Formative Assessment:Checking for Understanding by

All Students

Teachers F.I.R.S.T. Induction Series

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Outcomes• Educators will be able to explain the purpose of

formative assessment.

• Educators will be able to use a variety of strategies to collect formative data throughout a lesson.

• Educators will collect formative data and share how they used this data to inform instructional planning.

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How have you assessed student learning this week?

• Write down ways you have assessed student learning this week.

• Next, draw a line through any you have graded or plan to grade.

• What you are left with is assessments that are clearly meant to be formative. – Are you using them that way? – If any of the assignments you crossed out are meant to be

formative and provide you with information to adjust your instructional plan, what message are you sending to students if they are graded?

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What makes assessment formative?

• Formative

• INFORMative– Used to provide INFORMation to the educator

as to what students understand, do not understand, have misconceptions about, are confused by

– The educator uses this information to decide what to do next in the in-progress lesson, next lesson, etc.

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What makes assessment formative?

• Teachers collect a wide range of data so that they can modify the learning work for their students.– Lorna Earl, Assessment as Learning

• Formative assessment is not just an activity conducted once or twice in a lesson…It is a perpetual state of mind in which the educator views all student actions and activities in a lesson as an opportunity to gain insight into understanding.

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When in a lesson can we collect formative data?

• Framing the Learning/Introduction to the Lesson– Pre-assessment for the lesson– (Pre-assessment for the unit may take place

up to two weeks prior to the start of the unit)

• Student Acquisition of Learning– Modeling, inquiry task, lecture, reading, etc.

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When in a lesson can we collect formative data?

• Student Processing and Utilization of Learning– Writing, dialogue, projects, simulations, tasks,

etc.

• Student Summarization of Learning– Completes the frame of learning– Closure by the student

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What are some ways to collect formative data?

• Complete your mind map of ways you do or could collect formative data throughout the course of the lesson.

• Yours might begin like this…

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Mind Map: Formative Assessment

Student Processing & Utilization of

Learning

Student Acquisition of New Learning

Student Summarization

of Learning

Formative Assessment

KWL Chart

Framing the Learning/

Introduction

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Checking for Understanding by ALL Students

• Reflect back on your questioning this week...

• Have you asked the following:– Does anyone have any questions?– Everybody got it?

• Or have you asked specific questions of the whole class to come out with the information that a couple students who answered the questions understand?

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Checking for Understanding by ALL Students

• We all have done these things…many times!

• But this does not paint a clear picture of whether or not ALL students understand.

• Let’s fill your toolbox with some new ideas or revisit some you know about, but maybe haven’t used in a while.

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Strategies to Try

• Instructional strategies are only effective when the appropriate strategy is used at the appropriate time, with the appropriate students, and the appropriate content.

• If a strategy doesn’t work the first time, reflect, revise, and try again until you feel confident that it is working or is simply not right.

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Frame of Reference

• Use in pre-assessment, or as a strategy before, during, or after reading.

• Find this strategy in Why Didn’t I Learn This in College? by Paula Rutherford, page 78 (template is available on the book’s CD)

Topic

How do I know what I know about this topic?

Where or from whom did I learn what I know?

What do I know

about this topic?

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KWL or KWHL Chart

• May be used:– As pre-assessment– Following student acquisition of learning– To help focus student research, etc.

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Taken from http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/kwl.pdf

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Popsicle Sticks

• Provides a random sampling of student answers

• Use during whole class or small group Q & A

• Trick: always put students’ sticks back in the jar after using

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White Boards

• Provides an opportunity to see all students’ answers or work quickly

• Use during Q & A, individual, pair, or group work• Where to find cheap: dollar stores or bins, laminated file

folders, make at home improvement store

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Reading Your Students

• While not a strategy and perhaps impossible to measure, being able to read students’ faces and behaviors, can help the educator to be able to determine a need for processing time, discussion, or a sense of confusion.

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Safe, Effective Learning Environment

• It is also important to create a learning environment, in which students are respected by others, so that they feel comfortable asking questions and expressing confusion or uncertainty.

• Question box•Individual interactions with students•Signal cups

•Green = Going well•Yellow = Need some help •Red = Totally lost

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Exit Slips• To have students summarize their learning

• 3-2-1, 3-1-1, etc.– Example: 3 things you learned, 2 things you want to

learn more about , 1 question– Find this strategy and more ideas for stems in Why Didn’t I

Learn This in College? by Paula Rutherford, page 99 (template is available on the book’s CD)

• Inverted outcomes– The lesson’s stated outcomes (in student friendly

language) turned into questions or a problem task

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What to do with exit slips, etc…

• Sort into at least 3 piles– Got it– Have it for the most part, but there is a need

for some clarification, or remediation on a particular concept or objective

– Didn’t understand at all; in need of re-teaching

• Now that you are INFORMed, what will you do with this knowledge for tomorrow?

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How might you record this formative data?

• If you are using the information immediately to re-teach or clarify during a lesson, you may not record it.

• If you are using the information to adjust the next day’s lesson plan, it may be recorded as part of your lesson reflection or the next day’s lesson plan.

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How might you record this formative data?

• Notes on a clipboard or in the grade book, perhaps by objective or skill

• Notes on a note card or labels (one for each student)

• Other ideas?

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I’ve collected formative data: Now what?

• As you move through the lesson, gathering data about student understanding, how might this change your instruction for the remainder of the lesson?

• What about the next lesson?

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How will you use this information?

• For our next meeting on _____________.

• Or the next meeting with your mentor,

• Try a new method of collecting formative data. Bring your results and be prepared to share how you used the data to inform your instruction.

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Summarization of our Learning and Thinking

• Share one idea you learned today that will help you to meet Professional Educator Standard III, Key Element 7

-Communicates specific performance expectations and uses a variety of assessment strategies to plan, monitor and adjust instruction, and document student progress.

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Additional Tools and Strategies

• Video: Checking for Understanding– http://www.rbteach.com/rbteach2/Flash/VideoPlayer/S

treamer/Checking/checking_video.asp

• Mind Mapping– http://www.studygs.net/mapping/

• Research-based Techniques to Check for Student Understanding– http://www.christina.k12.de.us/LiteracyLinks/

elemresources/comprehension/techniques.pdf

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References

• Earl, L. (2003). Assessment as learning: Using classroom assessment to maximize student learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press Inc.

• KWHL chart. Retrieved from http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/kwl.pdf

• Rutherford, P. (2009). Why didn’t I learn this in college? Teaching & learning in the 21s century. Alexandria, VA: Just ASK Publications, Inc.