Strand IIIStrand IIIFormative AssessmentFormative Assessment

Goals of Strand III Formative Goals of Strand III Formative Assessment TrainingAssessment TrainingTo explore teachers’ perceptions of

assessments and how these perceptions influence current practice

To examine how to create a culture within the school that recognizes and values the role of formative assessments in student achievement

To investigate ways to develop partnerships with students to provide them with quality feedback in order to increase their achievement

GoalsGoalsDevelop an understanding of

formative assessmentIdentify ways that formative

assessment can inform instruction to improve student achievement

Understand the difference between formative assessment and summative assessment

Identify strategies for incorporating formative assessment into your school improvement plan

Topics Covered At The Topics Covered At The Summer Institute Summer Institute Assessing For LearningProviding FeedbackChecking For Understanding

TeachFirst WebinarsTeachFirst WebinarsShare videos with participants that show

formative assessment in action (ex. Checking for understanding; pre-planning higher order thinking questions)

Survey of Formative Assessment Indicators – completed by principals prior to the second webinar; these are different from the Indistar indicators

Principals and their team’s began developing SMART (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, Timed-Out) goals after identifying indicators they were going to focus on based on the survey – will share during January webinar.

TeachFirst WebinarsTeachFirst WebinarsStrategies for checking for

understanding included:a. Pre-planned higher order thinking questionsb. Allow students to build on their own (and each other’s) answersc. Develop scaffolds to ensure higher order questions and active participation for all students by using prompts.

TeachFirst WebinarsTeachFirst WebinarsIdentify the instructional

conversations that will be the focus prior to the next webinar with TeachFirst in Januarya. Checking for understandingb. Providing feedbackc. Formative v. Summative assessment

Assessment For LearningAssessment For LearningWhy do we assess students?What are the effects of different

kinds of assessment on students and on teachers?

What are the challenges of using assessment for accountability?

How can teachers use assessments to promote learning?

Formative v. Summative Formative v. Summative AssessmentAssessment

Formative Summative

Ongoing/daily Periodic assessments

Part of the instructional process Tells us what the student knows or does not know

Helps teachers adjust teaching and learning as it happens

Part of the grading process

Think of it as practice – helps the teacher determine the NEXT STEP

State assessments

Student involvement Benchmark tests

Descriptive feedback Unit/Chapter tests

Think of it as practice – helps the teacher determine the NEXT STEP

Gauges student learning at a particular time relative to content standards

Checking for understanding Can be a tool to evaluate the effectiveness of the instructional program

Successful Formative Successful Formative AssessmentAssessment

Involves changing perspectives and enhancing current practices by providing relevant, descriptive feedback to students; developing greater student understanding of learning goals; and valuing the quality of student work over quantity (Black & Wiliam, 1998)

Providing FeedbackProviding FeedbackFeedback should be “corrective” in

nature. You need to explain to the students what they are doing that is correct and what they are doing that is incorrect.

The research has found that simply telling students that their answer on a test is right or wrong has a negative effect on achievement. Providing students with the correct answer has a moderate effect on achievement. The best feedback appears to involve an explanation as to what is accurate and what is inaccurate in terms of student responses. In addition, having students continue to work on a task until they succeed appears to enhance achievement.

Providing FeedbackProviding FeedbackFeedback should be timely. The timing

of feedback is critical to its effectiveness. Feedback given immediately after a test-like

situation is best. The longer the delay in feedback the less its impact on achievement.

Feedback should be specific to a criterion. Feedback needs to reference a specific level of skill or knowledge. This lets the student know exactly where they are relative to specific knowledge or skills.

Providing FeedbackProviding Feedback

Students can effectively provide some of their own feedback. Have the students keep track of their own learning as it occurs. (For example, keeping charts of their progress towards a specific goal.)

Once students have a clear understanding of learning goals, they can then understand where they stand in relation to those goals and take some ownership of how to close the distance between the two (Dylan & Wiliam, 1998)

Checking For Checking For UnderstandingUnderstanding1. Avoid yes/no questions

◦ How many times have you heard a teacher ask the class, “Does this make sense?”

◦ Why is this not a good question?◦ How can the teacher “check for

understanding” to see if what he/she has taught actually makes sense?

◦ Teachers need to ask “pointed” questions when checking for understanding. More on questioning later.

Checking For Checking For UnderstandingUnderstanding

2. Have students put the information into their own words (oral language and/or writing)

◦ Paraphrasing/Retelling◦ Summarizing◦ Exit cards – what are three things

that you learned in class today.◦ Read/write/pair/share◦ Repeat back – think of an airline

pilot

Checking For Checking For UnderstandingUnderstanding3. Graphic Organizers

◦There are six common patterns used to organize information (Marzano, 2001)a. Descriptive pattern organizersb. Time sequence organizersc. Process/Cause-Effect organizersd. Episode patternse. Generalization pattern organizersf. Concept pattern organizersg. Pictographs

Checking For Checking For UnderstandingUnderstanding

4. Response Cards/Dry Erase Boards/Hand Signals

5. Think/pair/share

Formative Assessment and Formative Assessment and RemediationRemediationEffective remediation cannot occur without

formative assessment.During the 1970’s, Benjamin Bloom referred

to formative assessments as “learning tools” and “progress checks”.

He emphasized the need for regular progress checks to provide feedback to students that would be followed with corrective actions to address individual student needs.

Understanding JoeUnderstanding Joe

PRODUCTS: tests, quizzes, projects

ObservationNotes

Reflection on student/teacher communication

CONFERENCES:Student/teacherParent/teacherStudent/parent/teacher

SOL Tests

PALS

School Improvement PlanSchool Improvement Plan2010-20112010-2011

Minimum of five indicatorsOne indicator from Classroom

Assessment (IIB01, IIB02, IIB03, IIB04, IIB05)

One indicator from Periodic Assessment (IID02, IID03, IID06, IID07, IID08, IID09, IID10, IID11)

The School Leadership Team will identify three additional indicators.

School Improvement PlanSchool Improvement Plan2010-20112010-2011

The focus is on using pre-tests to identify gaps and inform instruction v. giving a pre-test and then teaching the unit the way it was designed without using the data from the pre-test. Remember that the goal of the formative assessment training throughout the year is to make formative assessment a part of daily instruction in every classroom in your school. As you select the indicators, you will want to develop tasks that address the three areas of formative assessment that were emphasized during the Summer Institute: Assessment for Learning; Checking for Understanding; and Providing Feedback.

TeachFirst Training TeachFirst Training ModulesModulesAll Strand III schools are

expected to provide training to their faculty throughout the year using the four TeachFirst training modules.Checking

For Understandi

ng

Feedback

Assessment For Learning

Uncovering Misconception

sDeveloping Self-

Regulating Learners

Formative AssessmentsFormative Assessments

Designed to inform

Pinpoint the skills and concepts that have been learned

well

Identify students’ individual learning

difficulties

Must be part of an ongoing effort to

help students learn

Bloom, B.S., Hastings, J.T., & Madaus, G.F. (1971). Handbook on formative and summative evaluation of student learning.

Garrison & Ehringhaus Garrison & Ehringhaus (2003)(2003)

“When a comprehensive assessment program balances formative and summative student learning/achievement information, a clear picture emerges of where a student is relative to learning targets and standards. Students should be able to articulate this shared information about their own learning. The more we know about individual students as they engage in the learning process, the better we can adjust instruction to ensure that all students continue to achieve.”

The Rest of the StoryThe Rest of the Story. . . formative assessments alone do little to improve student learning or teaching quality. What really counts is what happens after the assessments. Just as regularly checking your blood pressure does little to improve your health if you do nothing with the information gained, what matters most with formative assessments is how students and teachers use the results. Unfortunately, many educators today overlook this vital aspect of formative assessment. And by missing ‘the rest of the story,’ they fail to produce the most valuable benefits of the formative assessment process.

(Guskey, 2007, p. 28)