Dealing With Formative And Summative

Assessments are very important in the classroom because you, as the teacher, must know how each of your students

Ultimately, they have to rethink assessment from the ground up as a coherent system, in which formative assessment is a critical part, but not the only critical part, well-designed and implemented formative assessment should be able to suggest how instruction should be modified, as well as suggest impressionistically to the teacher what students know and can do. Thus, teachers should be able to design assessment systems in which formative assessments routinely add to the teacher’s overall informal judgments of student

Many people think of assessments as only assessing the student’s level of knowledge in the subject matter. However, that may be true, but assessments do so much more than just assess the learner’s knowledge. Assessments can be used for the instructor to reflect on his or her teaching practices. Many times people come to the conclusion that because a group of students do poorly on a test it is their own fault because they did not study. There are instances where that can be true, but in reality, it could be the educator that created a less than adequate assessment or the material being assessed was not covered adequately. There are many variables that can come into

Assessments are used to facilitate learning through collecting data. A complete assessment involves several elements. It attempts to answer the question of why a student is not learning or not producing in the instructional environment. Assessment also attempts to determine levels of functioning in areas that may be impacting student’s performance negatively. The purpose of the assessments is to provide all parties involved with the information necessary for individualized instruction (Assessment –for Parents, 1999). The most common reasons are referral, screening, identification, instructional planning, and student progress.

Students may not take it as seriously as summative assessment. It can be a time taking process. Students need different kinds of formative assessment at different stages in their learning.[2]

Assessments are an everyday occurrence in classrooms around the world. There are many different types of assessments, which generally fall into formal and informal. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. The major importance is selecting the right assessment. It is up to the teacher to decide what information is needed and how that information is collected.

Assessments are tools used to gather data. Effective classroom teachers use assessment tools to gather data not only about how their students are learning, but also to monitor their own teaching. Two types of commonly used assessments are formative and summative. Each one is important, but it is important to note that one significantly affects the results of the other. “Formative assessment is the process of gathering evidence of student learning, providing feedback to students, and adjusting instructional strategies to enhance achievement” (McMillan, 2014, p. 93). From this definition, the purpose of formative assessments is to monitor student learning and is often referred to as an

There are many different types of assessments educators will use to assess their students. The two main assessments this paper will be discussing are formative and summative. Formative assessments are complete as students are learning, while summative assessment are completed at the end of learning (exam). The formative assessment specifically concentrates on observing the students’ progress and response during instruction (Black, et al., 2003). This assessment allows the students to receive instant feedback during their learning development. The summative assessment focusses on confirming what the students have learned at the conclusion of a lesson or at the end of the term (Wiggins, 1998). This assessment assists in the decision of what instructional and learning goals were met. Alternative assessments need to be completed, due to not all students are capable of showing what they comprehend on all assessments. Some students are too young to even take a summative assessment.

As an educator there are many important facets that facilitate in the success of students. Teachers are responsible for establishing rapport, educating, making observations, creating goals, and assessing the progress that students make throughout the school year. There are many advantages to being competent in the educational assessments of students. Black and William (1998) mentions the major part of assessing students is to aid in understanding and improving the quality of teaching that a student receives. Also, when assessing students the information obtained by teachers must be accurate, reliable, and honest in regards to how a student is performing.

The most important aspect of student learning is constant assessment and analyses of the data from those assessments. Students must be evaluated to ensure that they are receiving rigorous instruction. The analysis of assessment data will assist teachers with gauging how much knowledge the students are retaining. The data will also assist teachers with lesson adjustment. Student assessment is accomplished by utilizing a variety of assessment instruments and the analysis of assessment data to monitor and document student learning, analyzing data from various assessment instruments to improve instruction, and employing multiple assessments and the analysis of assessment data to

Assessment’s benefit teachers greatly and are a factor that is vital to a student’s education. Assessments are a method in which teachers use to evaluate, measure, and document the progress students have made. While assessments are usually equated with traditional testing, teachers may also use a diverse array of assessment methods to measure a student’s progress in any class. Assessments are usually created to measure specific elements of learning wither its cognitive, psychomotor or affective. Assessment may also be used to see the level of knowledge a student may already have on a concept or a skill that the teacher is planning on teaching. Assessments are also used to identify individual student weaknesses and strengths so that teachers may cater to the student by providing extra support on the concept being taught. The two common forms of assessments are formative assessments and summative assessments. A formative assessment is an in-process evaluation on students learning and is typically completed multiple times throughout a unit. This type of assessment may provide clarity on a student’s learning progress, and modifications that a teacher may need to make. A summative assessment is used to evaluate students at the end of a unit.

- Second, teachers can prepare a longer formative assessment for students. In both cases, instant results can be provided with some great data points. These results can be used to find where the shortcomings are within teachers’ instruction, or among students.

Assessments are essential within education because the role of assessments is to measure students’ progression. They provide evidence of students’ prior knowledge, thinking, and understanding and should be created to meet the needs of every student because every student is different and learns differently, as well as at a different pace. Assessments should reflect the objectives of the lesson being taught and the frequency of those assessments should be considered. Assessments can also help teachers to improve student learning. How assessments affect students should also be taken into consideration because assessments can create winners and losers, which is not the goal. Everyone should be a winner.

You are also able to provide parents with evidence in their child’s progress or the lack of progress the child is making. After assessing students the teacher may modify there instruction to a students need. It may also encourage teachers to assess there own teaching and the adjustments they may need to make to enhance there teaching. By holding teachers responsible for assessing students, teachers understand they need to provide a higher quality of education. As we see a higher emphasis on assessments and the accountability on teachers. We are now required to provide evidence of student’s achievements (Rink & Williams, 2003). We can provide these achievements with hard copies of assessments taken by the students.

The term assessment is a function that gathers accurate information needed to make wise instructional decisions and to reach fair judgments about student learning. The term assessment usually refers to full range of information gathered and synthesized by teachers about their students and their classrooms. The effective use of new assessment tactics requires new expectations about instruction, learning, and assessment; however, in order to make sure that all three modules are balanced and effective, educators need to answer the question, “What do we want students to learn?”