Assessment

More on Assessment:an in-depth look at formative

and reflective assessment

by Carrie Abood

The Purposes of Assessment

To diagnose students’ strengths and

weaknesses To monitor students’ progress To assign grades To determine the teacher’s

effectiveness

from Popham’s Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know

Traditional and Fundamental Roles of Assessment

The Purposes of Assessment

To influence public perceptions of

educational effectiveness To help evaluate teachers To improve instructional intentions

from Popham’s Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know

Three New Roles for Assessment in Today’s Education

Assessment “Rumors”

Rumor: assessment is all about test-giving Truth: test-giving is only one of many, many

ways to assess learning Rumor: assessment is always formal

Truth: insight about a student’s learning can be found anytime you look for it

Rumor: assessment is separate from curriculum

Truth: curriculum design and assessment should be closely tied to learning goals

from Tomlinson’s “Learning to Love Assessment”

Assessment “Rumors” con’t.

Rumor: assessment is “the end” for a teacher Truth: studying assessment (what worked,

what didn’t) is the beginning of better instruction

Rumor: assessment is about finding weaknesses

Truth: assessment can be used to also accentuate student positives

Rumor: assessment is only for the teacher Truth: assessment can be used to teach

students self-monitoring and self-modifying

from Tomlinson’s “Learning to Love Assessment”

Formative Assessment

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What is formative assessment?

“…a self-reflective process that intends to promote student attainment” -- Terry Crooks

“…the bidirectional process between teacher and student to

enhance, recognize and respond to the learning.” --

Cowie and Bell

“… a diagnostic use of assessment to provide feedback to teachers and

students over the course of instruction.” -- Carol Boston

“…assessments conductedduring learning to promote, not merely judge or grade, student

success.” -- Rick Stiggins


The Differences between Formative and

Summative Assessment

The results of summative assessments are used to make judgments on a student, measure program effectiveness,

or determine whether a school has made yearly progress.

Summative assessment is the assessment of learning.

Summative assessment typically documents how much learning has occurred at one point in time; its purpose is

to measure the level of a student, school, or program success.

from Chappuis and Chappuis, “The Best Value in Formative Assessment”

Formative Assessmentfrom Chappuis and Chappuis, “The Best Value in Formative Assessment”

The Differences between Formative and

Summative Assessment

On the other hand, formative assessment gives information during the process of instruction, before the

summative assessment.

Both the teacher and student use formative assessment results to make decisions about future learning.

Formative assessment is an ongoing process that involves more than frequent testing.

Formative assessment is the assessment for learning.


Why state assessments are summative


*The purpose of state assessments is to provide data to compare schools and districts.

*The results of state/standardized tests are communicated to teachers and students in ways that are difficult to interpret and understand.

*Results are often delivered several months after giving the tests.

*These types of tests cannot contribute much to the day-to-day instruction or help determine future learning goals of individual students.


Why state assessments are summative

Benchmark exams are often purchased by a school district in order to measure their school’s progress toward state or district goals. This type of assessment is NOT automatically formative. Why?

Although this type of state assessment is created for mid-year feedback, most administrators and teachers do not use the information formatively. Most teachers administer the benchmark, report the results, and continue on with previously planned instruction.


How does formative assessment support

learning?

Teachers can adapt instruction on the basis of evidence, making changes and improvements that will yield immediate benefits to student learning.

Students can use evidence of their current progress to actively manage and adjust their own

learning.


Formative assessment can be in many different forms. It

mainly consists of anything teachers do to help students

answer three questions:

Where am I going? Where am I now? How can I close the gap?


What does formative assessment look like in

the classroom?


Where am I going? Discuss with students their learning targets,

written in student-friendly language Show students strong and weak examples

of the type of performance or product they are expected to create

Use Rubrics!for rubric help: www.rubistar.org; www.rubrics.com


Where am I now? Administer a non-graded quiz partway

through the learning to help understandwho needs to work on what

Have students identify their own strengthsand weaknesses

Have students keep a list of the learninggoals and check off the ones they have mastered


How can I close the gap? Give students feedback Have students graph or describe their

progress on learning goals Ask students to comment on their progress:

What changes have you noticed? What iseasy that used to be hard?


More Examples of Formative Assessment in the Classroom Use classroom discussion

Ask students reflective, thought-provoking questions

Think-pair-share

Have students write their understanding of a concept before and after instruction

Ask students to summarize the main ideas they’ve taken away from a lecture or assigned reading

Interview students individually or in small groups

Assign brief, in-class writing assignments

Use portfolios or collections of student work

from Boston’s “The Concept of Formative Assessment”


What is Feedback?

Feedback offers descriptive information about the work a student is doing.

Feedback avoids marks or comments that judge or grade.

Effective feedback focuses on the intended learning, identifying both strengths and areas for improvement.

Feedback models the type of thinking students should engage in when they self-assess.


Examples of Feedback

“you have interpreted the bar graph correctly, but

you need to make sure the marks on the x and y axes

are placed at equal intervals.”

“the good stories we have been reading have a

beginning, middle, and end. I see that your story

has a beginning and a middle. Can you draw and

write an ending?”

“what you have written is an hypothesis because it is a proposed explanation. You can improve it by writing is as an

‘if…then…’ statement.”


Advantages of Formative Assessment The timeliness of results enables teachersto adjust instruction quickly, while learningis still in progress. The students who are assessed are the ones who benefit from the adjustments. The students can use the results to adjustand improve their own learning.

Formative Assessmentfrom Guskey’s “The Rest of the Story”

Using the Results of Formative AssessmentUsing formative assessments and giving feedback to students is very important, but equally important is what happens after the assessments. How will teachers and students use the results?

The answer: Teachers must plan and use corrective activities. Effective corrective activities give students an alternative pathway to learning success.

Corrective activities will present the concept differently, will engage the student differently, and will provide the student with a successful learning experience.


Types of Corrective Activities

Reteaching

Individual tutoring

Peer tutoring

Cooperative teams

Textbooks

Alternative textbooks

Alternative materials, study guide, workbooks

Academic games

Learning kits

Computer activities

Learning centers


What about the student who doesn’t

need corrective activities?On any given formative assessment, some students will demonstrate their mastery of a concept on the first try and will have no need for corrective activities.

Rather than sitting around and waiting for others to relearn, these students need enrichment activities.

Enrichment activities should not be busywork. Students should have some choice in selecting enrichments. Enrichment activities can include challenging academic games, various multimedia projects, and peer tutoring. Many teachers also turn to lessons designed for gifted students.

Reflective Assessment

What is reflective assessment?

Reflective assessment deals with metacognitive thinking and teaching.

Metacognition is a theory that states that learners benefit by thoughtfully and reflectively considering the things they are learning.

Metacognition is often referred to as “thinking about thinking”

from Ellis’ Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Together: The Reflective Classroom

Reflective Assessmentfrom Ellis’ Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Together: The Reflective

Classroom


Reflective assessments will ask students to do more than just repeat information. Reflective assessments want truth, meaning, purpose, and utility.

Reflective assessments will allow students to go deeper into the meaning of their learning. This type of assessment is created to help students figure out what has meaning and why.


Classroom


“If your classroom were to become a place where time is given to reflect, to think, and to analyze, how would it be different? What would happen is you decided to

“cover” less ground and spent more time treating a few selected issues in depth? To what extent do you

think you would be willing to turn over much of the responsibility for the assessment of academic

achievement and the quality of classroom life to your students? What would happen if you did?”

-- Arthur Ellis, p. 4


Classroom


Reflection is the vehicle for knowing to what extent connections are being made (notice the similarity to

formative assessment).

“Reflection, a quality so often missing in our hurry to ‘get things done,’ is like a ship’s compass. We need to turn to it regularly in order to ensure that we are steering the

true course.” Ellis, p. 32


Class 1: They excitedly entered the museum running. After some time, this same group came back to the front, still at high speed. They put

their coats on left the building. One child exclaimed that she saw every exhibit in the museum! Obviously, they were in a hurry, but they did

manage to “cover it all.”

Class 2: They and their teacher are in no hurry. They all gathered

around several exhibits of ancient pottery. Each child had a sketch

pad and pencil. They took careful drawings of what they viewed. This group of students did not manage to

see every exhibit at the museum.

A Field Trip to the Museum…

Which class is the reflective classroom?

“All experiences teach us something, but only experiences of

quality teach us something worthwhile.”



Perspectives on Reflective Thinking PracticesMetacognition: Through reflection, a student becomes aware of his own knowledge; he cannot monitor or regulate his own cognitive strategies if he is not aware of what those strategies are.

Problem Solving: John Dewey and Kitchener both proposed that individuals engage in reflection when they encounter problems with uncertain answers-when no authority figure has an answer, when they believe no one answer is correct, and when the solution cannot be derived by formal logic.

The Philosophical Mind: Reflective thinking requires continual evaluation of beliefs and assumptions against other interpretations. An individual engages in reflective thinking to "perceive the state of her own mind."

The Arts: The mind of the perceiver of art engages in reflective thinking.



Classroom

Reflective Assessment Strategies

Strategy ActivityI Learned Statements Statements of personal learning during

closure of lesson

Clear and Unclear Windows Students sort what is and is not clear at the time

The Week in Review Students assess the week’s activities

Pyramid Rehearsal through gradually increasing group size

Talk About It Articulate learning out loud to self or another

Learning Illustrated Translate understanding into visual representation


Classroom

Reflective Assessment Strategies, con’tStrategy Activity

Questioning Author Students construct questions about the content and skills

Post It Up Students post their understanding of the main point

I Can Teach Extending understanding through teaching

Thank You Specifically acknowledge the influence of another person

Parents on Board Invite parents to help

Get a Job Make a real world connection to an actual work experience

Works Cited

Boston, Carol. “The Concept of Formative Assessment.” Practical Assessment, Research, Evaluation, 8(9). 2002. Retrieved February 10, 2008 from http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=8&n=9 .

Chappuis, Stephen, and Jan Chappuis. “The Best Value in Formative Assessment.” Educational Leadership. Dec. 2007/Jan. 2008. Vol. 65 No. 4. 14-18.

Cowie, B., and B. Bell. “A Model of Formative Assessment in Science Education.” Assessment in Education. 1999. Vol. 6: 101-116.

Ellis, Arthur K. Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Together: The Reflective Classroom. New York: Eye on Education, 2001.

Guskey, Thomas R. “The Rest of the Story.” Educational Leadership. Dec. 2007/Jan. 2008. Vol. 65 No. 4. 28-35.

Popham, W. James. Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know. 3rd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2002.

Tomlinson, Carol Ann. “Learning to Love Assessment.” Educational Leadership. Dec. 2007/Jan. 2008. Vol. 65 No. 4. 8-13.

Assessment

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