Playlist A: Getting Started in Formative Assessment

Introduction

This Getting Started in Formative Assessment Playlist supports communication with teachers about what formative assessment is, what it is not, and how teacher and student skills in formative assessment develop over time. Resources in this playlist communicate the idea that formative assessment is not a set of stand alone tools, strategies, or tests that teachers use, but instead is a daily process of inquiry that teachers and students do together to better understand the status of learning in the moment and how to move learning forward during lessons. When students use this process: analyzing evidence, giving and getting feedback from peers, and engaging their metacognition to sense where they are in their learning and plan next steps, the promise of formative assessment is realized. A range of resources explore the definition of formative assessment, outline typical misconceptions, and describe how formative assessment leads to shifts in the student and teacher roles and strengthens learner agency.


In addition to being able to communicate the vision of formative assessment, coaches must be familiar with, and be able to envision, the learning progression of both teachers and students as they adopt formative assessment practices. To support implementation, coaches (and leaders) will want to know how to anticipate changes in teachers’ mindsets, values and beliefs that often emerge as teachers apply new methods for engaging students in their own learning. This Getting Started Playlist includes resources that outline changes in teacher practice, and provide examples of teacher and student quotes that highlight educators’ reflections on these critical shifts in values and mindsets. These resources help coaches better anticipate, communicate, and support each stage of teacher learning.


Overview Of Playlist Topics

Develop a shared definition of formative assessment that is grounded in research

Formative assessment means many things to many people, and developing a shared definition involves understanding how teachers have come to adopt different definitions of formative assessment. Coaches need to know basic research on formative assessment, and how different conceptions have taken root in U.S. schools. As formative assessment is introduced, a first step for coaches is to ensure that teachers understand formative assessment as an ongoing process, and that the teacher’s role is to refine their instructional practices so that students, themselves, become the primary users of daily evidence of learning. The tools and resources in this section should be familiar to coaches in order to prepare for these first step conversations with teachers.

A-01. Defining Formative Assessment

Coaches have a role in helping teachers understand the definition as a process (not a shorter-cycle test or an exit-ticket) that involves new approaches to learning. Coaches can use this reading to explore the process of formative assessment, aligned with three key questions for teachers and students: Where am I going? Where to now? And Where to next?

A-01. Defining Formative Assessment.pdf

A-02. History of Formative Assessment definition

Teachers often begin new learning in formative assessment with a belief that they already know and do formative assessment. This brief audio clip offers a reflection on how multiple definitions emerged in U.S. schools, and offers hints for how to meet teachers where they are when definitional issues arise.

A-02. History of Formative Assessment definition.m4a

A-03. The Research Base of Formative Assessment

Coaches are often called on to describe the impact of formative assessment. The compelling research on formative assessment only applies when formative assessment is implemented as a process that involves both teachers and students. This blog post describes the process of formative assessment and highlights measures of impact found in foundational research studies.

A-03. The Research Base for Formative Assessment _ Getting Smart.pdf

Discussion Questions: What is emerging in your understanding of formative assessment? How is this the same or different from how you previously thought about formative assessment? What questions do you, or your teachers, still have about the definition or research base of formative assessment?

Understand formative assessment as a process through which students develop agency

The power of formative assessment is found in how it shifts to the student role. Through formative assessment, students learn the knowledge, skills and capabilities to understand how they are progressing in their learning (by analyzing their progress against the lesson success criteria), and how to advance their learning (by using feedback from peers and their teacher to take next steps to meet the lesson learning goal). In most classrooms, this involves a dramatic shift for both teachers and students. Coaches benefit from being able to describe these shifts in the student role, particularly how formative assessment supports students to develop skills of self-regulation and metacognition - which are foundational to learner agency.

A-04. Student Agency through Formative Assessment

For formative assessment to have an impact on student learning, students must learn how to interpret evidence of learning and apply it to move their learning forward. This one-page reading is a primer on how formative assessment strengthens learner agency and how other types of (summative) assessment can hinder its development.

A-04. Student Agency through Formative Assessment.pdf

A-05. Students talk about learning with formative assessment

Several teachers have shared with us that every time they watch these videos, they explore a new idea about how students learn in formative assessment. These video clips showcase how students articulate the power of formative assessment in their learning, and offer insights into how students value learning with and from peers and their perspective of a culture that promotes exploration and values emergent learning.

A-06. Teacher Reflections on Practicing Student-Driven Formative Assessment

A key skill set for coaches is to be able to listen to teachers in order to assess how teachers are applying formative assessment and what they are noticing about the impact of formative assessment on student learning. This blog post includes reflections from three teachers who describe how they adopted new mindsets about their own roles, and that of their students, as they adopted formative assessment.

A-06. Teacher Reflections on Practicing Student-Driven Formative Assessment.pdf

A-07. Building Blocks of Agency - Noticing How Students Learn to Learn

A commonly held misperception is that agency is a fixed characteristic, either a student has it, or does not have it. The opposite is true - agency can and must be taught. Modeling and explicit teaching of the building blocks of agency are central tenets in deeper learning and assessment for learning practices. These readings are best used in combination with one another to introduce the skills and mindsets necessary to support learner agency.

A-07. Building Blocks of Agency - Noticing How Students Learn to Learn.pdf

A-08. How Students Learn to Learn

A commonly held misperception is that agency is a fixed characteristic, either a student has it, or does not have it. The opposite is true - agency can and must be taught. Modeling and explicit teaching of the building blocks of agency are central tenets in deeper learning and assessment for learning practices. These readings are best used in combination with one another to introduce the skills and mindsets necessary to support learner agency.

A-09. Considering the Feedback Loop.pdf

Discussion Questions: What do you see as the value of developing student agency? What did you notice about the shift in the student role? How might these skills and mindsets be integrated into instructional routines to support increased student agency?

Formative Assessment as a Process: Teachers and Students Use the Feedback Loop

The formative assessment process as an inquiry cycle is inherently an iterative feedback loop, where each time students and teachers work through the cycle. For students to engage fully in learning using the formative assessment process, they must learn foundational formative assessment practices themselves (i.e., ways to share evidence of learning, how to use success criteria to interpret and make sense of their current learning status, how to self-assess and provide peer feedback). This shift, from teachers being responsible for how evidence is interpreted and used during learning, to students using evidence themselves, is (very often) an entirely new way for teachers to think about their role and the role of their students. Coaches have an essential role in helping teachers understand how to integrate the formative assessment feedback loop into daily lessons, and how to explicitly support students to engage in each stage of the formative assessment cycle.

A-09. Considering the Feedback Loop

A common teacher misconception is that formative assessment is applied as an overlay to existing instruction. This resource can be used by coaches to engage with teachers in dialogue about how to apply the feedback loop in their lessons, and to help teachers understand how students are engaged in learning throughout each lesson.

A-09. Considering the Feedback Loop.pdf

A-10. Students use the Feedback Loop

This blog offers an outline for one way to communicate the feedback loop process to students. In this example, secondary teachers describe how they introduced the feedback loop to students as a way to understand the cadence of online lessons and the instructional design to support students to engage in evidence of learning.

A-10. Students use the Formative Assessment Feedback Loop - Tulsa.pdf

A-11. Sharing feedback loop with students

In formative assessment, the processes of learning must be understood by both teachers and students. Coaches learn how to support teachers in making learning processes more visible, first with the teachers, and then later, with the students. Linked to the blog post in the row above, this video provides one idea for how to introduce the formative assessment process to students.

Discussion Questions: How might you apply the feedback loop into a lesson? What would need to change in an existing lesson plan to apply the feedback loop to a lesson? What are some ways you can imagine introducing the feedback loop to students?

Understand how teacher learning develops over time

Just as teachers benefit from having pedagogical content knowledge so that they can envision how learning progresses for their students, so too do coaches and leaders benefit from having expert knowledge about how teacher learning develops as they adopt formative assessment. Understanding how teacher learning emerges supports coaches (and leaders) to anticipate and more effectively respond to each stage of teacher learning. Coaches who have an appreciation for the typical teacher learning progression in formative assessment have shared that this has helped them gather more useful evidence of teacher learning, and offer more effective dialogue prompts, questions and hints to support teachers’ next steps in learning.

A-12. Coaching Guidance to Support Initial Stages of Learning in Formative Assessment

Coaches benefit from being able to anticipate the benefits and challenges of emergent teacher learning. This resource outlines coaching strategies to enliven early adoption by teachers and mitigate typical early-stage implementation challenges.

A-12. Coaching Guidance to Support Initial Stages of Teacher Learning in Formative Assessment.pdf

A-13. Teacher Stages of Development in Formative Assessment

This resource outlines how learning emerges, how instructional routines take shape, and how teachers’ mindsets, values, and beliefs develop as they move through these stages of learning. Understanding key characteristics of each stage strengthens coaches’ understanding of what to expect and how to respond at each stage of learning, which can increase the pace of teacher (and student) learning.

A-13. Teacher Stages of Development in Formative Assessment.pdf

A-14. Hilary Johannes’ Formative Assessment Learning Journey

This reading was written by a teacher who is four years into her journey of learning formative assessment. She explores the changes in her own role, the shifts in the classroom learning culture, and how students deepened their academic identity and learner agency. This has been a helpful professional learning resource for teachers who are just exploring what might change for their own practice, and for their students, through formative assessment.

A-14. Hilary Johannes’ Formative Assessment Learning Journey.pdf

Discussion Questions: What did you notice about the different stages of teacher adoption of formative assessment? How might you plan to hear from students to influence your own learning?

The coaches role: begin with supporting intentional noticing

When teachers are starting out in this work, a first step is to develop a daily practice of noticing. Because the heart of formative assessment is evidence that comes from what students say, do, make, or write, it is important to begin noticing what students say, do, make, and write. Coaches can help teachers to start paying attention to the many ways in which students share evidence of their learning during lessons, including how students reflect on the success criteria, share ideas with peers, and utilize feedback to move their learning forward.

A-15. Formative Assessment begins with Noticing

Noticing is a skill that takes discipline, and coaches have a key role in supporting teachers to notice. This one-page reading provides an introduction to the practice of daily noticing in classrooms and explores the importance of noticing while learning is underway.

A-15. Formative Assessment begins with Noticing.pdf

A-16. Excerpts from the article: Supporting Teacher Responsiveness by Bronwen Cowie

An early shift in formative assessment is for teachers to create visible learning opportunities so that learning can be observed. A second step involves learning new techniques for teachers to make sense of what they observed, and to respond effectively in the moment. These excerpts from an article written by Bronwen Cowie share a research perspective on the processes of teaching noticing and frames to direct teacher noticing.

A-16. Excerpts from the article_Supporting Teacher Responsiveness by Bronwen Cowie.pdf

A-17. Noticing Funds of Knowledge

In fall, 2020, New Zealand scholar, Bronwen Cowie, participated in an online Conversation Series about formative assessment, agency, and equity. In this video, she muses about noticing from a lens that includes daily learning, and then goes beyond to also include the curriculum and students’ funds of knowledge, referring to the knowledge, skills, and experiences that students bring to school with them from their families, communities, and cultures.

Discussion Questions: What is emerging in your understanding of noticing? How might you describe the value, benefit and importance of noticing to teachers or colleagues? How are you thinking about the connection between formative assessment and equity?

Supporting teachers’ emergent practice and addressing common misconceptions

As teachers are introduced to formative assessment coaches have two simultaneous roles. In the earliest stage, teachers need to know what formative assessment is, and that may not be easy due to the many misconceptions in the field. Coaches help teachers to understand the definition and principles of formative assessment and must feel comfortable to directly resolve teacher mis- conceptions during this time. As teachers develop a general understanding of what is possible, coaches play a role in helping teachers to develop a vision of what is possible for themselves and their students. The following resources can help teachers explore misunderstandings, resolve definitional issues, and deepen their knowledge of formative assessment as a process.

A-18. Addressing Early Stage Implementation Challenges in Formative Assessment

A primary role of academic coaches is to be able to articulate what formative assessment is and is not. This summary table outlines four common misconceptions and offers coaches strategies on what teachers might say, possible underlying issues, and strategies to resolve these typical issues. This resource provides helpful guidance to anticipate key misconceptions, and to be able to quickly resolve them as they arise.

A-18. Addressing Early Stage Implementation Challenges in Formative Assessment.pdf

A-19. Middle School Science Lesson Vignette

Vignettes of classroom practice help teachers understand how formative assessment practices infuse daily lessons. This science vignette outlines the specific teacher practices that are underway throughout the entire lesson, and captures highlights of how students engaged in dialogue and learning within those daily formative assessment routines that are established in this classroom.

A-19. Middle School Science Lesson Vignette.pdf

A-20. Formative Assessment as as Principle Driven Practice

Consider how formative assessment principles align with and support other district initiatives, and how it can support and enhance students’ disciplinary knowledge. Explore, for example, how formative assessment principles align with higher practice levels on teacher evaluation rubrics. The graphic below provides a “cheat sheet” on formative assessment principles.

A-20. Formative Assessment as as Principle Driven Practice.pdf

A-21. The Power of Teacher-to-Teacher Observations: A Formative Assessment Field Trip

Seeing is believing. In this blog, we learn about the value of teachers visiting a site that is further along in learning formative assessment, and the power this has to envision what is possible for students as they develop agency in their learning. Coaches can play a lead role in identifying high quality formative assessment practice, and in supporting colleagues to learn from these teachers and students.

A-21. The Power of Teacher-to-Teacher Observations_ A Formative Assessment Field Trip.pdf

A-22. The Fundamentals of Learning

This short reading supports work with teachers to think through the foundational contexts and practices that support successful formative assessment principles.

A-22. The Fundamentals of Learning.pdf

Discussion Questions: Are there any misunderstandings or misconceptions you can identify with the teachers you work with? How might you address those misconceptions?