Formative Assessment

Summarizing formative assessment

Over the past couple of weeks I read the following articles: What Are Formative Assessments and Why Should We Use Them?, Tech Based Formative Assessment, Dial Up Your Formative Assessment Technique, and Formative Assessment Techniques for 21st Century Learning.

Each article varied in the content, but they all dealt with how formative assessment should be used. Based on these articles and what I have seen in the classroom, formative assessment should be a part of instruction and/or should be used for learning. Formative assessment can provide student feedback on where they are at in their learning process. I've observed teachers using formative assessment in the middle of instruction and used it to either reinforce concepts or to review common errors or misunderstandings. I've also seen formative assessment used as warm ups or exit tickets. Students should also be given another opportunity after the initial formative assessment to show their progress. 

Teachers can also use formative assessment data as a way to help tier activities. For example, you could classify your formative assessment results into three groups. One group could be for those who are struggling with the concept(s) from the formative assessment. They could be given an activity that helps them break down and understand the concepts more. The second group could be the students who gave average results on their formative assessment. Their activity could be one of reinforcement of the tested concepts. The third group could be for those students who displayed a great understanding on what was being assessed. Their activity could involve building on what they know and potentially deal with more abstract concepts. 

Technology's role in formative assessments

Technology can be used to facilitate and enhance formative assessments. This website has a list of different technology tools that can be used for formative assessments. It has reviews and pros and cons of each tool. I've had experience with two of the tools on the list: Nearpod and Pear Deck. Both of them have similar features and allow formative assessment to be done during instruction. During one of my classroom observations, the teacher did his presentations through Nearpod. He would start off the presentation with a question to see where everyone's background knowledge was. He would then go through the answers in front of the class, making comments or adding something when appropriate. The teacher would continue the presentation. Throughout the presentation there would be questions, some requiring students to type an answer, others asking students to create a drawing. Either method was a way to assess how students were doing so far. 

I observed another teacher who like to use Quizlet Live and Quizziz. Quizlet Live was usually done together as a class. The kids were able to get up out of their seats and break into their groups to answer the questions. Quizlet Live would notify which questions were most missed at the end and so the teacher would go back and review those concepts. Quizziz was done on an individual basis. This teacher used a flipped classroom so once a student had finished certain class activities they might have to complete a quiz on Quizziz. This was not a graded quiz, but a way for both the teacher and the student to see where they were at. Once they reviewed the concepts they struggled with, they were given a different version of the quiz to see their progress. 

References

Burns, M. (2017, May 2). Tech Based Formative Assessment [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/tech-based-formative-assessment-monica-burns

Dodge, J. (n.d.). What Are Formative Assessments and Why Should We Use Them? Retrieved from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/what-are-formative-assessents-and-why-should-we-use-them/

 Payne-Lewis, J. (2016, March 11). Dial Up Your Formative Assessment Technique [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2016/03/11/formative-assessment-strategies

 Spector, J. M., Ifenthaler, D., Samspon, D., Yang, L., Makama, E., Warusavitarana, A., Lokuge Dona, K., Eichhorn, K., Fluck, A., Huang, R., Bridges, S., Lu, J., Ren, Y., Gui, X., Deneen, C.C., San Diego, J., & Gibson, D. C. (2016). Technology Enhanced Formative Assessment for 21st Century Learning. Educational Technology & Society, 19 (3), 58-71

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 15, 2018 at 12:00 PM

    I skipped over the articles at first, so I could continue reading your post, but then I found myself asking "what exactly are formative assessments?". In order to answer that question, it seems like I would have had to click on those links and leave your blog for the answer. Maybe instead of sending readers away from your blog for that info, you could include it up front and then only attach your resources at the end if they are interested in learning more?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownOctober 19, 2018 at 8:43 AM

      Robin- you make good points! Thanks for you feedback.

      Delete

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