1. What is formative assessment?Formative assessment means not always giving students a grade. Ungraded or "comments only" responses to students' work can be an important part of formative assessment. This is especially true if the responses give students clear suggestions about how they can improve. High-quality formative assessment is the feedback students receive--timely, specific, and task-focused--from teachers or other adults, peers, or through structured self-assessment, not the absence of grades. High-quality formative assessment takes many forms, but it always: emphasizes the quality rather than the quantity of student work; prizes giving advice and guidance over giving grades; avoids comparing students in favor of enabling individual students to assess their own learning; fosters dialogues that explore understandings rather than lectures that present information; encourages multiple iterations of an assessment cycle, each focused on a few issues; and provides feedback that engenders motivation and leads to improvement.
2. What is the central purpose of formative assessment?
The central purpose of formative assessment is student learning. Formative assessment to help teachers respond effectively to students' learning needs. Research shows that formative assessment can be a powerful means of improving student achievement; it is assessment for learning, not assessment of learning.
3. Connect a best practice in formative assessment to one research-based strategy.
I think the research-based strategy that goes along with this article the best is "providing feedback." In this strategy the teacher provides feedback that improves learning and is responsive to specific aspects of student work. The feedback must also be timely. If students receive feedback no more than a day after a test or homework assignment has been turned in, it will increase the window of opportunity for learning. I think this goes along with the article because the feedback that the teacher gives should be timely, depending on the task given. High-quality formative assessment also provides enough detail to give students a clear idea of what, why, and how they are to proceed as they continue to work on an assignment.
4. Give an example of how a specific assessment can be used formatively and summatively.
Formative assessment occurs during the learning process while summative happens at the end, but formative assessment is equally objective. The difference lies in how evaluative instruments are used. 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.
5. Give an example from your field placement related to formative assessment and timing.
In my clinical placement, the writing assessment is coming up in the next week, so the teacher has been giving them a prompt and they have to write a story about it. She gives them ample time to come up with their "sloppy copy" and then they bring it back to her and she gives them feedback while they are standing there. They then will then write their final draft and fix anything that needs to be fixed.
6. What are some strategies to help formative assessment be more effective when providing students with feedback?
General praise about students' innate qualities or talents is not as helpful as careful attention to specific areas of strength in the work. For example, instead of saying "You are a great writer," a teacher who uses high-quality formative assessment will say "You used transitions very effectively in this middle section. See if you can do the same thing in the last section of the paper." High quality formative assessment provides enough detail to give students a clear idea of what, why, and how they are to proceed as they continue to work on an assignment. However, such elaboration needs to be offered in manageable chunks so that students are not overwhelmed.
7. Name two advantages to high quality formative assessment.
For teachers, formative assessment helps identify students who are struggling with particular tasks or operating under misconceptions. This, in turn, can lead to improved instruction that addresses student learning. Formative assessment also fosters student motivation, on-task behavior, and self awareness. Accordingly, teachers can begin to see students as partners who are able to take more responsibility for their own learning. For students, formative assessment offers increased feelings of confidence and control. Students who experience high-quality formative assessment are more likely to transfer learning from one class to another because they understand the given area thoroughly and can relate new learning to what they already know. In addition formative assessment encourages students to engage in more complex thinking and problem solving and to hold higher expectations for their own learning. It can help students to spend more time on challenging tasks, develop an ability to assess their own work, and become effective evaluators of the work of their peers.
8. What are some challenges to implementing high quality formative assessment?
From a policy perspective, the greatest challenge is to distinguish between high-quality formative assessment and assessment that is under-conceptualized or not fully developed. Another policy challenge is to develop mechanisms of support for teachers who employ high-quality formative assessment in their classrooms.
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