ASSESSMENT:

FORMATIVE & SUMMATIVE

Practices for the Classroom

Think About It! Group Activity with Graphic Organizer

What is the difference between assessing and grading?

What is assessment?

Assessment for learning is best described as a process by which assessment information is used by teachers to adjust their teaching strategies, and by students to adjust their learning strategies.

Assessment, teaching and learning are closely linked, as each informs the others.

Assessment is a powerful process that can either optimize or repress learning, depending on how it’s applied.

Planned and Communicated

Assessment for learning should be built into teachers’ planning as a part of everyday classroom practice.

Learning goals, teaching strategies and assessment criteria should be carefully matched. Students should know in advance what they will learn, as well as how and why they are to be assessed. Teachers’ plans should be flexible so that they can make changes in response to new information, opportunities or insights.

Planned and Communicated

The planning needs to include strategies to check students’ understanding of the goals they are pursuing and the criteria that will be applied in assessing their work.

How students will receive feedback, how they will take part in assessing their learning and how they will be helped to make further progress should also be planned.

A teacher’s planning should provide opportunities for both student and teacher to obtain information about progress towards learning goals, and use it to direct the learning process.

Your Turn!

As you view the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxAXJEK--qk , take notes on how the teacher gathers, interprets, and uses information to guide the learning of the students.

What was the objective? How does the teacher know if the students achieved it?

Assess the teacher’s behaviors in regards to the planning, execution, and monitoring of the lesson.

Assessment in education is the process of gathering, interpreting, recording, and using information about pupils’ responses to an educational task. (Harlen, Gipps, Broadfoot, Nuttal,1992)

Watch this video and take some notes on the differences between formative and summative assessment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0nSW3W4MW0

BALANCED CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT SYSTEM

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

A process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to help students improve their achievement of intended instructional outcomes.

A tool used after instruction to measure student achievement which provides evidence of student competence or program effectiveness.

FORMATIVE SUMMATIVE

•Occurs During Instruction•Not Graded•Process•Descriptive Feedback•Continuous

•Occurs at the end•Graded•Product•Evaluative Feedback•Periodic

COMPARISON OF ASSESSMENTS

Possible Assessment Methods

Formative Assessment includes

Questions Classroom Discussions Learning Activities Feedback Conferences Interviews Student Self-Assessment

Summative Assessment

Selected ResponseMultiple ChoiceTrue/FalseMatchingFill-in

Extended Written Response Performance Assessment

Formative and summative assessment are interconnected. They seldom stand alone in construction or effect.

The vast majority of genuine formative assessment is informal, with interactive and timely feedback and response.

It is widely and empirically argued that formative assessment has the greatest impact on learning and achievement.

1. Teachers value and believe in students.2. Sharing learning goals with the students.3. Involving students in self-assessment.4. Providing feedback that helps students

recognize their next steps and how to take them.

5. Being confident that every student can improve.

6. Providing students with examples of what we expect from them.

Values and Attitudes about Assessment

Formative Assessment

Assessment for learningTaken at varying intervals throughout a

course to provide information and feedback that will help improve the quality of student learning the quality of the course itself

“…learner-centered, teacher-directed, mutually beneficial, formative, context-specific, ongoing, and firmly rooted in good practice" (Angelo and Cross, 1993).

Provides information on what an individual student needsTo practiceTo have re-taughtTo learn next

1. The identification by teachers & learners of learning goals, intentions or outcomes and criteria for achieving these.

2. Rich conversations between teachers & students that continually build and go deeper.

3. The provision of effective, timely feedback to enable students to advance their learning.

4. The active involvement of students in their own learning.

5. Teachers responding to identified learning needs and strengths by modifying their teaching approach(es).

Black & Wiliam, 1998

Key Elements of Formative Assessment

Summative Assessment

Assessment of learningGenerally taken by students at the end of a unit

or semester to demonstrate the "sum" of what they have or have not learned.

Summative assessment methods are the most traditional way of evaluating student work.

"Good summative assessments--tests and other graded evaluations--must be demonstrably reliable, valid, and free of bias (= prejudices)" (Angelo and Cross, 1993).

Which of these quotes belong to formative and which to summative?‘… often means no more than that the assessment is carried out frequently and is planned at the same time as teaching.’ (Black and Wiliam, 1999)

‘… looks at past achievements … adds procedures or tests to existing work ... involves only marking and feedback grades to student … is separated from teaching … is carried out at intervals when achievement has to be summarized and reported.’ (Harlen, 1998)

o ‘… provides feedback which leads to students recognizing the (learning) gap and closing it … it is forward looking …’ (Harlen, 1998)

‘… is used essentially to feed back into the teaching and learning process.’ (Tunstall and Gipps, 1996)

‘ … includes both feedback and self-monitoring.’ (Sadler, 1989)

‘…assessment (that) has increasingly been used to sum up learning…’(Black and Wiliam, 1999)

Formative

‘… often means no more than that the assessment is carried out frequently and is planned at the same time as teaching.’ (Black and Wiliam, 1999)

‘… provides feedback which leads to students recognizing the (learning) gap and closing it … it is forward looking …’ (Harlen, 1998)

‘ … includes both feedback and self-monitoring.’ (Sadler, 1989)

‘… is used essentially to feed back into the teaching and learning process.’ (Tunstall and Gipps, 1996)

Summative

‘…assessment (that) has increasingly been used to sum up learning…’(Black and Wiliam, 1999)

‘… looks at past achievements … adds procedures or tests to existing work ... involves only marking and feedback grades to student … is separated from teaching … is carried out at intervals when achievement has to be summarized and reported.’ (Harlen, 1998)

If we think of our children as plants …

Summative assessment of the plants is the process of

simply measuring them. It might be interesting to

compare and analyze measurements but, in themselves,

these do not affect the growth of the plants.

Formative assessment, on the other hand, is the

equivalent of feeding and watering the plants appropriate

to their needs - directly affecting their growth.

The Garden Analogy

Self-evaluation

Where would you place your assessment practice on the

following continuum?

The main focus is on:

Quantity of work/Presentation Quality of learning

Marking/Grading

Comparing students

Advice for improvement

Identifying individual

progress

Forms of Summative Assessment

Performance AssessmentPortfolioTraditional TestsEnd of Grade/End of Course Tests

ClosureHow has the information shared today

changed your views/thoughts about assessment?

What questions do you still have regarding assessment?

Do you feel confident that you can add the assessment (s) to your lesson plan to increase effectiveness and assist students in mastery of the intended objectives?