Formative Assessment

Formative Assessment

According to Chapter 1 of the required text, Formative assessment is assessment FOR learning. Summative assessment is assessment OF learning. Formative assessments occur during the lesson as opposed to the end of a unit of instruction and should be the primary focus of assessment in schools. Additionally, formative assessments allow the teacher to support learning by generating feedback to students to determine their current progress and where they are in relation to mastering the objective and/or standard.

View the following short videos:

• Keeping It Relevant and “Authentic”
• Assess and Plan with Exit Tickets

Discuss:

• How each teacher models what you read and learned about formative assessments?
• What evidence did you see and hear regarding formative assessments being an assessment FOR learning?  More specifically, how did each teacher assess during learning?
• How were they able to determine the current progress of their students in relation to mastering the objective?  How did each teacher model the provision of feedback?
• What connections can you make between the teachers’ strategies to assess for learning and their eventual assessment of learning through a summative assessment? In other words, what can you see coming as preparation for a larger, more comprehensive summative assessment?

Answer Preview

In the cases provided, it is notable that both teachers use skills in formative assessment in an effort to make sure that their students are able to learn everything that they anticipated for. For Mr. Ben, it is notable that they use the information that they gather from the formative tests to create a lesson. He first teaches and then gives a formative assessment to the students in an effort…