formative assessment in the classroom

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Formative Assessment in the Classroom

Margaret Heritage

EED Winter Conference: Informing Instruction, Improving AchievementAnchorage, Alaska - January 16 -18, 2007

UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information StudiesNational Center for Research on Evaluation,Standards, and Student Testing

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Overview

What is Formative Assessment?

Elements of Formative Assessment

Examples of Formative Assessment

Teacher Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes

A Conceptualization of the Domain of Teaching for Formative Assessment

What is Formative Assessment?

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An Ongoing Process To:

• Evoke evidence about student learning

• Provide feedback about learning to teachers and to students

• Close the gap between the learner’s current state and desired goals

What is Formative Assessment?

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• Clearly and directly linked to instructional goals

• Embedded in instruction

• A variety of methods and strategies

• Used to make changes

Formative Assessment Must Be:

Elements of Formative Assessment

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• Formative assessment is the means to identify the “gap” between a learner’s current status and the desired goal

• Different students will have different "gaps"

(Sadler, 1989)

Identifying the Gap

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• Student perceives the gap as too large - goal unattainable

• Student perceives the gap as too small - closing it might not be worth the individual effort

(Sadler, 1989)

The “Just Right Gap”

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• Teachers need to interpret evidence from formative assessment

• Having an interpretive framework means having a roadmap articulating the sub goals that constitute progression toward the ultimate goal

• Interpretive frameworks provide the touchstone for formative assessment strategies

• Evidence is interpreted within the framework

Interpretive Framework

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• Developmental criteria (Harlen, 2006)

• Theory of knowledge in a domain (NRC, 2001; Shavelson, 2006)

• Ontology (Baker, 2005)

• Clearly articulated progression of learning in a domain (Forster & Masters, 2004; Wilson & Sloane, 2000)

Interpretive Framework

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Closing the Gap

“Formative assessment gathers and uses information about students’ knowledge and performance to close the gap between students’ current learning state and the

desired state by pedagogical actions”

(Shavelson 2006, p.3)

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• The zone of proximal development

• Scaffolding instruction within the zone of proximal development

Matching Action to the “Gap”

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• Feedback to teachers about current status to adapt instruction

• Feedback to students to respond to instructional adaptations

Feedback

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Clear, descriptive, criterion-based feedback to students that indicates:

√ where they are in the learning progression

√ how their response differed from that reflected in desired learning goal

√ how they can move forward

Feedback: Students

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”Feedback Loops”

Feedback loops include a teacher who knows which skills are to be learned, who can recognize and describe good performance, demonstrate good performance, and indicate how poor performance can be improved.

(Sadler 1989, p.120)

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• Teachers and students have shared understanding and ownership of the learning goal

• Students become involved in self-assessment

• Students need to learn the strategies of self-assessment

• Students make “more knowledgeable decisions regarding their current learning tactics” (Popham, 2006)

Shared Ownership

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Summing Up

Formative assessment is a means to continuously gather evidence and provide feedback about learning so that pedagogical actions can be adapted to meet learning needs, and so that students can be active participants with their teachers in understanding how their learning is progressing and how improvements can be made.

Formative Assessment Methods

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• On-the-fly

• Planned for interaction

• Curriculum embedded

Methods

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A Typology of Formative Assessment• Performance tasks (teacher observation of

student(s) carrying out an investigation, oral presentation)

• Written tasks (teacher analysis science notebooks, history essay, literature response, explanation of mathematical strategy)

• Discussions (questions, teacher listens to group discussion, teacher/student conferences)

• Tests (quizzes , tests of discrete skills, diagnostic tests)

• Student self-assessment

When pasting text from another document, do the following:1. Highlight the text you want to replace2. Go to the EDIT menu and select PASTE SPECIAL3. Select “Paste as: UNFORMATTED TEXT”

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Assessment Cycles

To adjust the slide numbering, do the following:1. Go to the VIEW menu, MASTER, and select SLIDE MASTER2. In the lower right, change the number 28 to your number of slides3. Do not change the <#> character. It generates the auto-numbers.

Type Focus Length

Short-cycle Within a single lesson

Five seconds to one hour

Medium-cycle Between lessons

One day to two weeks

Long-cycle Between instructional units

Two weeks or more

Wiliam, 2006

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• Purpose

• Consequence

• Formative assessments do not stand alone

Validity and Reliability

Examples of Formative Assessment

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Elementary Mathematics

Heritage & Niemi, 2006

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Middle School Science

What would happen to a tennis ball dropped from a height of 100 feet into 30 feet of water?

New Standards, 1989

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Elementary Science How is

sedimentary rock

formed?

Is igneous rock onli in the crust?

Why is there three cain of

roks?

Why shaps of animals

are in rocks?

Are there minerals and

rock?

In the earth are always

rocks

What are rocks made

of?

What are other things that rocks

are maid of?

What is a mineral?

Are rocks old or new?

Bailey & Heritage, (forthcoming)

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Elementary Reading

Text: The sun was hot.Marco: The sun was hot.

Text: Pop had a top hat.Marco: Pop had a t-o-p …pot hat.

Text: Mom had a red wig.Marco: Mom had a red w-i-g---giw.

Bailey & Heritage, (forthcoming)

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Middle School MathematicsGroup 1: Division of fifteen-fifths means a fraction or a division.

Fifteen divided by five is three.

Group 2: Division means dividing some numbers and make it to a smaller number. Fifteen-fifths is fifteen divided by five. That makes three.

Group 3: Division is opposite of multiplication. Fifteen-fifths is like five goes into fifteen and that makes three because three times five is fifteen.

Group 4: Division is when you flip the number when you divide and when you multiply. Fifteen-fifths is like five times something is fifteen, so the answer is three.

Group 5: Division is dividing one number by another to solve the problem. Like fifteen-fifths is X so, then five times X equals three. Heritage, Silva & Pierce, 2006

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Middle School Science

Student response: If there is a block of steel, and you put it in water, it sinks because it had more mass. If you put a hollow piece of steel of the same mass, and shaped like a banana, it would float because it was shaped different, so it could float. For example, a fish has a swim bladder. He can let air in and out, and that is for him to go up or down or sub-surface.

Gearhart et al., 2006

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• Linked to instructional goals• Integrated into instruction• Provide ongoing feedback at a level of detail to

stimulate action for improvements in learning • Constructed and undertaken within an

interpretive framework• Enable descriptive feedback to be provided to

students • Involve students in the assessment process

Characteristics

Teacher Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes for Formative

Assessment

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• Knowledge, concepts and skills that need to be taught within a domain

• Learning pathway/progression of sub goals

• Knowledge of “good performance”

• Necessary precursor knowledge and understanding

• Knowledge of student metacognition (self-regulation, self assessment, motivation)

Content Knowledge

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• Multiple models of teaching for student achievement in content areas

• “Gap” will differ so multiple, differentiated instructional strategies

• Multiple models for teaching student metacognitive strategies

Pedagogical Content Knowledge

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• Prior knowledge students bring to the new learning

• How to determine prior knowledge

Student Prior Knowledge

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• Range of methods/strategies for formative assessment (on-the-fly, planned for interaction, curriculum- embedded)

• Formative assessment cycles

• Validity – purpose and interpretation

• Reliability

Assessment Knowledge

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• Interpretation of evidence

• Adapting instruction

• Determining the zone of proximal development

• Supporting new learning within the zone of proximal development (scaffolding) – selecting the right strategy

Skills

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• Providing clear, descriptive, criterion-based feedback

• Feedback indicates to student how they can move forward

• Assisting students to develop metacognitive knowledge and "learning tactics”(Popham, 2006)

Skills

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• Formative assessment is worthwhile

• Formative assessment yields valuable and actionable information about students’ learning

• Formative assessment is integral to instruction

• Students are partners in formative assessment and in learning

Attitudes

Toward a Conceptualization of the Domain of Teaching for

Formative Assessment

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Conceptualizing the Domain

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Conceptualizing the Domain

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Conceptualizing the Domain

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Conceptualizing the Domain

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Conceptualizing the Domain

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Conceptualizing the Domain

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Conceptualizing the Domain

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Conceptualizing the Domain

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Conceptualizing the Domain

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