ARB newsletter - Welcome to February 2016

Talofa lava, Kia orana, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Talofa ni, Mālō e lelei, Ni sa bula.
Welcome.  Nau mai, Haere mai.

• Our resource developers have been busy and have recently added 27 new online-interactive assessment resources to the banks.
• Seaweek begins on 27 February with the theme: Toiora te Moana – Toiora te Tangata – Healthy Seas, Healthy People.  Check out the links to related ARB resources below.
• Some of your favourite ARB resources share a common theme.  This month we are highlighting resources that use progressive disclosure.
• We are always looking to work with schools for the piloting and trialling of new assessment resources.  If you are interested in becoming involved, click on the link at the bottom of this newsletter.

New resources

The ARB team has recently completed and published 27 new online-interactive resources across the 3 banks.

We have also developed a number of ARB resources for Level 1 of the NZC.

Click to see a list a NZC Level 1 assessment resources across English and mathematics banks

English (5 resources) Levels 4/5 Paragraphs 1 Paragraphs 2 Paragraphs 3 Paragraphs 4 Paragraphs 5

Science (9 resources) Level 4 Managing fire Fire: Keeping safe Native butterflies   Level 5 Archey’s frog Pepeketua Pigeon milk Cockles Light rays II Crown of Thorns starfish I

Maths (13 resources) Level 3 Triangle or not? Toy car collections Making chocolate gift packs How long on the bus? Square or not? Shapes that tessellate Level 4 View from a different angle What changes? Stopping distances Fencing paddocks Ordering improper and mixed fractions Black and white Transformation properties

We continue to signficantly re-develop a number of resources that can also be completed online. Click here to link to online-interactive ARB resources

A new conceptual map in Geometric thinking has been created which has links to a selection of assessment resources.  

Click here to see the Geometric Thinking Concept Map

 

Sea week

Seaweek 2016 takes place from Saturday 27 February to Sunday 6 March.

The theme is “Toiora te Moana – Toiora te Tangata – Healthy Seas, Healthy People “.

 

Image: copyright, PhotoKete.co.nz

The science resources below can make good starting points for discussions about what makes a healthy ocean and how we can manage that.  

 

Resources about the health of the ocean or beach

• Amongst the sand dunes (Level 2)
• Cleaning up the beach (Level 3)
• Beach clean- up (Levels 3/4)
• What do you know about the greenhouse effect? (Level 5)

Resources about interdependence in the ocean

• Rocky shore food web (Level 4)
• Who eats whom at the rocky shore? (Level 4)
• Living in the ocean (Level 4)
• Pāua  (Level 4/5).
• Cockles (Level 5)
• Feeding relationships in the Southern Ocean (Level 5)

The following resources are more loosely connected to Seaweek’s theme, and could be used to explore questions about what lives in oceans.

Resources about things that live in the ocean

• What makes a fish a fish? (Level 2) - classification
• Living in the sea (Level 3) - respiration of marine mammals and fish
• Sea mammals and fish (Level 3) - classification task
• Sharks' fins (Level 3) - adaptations
• Fish camouflage (Level 3)
• Features of a sea lion (Level 3) - adaptations.
• Whales and dolphins (Level 4) - classification
• Features of fish (Level 4) identification
• Identifying fish and shellfish (Level 4) - classification

You can also find more information about Seaweek at Seaweek.org.nz.

 

Some favourite ARBs

From time to time we review some the most popular selections of ARB resources. Recently we’ve noticed something in common between some of your favourite ARB resource selections. They’re ones that use the strategy of progressive disclosure, in maths as well as English. This strategy is great for assessing comprehension and critical thinking. When we use progressive disclosure, we reveal a text in stages – whether it is presented in written, visual, oral, or aural form. As each part of the text is revealed, learners integrate it with previous information to systematically build an understanding of the text as a whole.

 

Click for some related English resources and more information about progressive disclosure.

Click for a range of resources that use progressive disclosure. 

A maths resource that draws on this strategy is What Shape am I?

 

Get involved in the March-April ARB resource trials

As part of developing assessment resources, we pilot and trial our items with groups of students.

Pilots tend to be conducted with a smaller group of students and involve a visit from a resource developer.

Trials are independently conducted online, with students working in small groups or classes or in a computer lab.

 

We are always looking for teachers and classes that are interested in helping us with this process.  We will be trialling from 29 March to end of Term One.

Both pilots and trials involve students using whatever online devices they use in class or at home (desktop, laptop, tablet).

If you are interested in participating in the March-April resource trials (and have a NZ-based classroom), please follow the link to ARB March-April 2016 trials.

 

Of course we're always happy to get feedback and would love to hear from you about our website or our assessment resources.

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