Formative assessment Formative assessment is a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides explicit feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievement of intended instructional outcomes. Formative assessment is a method of continually evaluating students’ academic needs and development within the classroom and precedes local benchmark assessments and state-mandated summative assessments. Teachers who engage in formative assessments give continual, explicit feedback to students and assist them in answering the following questions: Where am I going? In order to show students how to close the gap between where they are academically and where they want to be, teachers must help students evaluate their progress in the learning process and give them explicit, descriptive feedback specific to the learning task. History of formative assessments The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) developed a focus for formative assessment in October 2006.
Do You Check for Understanding Often Enough with Students? A few months ago, I wrote for Edutopia.org about the power of focusing on a few, high-priority standards as a strategy to improve student learning. Many other elements also need to be in play in a classroom in order to produce the results that we all want to see for our students. To name just a few: The learning environment needs to be one in which students feel respected and safe to take risks; kids need to feel that their learning has a purpose and that the curriculum is relevant to their lives; and students need feedback on their progress -- they need to know what they're trying to accomplish, where they are in relation to the goal, and what they need to do in order to get there. It is the teacher's role to make sure this happens. The Multi-Tasking Teacher Although to be an effective teacher it often feels like you need to be one of those Hindu gods with a dozen arms, I believe that educators do need to hold standards and objectives in one hand and formative assessments in the other.
Formative Assessments "If you can both listen to children and accept their answers not as things to just be judged right or wrong but as pieces of information which may reveal what the child is thinking, you will have taken a giant step toward becoming a master teacher, rather than merely a disseminator of information." -Easley & Zwoyer, 1975 Proof Points Black and William (1998), two leading authorities on the importance of teachers maintaining a practice of on-going formative assessment, defined it as, “all those activities undertaken by teachers, and by the students in assessing themselves, which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged.” Formative assessment encompasses a variety of strategies to determine student progress toward achieving specified learning goals. The strategies for investigating student learning identified below provide different types of data from and about students. How Do I Know What I Know? Is That a Fact?
A Favorite Formative Assessment: The Exit Slip When we think about all the different ways we check for understanding in the classroom, a go-to strategy for many teachers has always been the exit slip or exit ticket. For this strategy, students write at the conclusion of learning, sometimes on a half-sheet of paper with sentence starters provided. It's then collected by the teacher. Why a favorite? Being that they come at the end of a lesson, unit, or segment of study, exit slips give teachers a snapshot of the overall student learning. Robert Marzano, classroom researcher and education author, recently wrote in depth about this formative assessment. Rate their current understanding of new learning. An exit slip can also be be a great way to set up the next day's learning. Discover Shared Interests Before introducing a group project that includes student choice, students can respond to a strategic question via an exit slip, sharing their primary topics of interest and their reasons. Activate Prior Knowledge The Start of an Essay
Assessment for Learning (AfL) Strategies AfL || Sharing Learning Expectations || Questioning || Feedback || Self-Assessment & Peer Assessment Sharing Learning Expectations The best way for teachers to share learning expectations is, well, to know them. Start with your state standards. In WA state we have pretty well organized Science standards and I also make use of the Benchmarks for Science Literacy and the National Science Education Standards. Once you have your standards figured out you need to back up. This is a sample Science learning progressions for the learning of insects. Too BIG – “Students know that: Earth is a system that contains a fixed amount of each stable chemical element existing in different chemical forms. Yeah! Too small – “Students know that energy can be transferred from one place to another.” What makes this too small for a learning target is the fact that it’s too low on bloom’s taxonomy that students know energy can be transferred. Feel free to leave me a comment :o) Back to the TOP Feedback 1. 2. 3.
Verbal marking / feedback "If a child can't talk about it, they can't write about it. If a teacher can't talk about it, they shouldn't mark it." There's been a lot of silence on my blog over the summer period, but that doesn't mean my brain's been off education completely. This post is really a throw-out idea to see what you think - please do leave a comment or drop me an email with any kind of feedback. Allow me to begin - Verbally Marking. Make of the name what you will - at least it's not another acronym. Back in my school days, I used to love getting my marked work back. Occasionally, the teachers would talk to me about my written work. Halfway through the last academic year I made a conscious effort to mark as much Literacy work as possible with the child present, or go and speak to the child after marking their work to ask questions and tease out improvements. Of course, the idea of Verbal Marking is more of a dream than a guaranteed reality. Does written feedback really benefit students of a young age?
Dylan Wiliam – Formative Assessment – The Masterplan The first of a series of notes / reflections on sessions at the 2010 SSAT National Conference. Bio Dylan Wiliam has the grand title of ‘Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment‘ at the Institute of Education in London. He is a former Maths teacher and co-author of the book “Inside the Black Box“. He is a world renowned expert on assessment for learning, and was recently to be seen on BBC television in The Classroom Experiment. My Notes On learning environments & the role of the teacher: Teachers do not create learning. On intelligence & environment: Intelligence is partly inherited. On flow: Flow = match between challenge and capability. On assessment: Pre tests. 5 key strategies in teaching: On feedback & questioning: Middle class kids ‘get the code’, working class are no less intelligent just don’t get what we want. Plan questions carefully to elicit understanding, not incorrect methods that are resulting in right answers. Wait time for questioning. Key points: Cause thinking.
An ASCD Study Guide for Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom This ASCD Study Guide is designed to enhance your understanding and application of the information contained in Checking for Understanding, an ASCD book written by Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey and published in September 2007. You can use the study guide before or after you have read the book, or as you finish each chapter. The study questions provided are not meant to cover all aspects of the book, but, rather, to address specific ideas that might warrant further reflection. Most of the questions contained in this study guide are ones you can think about on your own, but you might consider pairing with a colleague or forming a study group with others who have read (or are reading) Checking for Understanding. Chapter 1: Why Check for Understanding? What are common ways that teachers check for understanding? Chapter 2. What is oral language? Chapter 3: Using Questioning to Check for Understanding Why has questioning been used to assess comprehension for so long?
Classroom Assessment | Basic Concepts - Nightly A. Formative vs. Summative Assessments Classroom assessments can include a wide range of options -- from recording anecdotal notes while observing a student to administering standardized tests. The options can be roughly divided into two categories -- formative assessments and summative assessments. Formative assessments are on-going assessments, reviews, and observations in a classroom. Summative assessments are typically used to evaluate the effectiveness of instructional programs and services at the end of an academic year or at a pre-determined time. The following table highlights some formative and summative assessments that are common in K12 schools.
What Are Formative Assessments and Why Should We Use Them? | Scholastic.com - Nightly "Informative assessment isn't an end in itself, but the beginning of better instruction." —Carol Ann Tomlinson Traditionally, we have used assessments to measure how much our students have learned up to a particular point in time. This is called "assessment of learning" — or what we use to see whether our students are meeting standards set by the state, the district, or the classroom teacher. Since formative assessments are considered part of the learning, they need not be graded as summative assessments (end-of-unit exams or quarterlies, for example) are. When I work with teachers during staff development, they often tell me they don't have time to assess students along the way. Formative assessments, however, do not have to take an inordinate amount of time. Using a Variety of Formative Assessments The National Forum on Assessment (1995) suggests that assessment systems include opportunities for both individual and group work. Types of Assessment Strategies Exit Cards Thomas R.
The concept of formative assessment. Boston, Carol - Nightly Carol Boston ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation University of Maryland, College Park While many educators are highly focused on state tests, it is important to consider that over the course of a year, teachers can build in many opportunities to assess how students are learning and then use this information to make beneficial changes in instruction. This diagnostic use of assessment to provide feedback to teachers and students over the course of instruction is called formative assessment. It stands in contrast to summative assessment, which generally takes place after a period of instruction and requires making a judgment about the learning that has occurred (e.g., by grading or scoring a test or paper). This article addresses the benefits of formative assessment and provides examples and resources to support its implementation. Purpose and Benefits of Formative Assessment Examples of Formative Assessment Teachers might also assess students' understanding in the following ways: