Question or Topic: 

We would like some help creating formative assessments to better understand the concepts before we design our enrichment and our remediation.

Shared Discussion:

• What is working with your currently formative assessments and what is not?

  • Questions are working, it’s just taking us too long

• What do your formative assessments look like?

  • Used GoFormative, Google Forms, usually multiple choice questions

  • How are they laid out / what types of questions are you asking (levels of Blooms / types of questions [MC, matching, fill in the blank/closed recall questions/open-ended questions/application])?

• What data are you bringing to the table as a PLC to discuss who understands it and should be enriched, and who doesn’t, and who would benefit from remediation?

  • Last unit it was data pulled from GoFormative, quickly identified who got it and who didn’t

• Are the students ever asked to reflect on their assessments to learn from their mistakes?

What:

Effective formative assessment involves collecting evidence about how student learning is progressing during the course of instruction so that necessary instructional adjustments can be made to close the gap between students' current understanding and the desired goals.

TYPES OF FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

• Observations during in-class activities; of students non-verbal feedback during lecture

• Homework exercises as review for exams and class discussions)

• Reflections journals that are reviewed periodically during the semester

• Question and answer sessions, both formal—planned and informal—spontaneous

• Conferences between the instructor and student at various points in the semester

• In-class activities where students informally present their results

• Student feedback collected by periodically answering specific question about the instruction and their self-evaluation of performance and progress

Why:

Formative assessment provides feedback and information during the instructional process, while learning is taking place, and while learning is occurring. Formative assessment measures student progress but it can also assess your own progress as an instructor. For example, when implementing a new activity in class, you can, through observation and/or surveying the students, determine whether or not the activity should be used again (or modified). A primary focus of formative assessment is to identify areas that may need improvement.

How/Resources:

• 7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment - Edutopia

• 8 Quick Checks for Understanding - Edutopia

• Five Keys to Comprehensive Assessment - Edutopia