ASSESSMENT BEFORE

INSTRUCTION & INFORMAL

ASSESSMENT (FORMATIVE)

Before School Begins Determine if any students will be served

under an IEP Look at Standardized Test Scores from

Previous yearDetermine Major areas of skill deficits

Look at School Records or Speak w/ Counselor if concerned about comments made by previous teacher(s)

Before Instruction Determine if student have content

knowledge/skills to handle new materialSchool Records

○ Previous Assessments○ Prior Learning Inventory (Ex)

Discussion w/ students (all grades)KWL (all grades)Self Assessment Inventory (must be able to

read)Observation of student during early skill

exposure (all grades)Small Paper Pencil Assessment : 10 items or

less (grade 4 and up only!)

Before Instruction Do you have students who are farther

behind than others? What are the implications of individual

differences among students?

Informal Assessment A formative type of assessment Widely used each & every day in every

type of classroom setting Very adaptable & efficient Can be planned & developed quickly Can be used to Monitor, Gauge, &

Follow-up

Informal Assessment

Informal Assessment Teacher Observation

Watching &/or listening to students as they perform some activity or judging material they have produced (Airasian, 2000)

Primary tool for assessing learning & instruction○ Often underutilized (Johnson & Johnson,

2002)

Informal Assessment Characteristics of Observation

(Oosterhof 1999 & 2000)Many events in the classroom are observed

either simultaneously or in very quick succession

Classroom observations often become focused on one event

Teachers should depend on observations of students

Realize that most events that go on in the classroom go unnoticed

Informal Assessment Characteristics of Observation

Observations are quickly forgotten & distorted when recalled

Observations often require inferences, which may be erroneous

Informal Assessment Observation provides data pertaining to the:

Quality of student performanceProcesses & procedures students use to complete

assignmentsProcesses & procedures teachers use in providing

instruction

Informal Assessment Side note on Listening

Levels of Listening○ Ignoring other people○ Pretending ○ Selective ○ Attentive listening

Non-verbal Communication 93% of what is communicated in a

message is non-verbal in nature and is often more important than what is said (Mehrabin 1981

Informal Assessment Body Language

• Body language creates and informs you of emotional and physical reactions to the world.

• Can be very different depending on the culture, race, SES, & age of the students

• Ekman & Friesen (1969) developed the definitions for the 5 categories of body language

Informal Assessment Body Language

• Emblemo 1 or 2 word verbal command

• Illustratoro Increase clarity

• Affect Displayo Show emotion through position

• Regulatoro Indication of initiation, length and termination

of verbal message

• Adaptero Attitude, anxiety, or level of confidence

Informal Assessment

Facial ExpressionThe face can be used to supplement verbal

communication. In addition, the face can be used to

complement verbal communicationFacial gestures communicate information on

their own The face can serve as a regulatory function

to modulate the pace of a verbal exchange by providing turn taking cues.

Informal Assessment

Facial ExpressionFacial gestures communicate information on

their own ○ Ex: Facial shrug to express “I don’t know” to a

posed questionThe face can serve as a regulatory function

to modulate the pace of a verbal exchange by providing turn taking cues.