FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT (Assessment for learning)

Teachers might also assess students' understanding in the following ways:
Have students write their understanding of vocabulary or concepts before and after
instruction.
Ask students to summarize the main ideas they've taken away from a lecture, discussion,
or assigned reading.
Have students complete a few problems or questions at the end of instruction and check
answers.
Interview students individually or in groups about their thinking as they solve problems.
Assign brief, in-class writing assignments (e.g., "Why is this person or event
representative of this time period in history?)
Additional sample strategies that teachers can use to gain information about how well their
students are learning are listed below.
White boards: Teachers ask students to respond to questions by writing the answer on the
boards. In addition, teachers could pose a multiple choice question and students write their
choice on the board.
Letter-cards: Each student is given a set of cards ranging from A-D, T, and F. The teacher poses
a question and students choose their answer and show the appropriate card. True/False questions
are also posed.
Talk-Time: The teacher poses a question and students answer it in pairs. The teacher walks
around the class as students are talking and gleans information this way.
Summarizing strategies: There many summarizing strategies that teachers can use to assess
student understanding within a lesson (Popham, 2008)
In addition to these classroom techniques, tests and homework can be used formatively if
teachers analyze where students are in their learning and provide specific, focused feedback
regarding performance and ways to improve it. Black and Wiliam (1998, Inside the Black Box)
make the following recommendations:
‣ Frequent short tests are better than infrequent long ones.
‣ New learning should be tested within about a week of first exposure.
‣ Be mindful of the quality of test items and work with other teachers and outside sources
to collect good ones
RECORD OBSERVATIONS
Teachers may record the data collected through formative assessment several times during the
unit so they can observe patterns in student progress towards mastering the standard(s). There are
many ways for teachers to record their observations from paper and pencil to technology based
(spreadsheets, data bases) so they can look for patterns in their students’ learning.
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