Fostering High-Quality Formative Assessment

What is formative assessment?

Formative assessment is constantly throughout a lesson being taught.  “It is feedback students receive-timely, specific, and task-focused-from teachers or other adults, peers, or through structured self-assessment.” 

What is the CENTRAL purpose of formative assessment?

The central purpose of formative assessment is the students learning.  Giving formative assessments throughout the lesson can help the teachers see what material the students are getting and what they need to re-teach.  Formative assessments assure that students are learning the objectives of the lesson. 

Connect a best practice in formative assessment to one research-based strategy.

One research-based strategy that connects to formative assessment is “Providing Feedback”.  The research-based strategy says, “When feedback is corrective in nature—that is, it explains where and why students have made errors--significant increases in student learning occur (Lysakowski & Walberg, 1981, 1982; Walberg, 1999; Tennenbaum & Goldring, 1989)”.  

Give an example of how a specific assessment can be used formatively and summatively.

One example of how a specific assessment can be used as a formative and summative assessment is a rubric.  “For example, a rubric that lists criteria for evaluating writing can be used formatively to help students understand what is expected and summatively to assign a grade”. 

Give an example from your field placement related to formative assessment and timing.

Students take a pre and post spelling test at the beginning of each week.  The pre test would be a formative assessment and students are given feedback very quickly on how they have done.  I don’t really see any sort of formative assessment, other than pre test, that are being done in the classroom. 

What are some strategies to help formative assessment be more effective when providing students with feedback?

Focus on the task rather than the student; tell the students how they are doing on the task at hand.  Focus attention to specific areas of strength in the work.  Formative assessment should provide detail to students so they can have a clear idea of how they are to proceed on their assignment. 

Name two advantages to high quality formative assessment.

One advantage of formative assessment is that students feel more confident and in control of their own learning.  Students can relate what they are learning to different concepts across the curriculum.  Another advantage of formative assessment is that it “encourages students to engage in more complex thinking and problem solving and to hold higher expectations for their learning”. 

What are some challenges to implementing high quality formative assessment?

One challenge of implementing formative assessment is distinguishing between high-quality formative assessment and assessment.  Teachers need to recognize the need for varying assessment to the difficulty of the task and the students’ different abilities.  “Another policy challenge is to develop mechanisms of support for teachers who employ high-quality formative assessment in their classrooms”.