Formative Assessment

I believe assessment is important and is the basis of planning for instruction, whether it is diagnostic prior to learning, formative during units or lessons, or summative to evaluate student learning. Rowan’s quote in Every Teacher’s Guide to Assessment, "After all, in the end, the problem is less the idea of testing itself, but how we design them, apply, them, and make use of their data." definitely has an impact on my assessment practices. I feel it is necessary to make sure the student acquires all aspects of the learning. Assessment should be used to bring a value for students. Within my instruction, I implement daily formative assessments which may include turn and share, quick writes, graphic organizers, online discussion responses, KahootIt, and other forms. Designing the appropriate formative assessment to match the lesson is important to assess how the learning is taught and whether the students are showing progress. In addition, I have worked on building blocks of formative assessments in checklist style leading up to the point of reviewing for a summative test. Each of these are checked off as completed and instant feedback is given. Feedback from an assessment is essential to student learning and how a teacher will ensure the content is being acquired.

Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) has become a very effective means for assessing children. Because research has shown there is a lack of clarity about essential student outcomes, needs for vital signs of student growth, and problems with achievement tests, CBM is needed. Most students will be able to grow without CBM, but those students who struggle and are at risk will likely fail in reading. Teachers are not able to see how a child has progressed using only achievement test. Information about a child’s growth is needed to identify the areas a child is struggling in. Test scorers have tried to modify achievement test by adding grade equivalents, but the scores still tend to be unreliable. CBM shouldn’t be mistaken for Curriculum Based Assessments. Curriculum Based Assessments refers to a range of approaches that rely on gathering info on performance in the curriculum. While CBM stand for the specific approach that is used to measure a skill students are learning. CBA involves the testing of different steps and items while CBM is more consistent. CBM measures equivalent forms of the same task. It also helps teachers test the effects the curriculum has on students when the program setting is changed to another

The first article that I viewed was on Edutopia and it was titled Why Formative Assessments Matter. This article was a very helpful in that it was a review of what formative assessments are, why they are used, and when and how you use them. The middle part, why they are used, it reinforces that they are used for, to inform, not to punish. This is important to remember as we are assessing and planning instruction for students each day. Learning and showing what you have learned should never feel like a punishment. At the end of the article, in the last section, there were suggestions on ways to formatively assess students in a way that would not feel as though they are being punished. Instead, they are enjoying showing what they have learned. The last tip in this article was to watch, look, and listen. It is important to remember that to formatively assess students you must constantly

In these last few class sessions, we created a nontraditional formative assessment. With this, I learned that the simpler the activity instructions are, the better. This way, if there is a sub in your classroom, the they can easily read and understand the activity to give to the students. Other things to include in the teacher instructions, includes groups members, materials, and how much time should be spent on this activity. If your students are 2nd grade or older, there should be easy to read and understand instructions for the students. If your students are younger than 2nd grade, then there should be student instructions within the teacher instructions for the teacher or sub to read to the class. Either way, student instructions should

It was nice seeing you all this past Saturday. I was deeply impressed with the quality of your NEASC presentations. I will post feedback in Blackboard before the end of the week.

As a part of the instructional process, a formative assessment is very important. It is generally incorporated into the basic practices of the classroom, and provides information that teachers can use in order to adjust the learning and teaching "in real time" (Adey, 2005; Leung, 2007; McClain & Cobb, 2001). In other words, teachers see what they need to do right away, because they are engaged in what the students are learning and how the students are responding to that learning. Because of that, formative assessments are good at helping both students and teachers stay informed about the understanding students are having regarding a particular lesson (Clarke, 2001). Because that information is provided so quickly, changes can be made if there are problems. Teachers do not have to wait until a test or other milestone indicates that there are issues with which the students are struggling, and that is very good news for the teachers and for the students who need help and support.

How do we improve the quality of teachers we have in the classrooms now effectively. Wiliams explains at the end of chapter one, “we have to improve the quality of those teachers already working in our schools” by “love the ones you’re with” strategy (Wiliam, 2011). Then in chapter two it discusses how formative assessment is used and multiple ways, which I try to find ways I can help teachers within the classroom. The most effective example that Wiliams gives in chapter two, in my position is example the one dealing with developing professional development for teachers in math (p.40).

Recently, whenever I hear current teachers discussing about assessing students, ‘Formative Assessment’ is sure to be highlighted. Nowadays this method (formative assessment) is becoming popular among schools and is being applied widely in schools including my own school. Loughland and Kilpatrick (2015) identified in the few past decades, formative assessment has turned out to be the main goal for teachers and educational systems. On the foundation of Loughland and Kilpatrick (2015) findings and from my experience in the field of teaching, I found out nowadays teachers and school stakeholders strongly feel that formative assessment is the best method to assess in order to enhance students’ learning. For these evident reasons, I am interested in finding

In this section, I will analyze the meaning attached to the feedback provided in the final summative evaluation in a question by question format.

While tutoring middle school students in math last year, I found myself strategizing to make the content more accessible to students. Not realizing it at the time, I was attempting to find something the student already had knowledge of (that related to the content) in order to build the student’s understanding from that point with more depth. After reading Lorrie Shepard’s “Linking Formative Assessment to Scaffolding”, it inspired me to reflect upon all my experiences as an at-risk middle school youth tutor. Amazed and intrigued, I realized that the theories Sheppard had written about, such as Vygotsky’s cultural theory of development, instructional scaffolding, and formative assessment were all prevalent in my experiences as a tutor.

A. Pre-assessment/Assessment of Prior Knowledge- 1. Students may have misconceptions or misunderstanding about the drinking water shortages in some places on Earth. Students may not understand how the temperature of the water will affect the salinity of the water. Students may misunderstand information about the Gulf Stream and they may think that it is located in the Gulf of Mexico. Another partial understanding students may have is how the sloping of the ocean floor affects the wave heights. Lastly, students may have a misconception about the subsurface geologic features of the oceans compared to geologic features of the World, like volcanoes and ocean trenches.

Three thing that I learned about formative assessments is the following: Firstly, students should be owners of their own learning, descriptive feedback is better than grades and formative assessments is led by teacher but done with students. The most important takeaway from the video for me is the three parts of a formative assessment which is to help the child discover or point out yourself the problem, establish a goal and develop a plan to do to close that gap. I don’t believe there is a giveaway in the videos; I especially like the notion that not every child has to have the same goals. One questions that I have after watching this video is what are some tool and incorporate formative assessments in lesson plan daily.

Educational organizations from this study may understand that there has been a general lack of conceptual clarity with regard to the formative assessment practices among stakeholders as a result of which, many apparently formative assessment tools and procedures have, in effect, been summative in nature that is assessment to gauge, at a particular point in time. Although the information gleaned from this type of assessment is important, it can only help in evaluating certain aspects of the teachers' abilities and skills but the point and purpose of this study is to implement peer observation strategy to ‘enhance’ rather than ‘measure’ professional learning.

The methodology involved with this evaluation is predominately formative assessment, and is administered through a qualitative case study. The data collection will span approximately three months. Two of these months will be during the course, and the following month is used to schedule interviews with both the students and the instructor. While it is acknowledged that a month for the interviews is a large time frame, it is given as a curtsey to both the instructor and the students.

Assessments are integral parts of instruction, they determine whether classroom goals have been achieved, and help teachers know what areas they should focus on and maybe reteach. They are great tools for developing lesson plans and answer questions such as; “do my students possess full understanding of the material?” There are many ways of assessing students’ learning, one of which I have personal experience with are on-the-spot assessments.