Nontraditional 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 try to make the activity as fun as possible in a way that evolves the teachers plan but also suits my teaching style and methods. I usually try to turn all activates whether it be numeracy, literacy or science into a group activity so each child

contrast… - suggest how… - what do you think… - why does the author suggest… - what impression…

The use of formative assessment practices with ELL students are observational checklists, peer assessment, and performance skills. By having students writing a lesson plan, the roles between the teacher and the students will be changed. This is a formative assessment that engages students in distinctive ways. Students are focused on goals and objectives. It gives them confidence. They are creating a lesson. For ELLs, this is a tremendous accomplishment when done correctly, as well as when done in a collaborative classroom environment. It promotes constructive feedback. Students play an active role in formative assessment. They not only perform the task given, providing evidence of their current learning, but they are also involved in self-assessment (and sometimes peer assessment); therefore, developing and enhancing autonomy.

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

When a teacher introduces the idea of formative assessment to a classroom, modifications may need to be made for it to work its purpose. The teacher might need to alter their teaching method and the student will need to be open to changing their learning style to accommodate the change. If both the teacher and students can achieve this, then formative assessment will be successful (al., C. E., 2016). If unsuccessful then formative assessment can be seen by both the teacher and student in a negative light. For example, The Classroom Experiment (Barry, 2010), showcased a range of different formative assessment techniques that can be quite successful in the classroom. One technique that Dylan Wiliam posed was that the teachers give each student

Assessments and evaluations play a key role in providing developmentally appropriate activities and learning opportunities. Lesson plans should be well thought out and based on the particular group of children in your care. In order for lesson plans to be effective, teachers must use observe and assess their students. The information gained from observations and assessments can be used to plan for the class as a whole and for children individually. Once activities are implemented, teachers should evaluate the outcome and success through observations. Evaluating children’s learning is a great way to determine whether an activity should be used again or changed in any way.

Students go to circle time, where the teacher leads songs and goes over the daily expectations

Focus questions: Teachers are responsible for creating a set of questions in a specific order which is used as a tool for evaluating understanding checklist. The teacher initiates the questions with simple concepts and steadily move towards a complex level, whereas students give answers when asked individually by the teacher or as a class where visual cue indicates their answer. After this activity students are assessed based on the answer given against the questions.

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.

In order for teachers to use formative assessment effectively there must be these components: it must be incorporated into each lesson, must have student involvement, must collect information on student performance to determine if outcomes are meet, must give the teacher feedback to help shape and guide student learning, and must give the student feedback to help them reflect upon their learning. Anecdotal Records, Quizzes, Portfolios, and Student-Led Conferences all meet the components of an effective formative assessment and are applicable within a Social Studies classroom.

There are five activities of instruction (pre instruction, content, learner participation, assessment, and follow through). Pre instruction motivates learners, inform learners of objectives/ agenda, inform and orient learners. Content information activities are new information, provide content and process information. Learner participation activities allow learners to engage with content. Assessment activities could be formal testing or informal testing. Follow through activities include providing job aids, promote retention, and encourage transfer of learning. Five activities of instruction were used when designing instruction. Pre instruction is the presentation (handout about gift cards). Content is demonstration. Learner participation is demonstration. Demonstration is the best method because the learner can get hands on practice which is needed for psychomotor skills. Assessment is the test. Follow through would be a video link/handout given at the beginning of

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.