Going from Formative Assessment to Informative Assessment

Facilitator: Dr. Bruce Ellis (@DrBruceEllis) | http://bit.ly/LLinformativeassessment

Session Description: Learn how to get the most of your formative assessment to better inform your teaching and student learning. We'll also discuss how to have students participate and begin managing their own learning.

What is formative Assessment?

The Glossary of Education Reform defines formative assessment as "a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course. Formative assessments help teachers identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or learning standards they have not yet achieved so that adjustments can be made to lessons, instructional techniques, and academic support."

research

What we know:

Formative assessment makes a positive impact on student academic achievement
Explicitly stated learning intentions and assessment criteria positively improve student learning outcomes
Students should be involved in the defining and developing of scoring rubrics for projects and performances
A variety of formative assessment strategies are good (self-assessment, peer-assessment, teacher feedback,
In order for teachers to do formative assessment well, they need to know/understand:
- - their subject well,
  - good pedagogy,
  - good assessment techniques, and
  - students' previous learning.

Taking formative to informative!

Good: Teacher conducts frequent formative assessment checks. Teacher uses the data to guide the teaching and learning process.

Better: Teacher uses rubrics to help students evaluate their progress at any time. Teacher conducts frequent formative assessment checks. Teacher uses the data to guide the teaching and learning process.

Best: Teacher uses rubrics to help students evaluate their progress at any time. Students periodically peer-assess each other using rubrics. Teacher conducts frequent formative assessment checks. Teacher AND STUDENTS use the data to guide the teaching and learning process.

steps forward

Putting it into practice...

Go to one of the following sites and choose a formative assessment.

Think about how students can reflect on their assessment either individually or with another student to make it become informative. Be ready to share out!