classroom assessment practices: formative assessmentidahotc.com/portals/25/docs/spring 2014...

Classroom Assessment Practices:

Formative Assessment

What we will accomplish today….


• What is it and what is the purpose of it?

• Formative vs. Summative

• Research and Effects

• Looks, sounds and feels like….

• Strategic Teacher Questioning

• Giving Effective Feedback to Teachers

Comprehensive Assessment System

What is the key word from these definitions? • Formative assessment is a process used by teachers and

students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievement of intended outcomes. (CCSSO)

• Formative assessment is a planned process in which assessment-elicited evidence of students' status is used by teachers to adjust their ongoing instructional procedures or by students to adjust their current learning tactics. (Popham)

What is Formative Assessment?

process

process

What is Formative Assessment?

• Focus on learning goals

• Takes stock of where learning is in relation to the goal

• Takes action to move closer to the goal

(Moss and Brookhart, Advancing Formative Assessment in Every Classroom, p. 6)

What is the Purpose of Formative Assessments?

1. An Improvement of learning; not auditing it.

2. An assessment for learning rather than an assessment of learning

3. An instructional tool to be used while learning is occurring

4. An accountability tool to determine if learning has occurred

(NAEP, 2003)

Formative Assessments must inform the decisions that teachers and students make minute by minute in the classroom

Misconceptions about Formative Assessments

• A special kind of test or series of tests that teachers learn to use to find out what their students know

• A program that teachers adopt and add to what they do

• Any practice that gathers information for the purpose of improving programs or improving teaching is formative assessment


The Soup Analogy

When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative; when the guests taste the soup,

that’s summative.

(Stake, R. 2004)

Formative vs. Summative


• Quizzes, unit tests or project

• Can be materials that are included in a curriculum

• Measures or audits

• Largest source of whether students are “passing”

• Quizzes, unit tests or project

• Grades are assigned

• Includes instructionally embedded activities

• Teacher/locally developed

• Can yield rich, diagnostic information

• Happens while material is being taught

• Informs and focuses instructional decisions

• Is NOT used for grades

Crucial Distinction

• Formative – Assessment for Learning:

– What needs to happen to help students learn more?

• Summative – Assessment of Learning

– How much have students learned at a particular point in time?


Black & Wiliam, 1998 Meta-analysis using 250 sources to answer this question:

Is there evidence that formative assessment

raises achievement towards the standards?

Research – Inside the Black Box

Why do Formative Assessments?

Research – Inside the Black Box


“Many of these studies arrive at another important conclusion: That improved formative assessment helps low achievers more than other students and so reduces

the range of achievement while raising achievement overall.”

Visible Learning is the result of 15 years’ research and synthesises over 800 meta-analyses (over 50,000

studies) relating to the influences on achievement in school-aged students (200 million students).

John Hattie is Professor of Education at the University of Auckland, New Zealand


A key finding of the study is that the most powerful single influence enhancing achievement is feedback. But again we need to be careful with this information. Does this mean that we need to give children more and more feedback to raise their achievement? No!

Teacher as Activator vs. Facilitator

A distinction made by Hattie and a schema used to organize the findings

Quality Feedback


“Providing students with opportunities for a combination of peer feedback and self-assessment causes them to achieve at

significantly higher levels, without more instruction.”

J Chappuis Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning p. 96

“…It engages students in learning how to learn. Students learn more, learn smarter and learn and grow into self-aware

learners who can tell you exactly what they did to get exactly where they are.”

Links Handout

Effects



• Minute by minute • Connected to standards

Formative Assessments are:

Teacher “Look Fors” Student “Look Fors”

“Look Fors” Skills Game


Teacher and Student Focused

Use provocative questions to prompt student reflection on their understanding and performance.

Use Teacher-made rubrics, checklists, and guides to monitor and adjust the quality of their learning performance.


INDEPENDENT PRACTICE (“You Do”)

• Monitor • Review

PARTNER/TEAM PRACTICE (“You Do”)

• Monitor • Prompt/Reinforce • Review

TEACH

• Introduce or Review Skill • Model (“I do”) • Guide Practice (“We Do”)

CLOSURE • Summarize • Evaluate • Celebrate

Gradual Release Method

assess



Walk-through Handout

How Do We Know What They Know?

Teachers must ask themselves these questions:

• Where am I going?

• Where are my students now?

• What strategies do I have to help students to master the sub-skills in this standard?

Strategic Teacher Questioning

(Adapted Moss and Brookhart, Advancing Formative Assessment in Every Classroom, p. 8)

Aligning to the Standards

To fully utilize the standards educators must be able to:

• Identify specific content and skills embedded within the standards

• Establish expectations and learning targets that demonstrate progress towards meeting the standards

• Establish criteria for proficiency and success


Misconceptions about Strategic Teacher Questioning

• The primary purpose for questioning students is to evaluate what they have learned – Strategic questions help students think in new ways and further their

learning

– Strategic questions help students self-assess, set goals, and self regulate

• Asking good questions is something that can be done naturally or “on the fly” – Strategic questioning takes planning and careful observation

– Strategic questions are carefully planned to connect learning

• Quality, formative discussions are the rule of thumb rather than the exception to the rule in the classroom – High quality discussions occur infrequently/should be a goal

– Teachers should focus energies on developing discussion strategies


Using Data To Identify Learning Gaps

Formative assessment can identify specific students’ learning gaps at a time when the learning is still taking place and timely interventions can be made.


Feedback Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: Feedback on one performance

Amount: Just right

Rate how well the feedback…

% of Nutritional Value Compared the student’s work with the learning target:

Described what the student did well:

Suggested a specific strategy for next steps:

Arrived as soon as possible after the performance:

Matched the student’s developmental level:

“Can this student take action on this comment?”

(Moss and Brookhart, 2009; Jan Chappuis, 2009)

Teacher Reflection Handout


Five Strategies • Sharing Targets and Criteria w/students

• Questioning/Evidence Collection

• Descriptive Feedback

• Student Self Assessment

• Peers Activated as Resources

Lens 6FA Handout

Giving Effective Feedback to Teachers

Adapted from Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning by Jan Chappuis, 2009, p. 59

• Acknowledging Success

– Identify what is done correctly

– Describe an aspect of quality present in the work

– Point out effective use of strategy or process.

• Guiding Future Thinking

– Identify a correction

– Describe an aspect of quality needing work

– Point out a problem with strategy or process

– Offer a reminder

– Make a specific suggestion

– Ask a question

• Collaborating on Next Steps


First: Review Skillful use of Descriptive Feedback Second: Develop statements or questions you could make or pose to the teacher that you observed Third: Write your thoughts

Giving Descriptive Feedback

Descriptive Feedback Handout


What is needed is quality feedback and where that feedback has the greatest effect is when

teachers receive more and better feedback about their teaching, and then the ripple effect back to

the student is high.

(Hattie and Timperley, 2007)


3 Key learning points from this session

2 Things I need to do right away as it relates to Formative Assessment

1 Goal that I will set for myself as it relates to Formative Assessment

3 – 2 – 1 Reflection

classroom assessment practices: formative assessmentidahotc.com/portals/25/docs/spring 2014...

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