Investing Formative Classroom Assessments

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

Assessment, both formative and summative, plays a significant part in the learning experience as it determines progression and enables learners to demonstrate that they have achieved their desired learning outcomes.

Haydn (2009 cited in Capel et al 2009 page 329) defines assessment as "all those activities which are undertaken by teachers, and others, to measure the effectiveness of teaching and learning".

Assessments are the process of evaluating an individual’s learning. They involve generating and collecting evidence of a learner’s attainment of knowledge and skills and judging that evidence against defined standards. Formative Assessments (quizzes and practical tests) are used to

Assessment is defined as any practice or task that is used to produce information about student learning, and is categorized as either formative or summative (Wallace & White, 2014). There is a distinct difference between the various types of assessments, specifically formative and summative. Formative assessments are informal quizzes that are used to guide instruction

Types of formative assessment –Questioning asking questions to the students and allowing time for each student to explore their answers with the group, lessons become rich and students respond by appropriate group discussion and feed-back. This gives the teacher the opportunity to observe the students and assess their level of

Assessments are vital to the educational process. They provide feedback about what the students know and what they may need to learn in order to obtain the content within a given curriculum. It provides teachers with a glimpse into the student’s readiness on a particular topic or subject. One of the six key principles of having an effective differentiated classroom is having a formative assessment that informs teachers on the effectiveness of their teaching. It also provides teachers with the readiness levels of their students and shows them exactly where the students’ readiness, interests, and learning profile needs really are (Tomlinson, 2014).

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

An assessment is when you gather evidence for feedback. It’s being keenly aware of what students know and understand and having appropriate evidence of this understanding. Assessments can be broken down into three different categories: Diagnostic, Formative, and Summative. Diagnostic assessment happens before learning. It’s when you identify the student’s knowledge and any misconceptions. This helps determine on what you need to review or where to begin your teaching. Formative assessment happens during the learning. It’s like a “coach”, where you listen and look for specifics. The goal is to improve students’ learning rather than simply measuring it. Summative assessment happens after the learning process. As a teacher, you’re like a judge, you render an opinion. It’s important to offer a grade that accurately reflects the students’ learning. These three types of assessments are used to determine how the student is learning, how to improve their learning, and accurately reflect their learning. The last term in our goal we need to understand is Standards Based Classroom. This is based on the mastery of the students’ learning and that all students are guaranteed the same right to learn the common curriculum. As teachers, we are responsible to deliver the material to expand the students’

Classroom assessment is when one makes sure that there is a good balance of formative and summative assessment. Formative assessment is used to guide student learning throughout the learning unit. Summative learning is used to evaluate student learning after a few units have

Randy Bennett (2009) points out, is that it is an oversimplification to say that formative assessment is only a matter of process

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

Throughout my unit I had a lot of different ways to formatively assess my students but I decided to stay consistent with the way that my supervising teacher summatively assess the students. I only had two types of formal formative assessments throughout my unit. One formative assessment was the pre-test, which was given to students before the unit started. The other formative assessment took place when students would participate in a Nearpod presentation, which had questions, polls, and even a chance to draw a representation of absolutism throughout. All other formative assessments were questioning throughout the lesson while using the “Bucket of Fate”, also known as an equity cup. For summative assessments, I only

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.