Formative Vs. Summative Assessment

Getting assessments to the desirable level is therefore vital, both for teacher and students. From the Educational Assessment Landscape chart, I believe the measurements go hand-in-hand to offer students the opportunities to show what they have learned through differentiated assessments, all leading to the final result of success in summative

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.

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

Formative assessment focuses on conducting how the student learns over time. Teachers test based on understanding and comprehending of the lesson such as; chapter tests or small quizzes. This third grade teacher uses review packets, chapter tests, bonus homework sheets, individual whiteboard sheets, and whole-class discussions. For example, if a child is learning about multiplication and has to apply the concept to a word problem, but has no concept in combing the lesson to solve the problem. This informs the teacher that the child doesn’t understand the lesson or needs to go back to change how it could be taught differently. These assessments shows the teacher whether the child understand the concept they are learning or whether the teacher needs to change her teaching. Summative assessment has a different goal towards the students’ learning at the end of a unit by comparing it against some benchmark score. This assessment focuses on the curriculum aspect on assessing the whole picture meaning the unit at the end of the lesson. The practicum teacher works on providing checklists, checking problems before moving on to the next problem, using hand signals, and writing in their math journals. Students enjoy using hand signals to answer the problem and use their individual white boards to personally solve the problem. There are a few benefits of using hand signals in the classroom. Incorporating these signals provide teachers a quick visual check on whether the students understand how to solve a problem and comprehend the problem. For example; using thumbs-up, hands on your

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

Formative assessments are unique in that they can be quick, do not necessarily have to be graded, and can be used as an ongoing way to check for understanding (Swearengin, 2002). I keep these considerations in mind when I implement quick exit tickets, ungraded activities, and various types of questioning. I check for understanding because it identifies the students that are struggling and the content that is posing problems for many individuals. In my opinion, many teachers have become too concerned with grades, rather than checks for understanding, and often forget that formative assessments do not have to create more work for the teacher. In fact, they assist the teacher in modifying and improving his or her instruction so that student achievement will increase (Wiggins, 2006).

In your units, please include a minimum of two formative assessments and one summative assessment. The formative assessments should identify the critical content knowledge and skills, and suggest a formative assessment technique necessary to monitor student comprehension. This is critically important for first and second year teachers. If first and second year teachers are not provided the key “stop light” moments, they are likely to breeze by critical precursory knowledge and skills, and then be disappointed when students do not perform well on summative assessments. The summative assessment should be designed to produce a data point (i.e. grade) that aligns with standards and standardized assessments, and may be used by a data team as part of a Response to Intervention process. The summative assessment should be common; the expectation is that all teachers instructing the course administer the common summative assessment, calibrate assessment practices, meet in PLC groups to review/discuss student work, and identify students for tier 1 and tier 2

Dunn, K. E., & Mulvenon, S. W. (2009). A Critical Review of Research on Formative Assessments: The Limited Scientific Evidence of the Impact of Formative Assessments in Education. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 14(7), 1–11. http://doi.org/10.1002/ir

I use both formative and summative assessments. My formative assessments are one paragraph responses utilizing Reading Focus questions from the reading assignment. My summative assessments are multiple choice/short answer tests as well as five paragraph essays. The intent of my formative assessments is to enable the students to read with a purpose by encouraging them to make use of the Reading Focus questions supplied by the textbook. My other intent is to get immediate feedback as to whether they actually understood what they read. This enables me to clarify misunderstandings and discuss areas of weakness. My summative assessments serve two different purposes. The multiple choice/short answer tests are meant to gauge student understanding of historical facts and historical interpretations. The essay tests are meant to assess the degree to which students have developed critical thinking and historical analysis skills.

Formative assessments have become a huge component of my instruction practice. Our district encourages the use of formative assessments rather than the traditional summative. Keeley (2016) states that much of the weight has been shifted on the side of formative. I have used short surveys or questionnaires

In article by J Dodge, “What are Formative Assessments and Why Should we Use Them? ” Dodge states that formative assessments help students “strive to understand what success looks like and use each assessment to try to understand how to do better the next time.” Dodge discusses that it is so important to take the time for formative assessment because it will make the teaching process so much more effective. In my classroom, I have observed a difference in lesson plans that have formative assessment built in and those that do not. The formative assessment can uncover a theme of where the gaps are for all of my learners.

Use formative and summative instruments to determine student learning, and self and peer assessment of

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]

Teaching students with English as their second language comes with its own set of challenges. To effectively teach I first need to understand what the students already know. Through my class Assessment for Learning I was taught not all assessments yield the same information. Formative assessment guides instruction because it is a quick snapshot which identifies what the student has mastered or still needs to work on. Summative assessments are what we stereotypically think of as a test, they are graded and measured to let us know if a student has met a benchmark or standard. When I first started teaching, I corrected homework and did exit slips not realizing how important they were. Now they drive and guide my teaching. These formative assessments are the foundation of the next lesson or small group work.