Submitted by Paige Pohlmann
May 2015
It is likely that if you are a professional educator or studying to be a professional educator that you have heard the term formative assessment at some point in time. This is due to the simple fact that formative assessment is an essential component of the teaching profession. Although formative assessment is essential to the academic growth of students, it is all too common that many educators do not fully understand what formative assessment is or how to effectively implement formative assessments. For these reasons I chose formative assessment as an area to explore and develop a better understanding. After growing in my own knowledge of formative assessment I was given the opportunity to present to other aspiring teachers. Below you will be able to see some of the PowerPoint slides that I used during my presentation, along with descriptions to help broaden your knowledge of the importance formative assessment!
To begin, it should be known that there are two main categories of assessment: summative assessment and formative assessment. Both of these types of assessment are important to the educational process, but they are extremely different. Unfortunately, summative and formative assessments are often mixed and used interchangeably. So, let us begin by clearing the confusion of the differences of these two forms of assessment and when and how each should be used. First, we have summative assessments. Summative assessments are often called assessments of learning. This type of assessment is the traditional paper and pencil tests that come to many people’s minds. This type of assessment is graded, and should be given at the end of the unit. The purpose of this assessment is to measure the student’s understanding of content, and often includes high stakes testing. On the opposite side of the spectrum is formative assessment, which is commonly called assessment for learning. This type of assessment is ongoing, informal, and takes place during the learning process. The purpose of this type of assessment is to guide students in their own learning. Not only does this assessment guide students in their learning, but it also guides teachers in their instruction. Lastly, formative assessments do not need to be graded.
Now that we have a better grasp on the differences between summative and formative assessment, lets discuss why formative assessment is so critical to the educational process. First, like I stated previously, formative assessment guides instructional efforts. If you assess a student during the learning process on specific content you will be able to identify what the student does and does not understand before any high stakes testing or the end-of-unit summative assessment. If you notice the students have a firm grasp on the content, then you can move on. However, if you notice the students are struggling, then you can cover specific content again or find a different strategy to help the students learn the content. Next, formative assessment involves students in their own learning. It is important that you record the results of the formative assessments and share the results with the students. Do not be afraid to let the students know what they are doing well on and what they need to improve on in order to be successful on the summative assessment. Letting the students see their formative assessment results allows them to improve and break their goals into smaller subgoals. Lastly, formative assessment builds confidence in both the teacher and the students. If it is known throughout the educational process where the students strengths and weaknesses are, then there is still time to make adjustments and improvements. The students will be confident going into the summative assessment because they will know that they have been improving and they will know they understand the content because they have been practicing and progressing. Formative assessment will allow the students to feel prepared and less anxious when it comes time for the summative assessment.
Formative assessment is important for various reasons. However, many teachers fail to use formative assessment because they are unsure of how to implement formative assessment, especially in a timely manner. With a few quick tips, we can all successfully use formative assessments in our classrooms. First, test the students at regular intervals. Do not test the students on a large chunk of content all at one time. This will make it hard to collect data, and hard to break big goals into smaller subgoals. Instead, implement short tests that measure small amounts of content. Second, be sure to use corrective feedback. Formative assessment is useless if you do not use the results. So, be sure to let the students know where the can improve. Third, you need to keep track of the data in whatever way works best for you. Some teachers will walk around with sticky notes and write the student’s name at the top of the note. Any time a new skill is added, or the student is struggling with certain content, the teacher will mark it down. The students can then collect these notes in a folder and see every time they have added new skills or any skill they need to enhance. Some teachers also have a clipboard with a class roster and simply mark a plus or minus by different skills the students either have or can improve. Fourth, communicate the purpose of the assessment. The students want to know why they are doing what they are doing. Let the students know what they are doing and why and then the students will be more likely to find purpose in their success of specific content. Of course, you cannot communicate the purpose of different formative assessments and activities with students if you do not know. So, always ask yourself one simple question when you are identifying what activity to use: what learning will result from this? Lastly, use a variety of formative assessments. This will prevent the students from becoming bored, and will help adapt to different learning styles.
To conclude, I have listed some types of formative assessments that teachers commonly use. Many people are unaware that homework is a type of formative assessment. Homework is often used improperly because it is often graded. Again, formative assessment should be used as a guide and practice, not a final grade on a student’s understanding on content. If you want to grade homework, then use an effort or participation grade. Results on homework are also often not shown to students, so the student has no way of knowing how to improve. Another type of formative assessment is Laundry Day. This is where the room is divided into different stations that represent different content areas. Allow the students to choose which station they would like to go to based on where they feel they need the most improvement. At that station will be various activities that allow the student to practice a skill they need to improve. This will actively engage the students in their own learning. We, as educators, do not want to scare students away from learning. It is important that students can feel a desire to learn, discover, and improve. Formative assessment is a great way to allow students to truly learn and grow.
The following sources were used for my research of formative assessment: https://teal.ed.gov/tealguide/formativeassessment
http://wvde.state.wv.us/teach21/ExamplesofFormativeAssessment.html
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/what-are-formative-assessments-and-why-should-we-use-them
