acknowledged, thus taking the first steps towards recognising the role of sources and the nature of evidence - how we find out about the past.

Examples of what children did

Alex, Lucy, Jack and Emma were also able to make deductions from the street directory. Jack used the 1943 directory to draw conclusions about which shops were bombed during the Exeter blitz. Mrs Dolbear had confirmed that the missing number where Midland Bank is now was bombed during the war. Jack looked through the 1943 entries, found the missing numbers and deduced that those buildings were bombed too.

Lucy worked slightly differently: 'Midland Bank got bomed down by a feir bom in the war how I no is I looked at 50 years list.' The 1943 directory itself did not give this information; it simply missed out the entry for that street number. Lucy is therefore making the connection between the information in the directory and what she has discovered from her fieldwork and from Mrs Dolbear.

More sophisticated work

At the most sophisticated level, several children showed the ability to select from a story (Mrs Dolbear's) and to fit together pieces from the different sources over four weeks to give a personal interpretation (written and pictorial).

James and Elaine's detailed and accurate pictures; Nicola and Will's coherent, lively narrative expositions; and Lauren's tracing of the changes to her shop through three periods of time, place them at this higher level. These children were able to recall and select various aspects of the local past to construct their own evidence-based understandings about the war years. Nicola and Will's use of the phrase 'and I learnt that ...' shows a metacognitive awareness, of knowing that they know.

Details of children's work

We shall now look in more detail at five of the children's work, across the ability range. In the table below, their accounts are grouped to show the statements made, extra details given and explanations of the statements. Spelling has been corrected.

Two types of explanation can be identified:

1. Explanation of how the child writing the account knew (in embryo, the skills of the historian).
2. Explanation giving reasons for actions occurring in the past (based on knowledge and understanding gained). Note extensive use of 'because'.

Oliver
In the war there weren't much sweets and fruit.
This is the chicken house that Mrs Dolbear lived in (statements)
She lived in it for 8 years (details)
because her house had got bombed (2) (explanations)

Oliver's handwritten original is lost, but you can download the others - see below.

Alex
Shops were bombed
Had to ask for your food in shops
Mrs Dolbear lived in a chicken house
You had to live in a shelter (statements)
I know the shops were bombed because of the gaps on the Magdalen Road thing (1) (explanations)

>>Download Alex's work (66 KB)

Nicola
Old shops have long windows
New shops have wide windows
Bombs dropped (statements)
from aeroplanes/They dropped a bomb on my shop (1) (details)
I know because my shop wasn't there 50 years ago (explanation)

People in the war could have a little bit of each (statement)
Little tearsheet stamps – ration books (details)
You had to carry gas masks (statement)
nearly all the time ... and they had a box to carry them about and you could breathe through the holes which was on the gas mask and you could have children's gas masks (details)
In case a bomb could drop and spread poisonous gas (2) (explanation)
A bomb dropped on Mrs Dolbear's house.

>>Download Nicola's work (202 KB)

Emma
You had to carry gas masks (statement)
Everyone had to take one round with them (detail)
In case a bomb fell which had poisonous gas in (2) (explanation)
Shops were bombed (statement)
A lot of shops in Magdalen Road got bombed (detail)
After the war shops rebuilt (statement)
Mrs Dolbear's house was burnt down (statement)
Mrs Dolbear lived in a chicken house (statement)
It was a very big chicken house though (detail)
I know this because Mrs Dolbear came in and she was around then (1) (explanation)
Mrs Dolbear first lived in her sister's house (statement)

>>Download Emma's work (176 KB)

Lucy
Midland Bank was bombed (statement)
by a fire bomb in the war (detail)
How I know is I looked at 50 years list (1) (explanation)
They wore gas masks (statement)
in case a bomb fell down and an awful smell came down in the bomb (2) (detail)
If a bomb fell on your house then you needed a shelter (statement)
an air raid shelter (detail)
to keep cover from the bomb (2) (explanation)

>>Download Lucy's work (55 KB)

Assessment

The following assessments of the work of these children can be made:

Oliver writes little, but is precise and relevant. He is the only child in the class to record the detail of how long Mrs Dolbear lived in the chicken house. He also has a clear understanding of causation - she lived in a chicken house because her house had been bombed. Olver's second statement also pinpoints two types of food in short supply, and is more precise than those of Rosanne and James, who simply write that there was not much food.

Alex 's is the least integrated account here, as his four discrete statements are not elaborated upon, and two lack precision (shops were bombed; you had to live in a shelter). He does, however, give one splendid explanation.

Nicola 's six statements contain information selected from at least four sources (shop window shapes from class discussion + observation; ration coupons, gas masks, bombing raids from Mrs Dolbear + posters and books; gas masks carried in boxes from boxed gas mask in classroom; one breathes through holes in the mask from her own observation + discussion with Pam). The extra details she includes are the fullest and most varied in the class, as is her account as a whole. She has clearly constructed a complex personal picture of the past. Her first two statements also show an appreciation of change over time.

Emma 's account includes six statements, three sets of additional details and two explanations. In the first two categories, however, her account is far less precise and detailed than Nicola's or Amy's. Contrast, for example, Emma's 'It was a very big chicken house though' with Amy's 'It was as big as the classroom and divided into four rooms.' Emma shows, however, that she is beginning to evaluate evidence with her reason for believing Mrs Dolbear ('she was around then').

Lucy gives an explanation for each discrete statement in her account. The sophisticated 'If ... then' structure of her last sentence shows a grasp of conditionality.