Formative Assessment
What is formative assessment?
Types of Formative Assessment
Using Formative Assessment in the Classroom (video)
Recap:
Formative assessment - The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. More specifically, formative assessments:
- help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work
- help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately
Formative assessments are generally low stakes, which means that they have low or no point value. Examples of formative assessments include asking students to:
- draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topic
- submit one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lecture
- turn in a research proposal for early feedback
Retrieved from: https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/formative-summative.html
Sources of Some Performance Tasks:
NC Public Schools website (www.ncpublicschools.org) - tasks with rubrics
Smarter Balanced items
(http://sampleitems.smarterbalanced.org/itempreview/sbac/index.htm)
Additional Reading on Formative Assessment
Enhancing Student Learning -
Helping Students Understand Assessment -
Formative assessment assists teachers in knowing what students already know or have currently learned about a topic. This type of assessment 'forms' a basis for teaching and learning.
Balls, Eury, and King, 2011, p. 173
Formative Assessment Follow-up: Complete these two tasks prior to your next grade level PLC.
Task 1:
Choose two of the types of formative assessment from the link above. Choose a strategy you have not tried before. Use both of them with your students. Then be prepared to discuss them with your teammates during a grade level PLC.
Task 2:
Take a few minutes to record the things you are taking away from this module on formative assessment? For example, did you have misconceptions of formative assessment prior to this module? Or, is there a way to use formative assessment that you were not previously aware of? (Take your reflections with you to your grade level PLC to discuss.)
Discussion Guide
(TLMS 1e,2a, 3a, 3b, 3d, 7b)