How To Write A Continuous 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.

I am a strong believer that one test defines a students. Therefore, variety is key when assessing students. When using formative assessment I use student reflections, journal entries, exit cards in addition to non verbal communication such as thumbs up or down. I also make anadotal notes on students to help assess the overall learning journey of the student. When using summative assessments, I use district assessments, state assessments, portfolios, short answer, multiple choice, and student based projects. In all forms of assessments, students are provided the appropriate accommodations. My learning goal for assessing students is to have a valid assessment that demonstrate the student’s understanding of the specific skill. It is crucial that I understand the purpose of the assessments and the content that is being taught, therefore, I often start instruction with the assessment piece in

The term ‘formative assessment’ is used to describe the activities and processes used by teachers and learners to gather information that informs future teaching and learning. Assessment becomes formative if the information gathered is used as feedback to adapt and modify teaching and learning (Black and Wiliam, 1998, p.2). There are a variety of different methods and techniques that can be used by teachers and learners that can contribute to enhancing learner progress. These include

Formative assessment, or assessment for learning as it is often called, is the assessment that

A formative assessment provides informal feedback and information during the teaching process. This assessment measures student progress and performance thus allowing further improvement and development. It can also assess the teacher’s progress as an instructor, enabling the teacher to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching methods.

During web based instructional design (WBID) and development, formative evaluation will occur from school experts including the schools technology manager, assistant principal of curriculum, and the business department chair. They will review the materials presented in the WBI (web based instruction) elements for design, content, graphics, structure, message, and technical specifications. Formative of the final WBI prototype will take place as a small group of students (one section) field test the WBI over a term. Test and assignment scores, student participation, surveys, and discussions with students will assist with determining the relative successes and failures of the program as well as areas that need improvement.

Due to the ongoing nature of it, formative assessment allows me to stay more aware of student progress and any difficulty as it

Formative assessment-Teachers that collect evidence about what a student still needs to comprehend and adaptions that are made to meet the student’s needs.

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

Pupils learning and progress needs to be measured against objectives using ongoing assessment methods. Formative assessment methods are ongoing, they are used to check progress continually during learning . These techniques include using open ended questions which encourage pupils to think for themselves and use their own ideas rather than being influenced too much or led by the adult. Observing pupils is a formative assessment method which allows us to gather lots of knowledge about how pupils are progressing. It reveals how they work, interact with others, preferences, strengths, weaknesses etc over a period of time. Observations can be informal and take place on an ongoing regular basis or can be formal direct observations. Listening to pupils describe their work and reasoning, to hear about pupils understanding

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

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.

Sub Standard 3.2 states that teachers need to select, develop, and use a variety of diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments. I believe many of the assessments we use with our students should provide data about a student’s critical thinking skills. I use formal assessment awhile asking my preschool students open ended how and why questions as they explore learning materials and centers in my room. I always give my young learners time to answer the questions and help guide them to better understanding of the concept. Already having experience using this type of assessments will only help me as I am teaching fourth of fifth grade Math. Using the question and answer dialog as an assessment piece with older grades will help my students learn how to answer a Math question by pulling background knowledge forward and using their thought process. This type of assessment allows me to understand where their thought process is on a Math concept and help correct their understanding if they are headed in the wrong direction. Although I will use a variety of assessments such as use summative and diagnostic I believe open ended formative question assessments will help me