What do we know about Formative Assessment?

With a partner: add ideas on sticky notes to poster

Formative Assessment

Formative vs Summative

Summative: The Autopsy

Formative: The Checkup

Formative Assessment

“Formative assessment is a planned process in which teachers or students use assessment-based evidence to adjust what they are currently doing.”

-W. James Popham Transformative Assessement

Characteristics of Formative Assessments

• They are assessments FOR learning, not assessments OF learning

• Designed to assist learning, not grading

• Make students’ thinking visible to themselves and to others

Key Features of Formative Assessment

Formative Assessment is a process not any particular test

Formative Assessment takes place during instruction

The function of this feedback is to help teachers and students make adjustments that will improve learning

Formative Assessment Continuum

Informal Unplanned Planned

Formal

On-the-Fly Planned-for-Interaction

Embedded-in-the-Curriculum

Formative Assessments:

1. Write-to-learn Prompts: RAFT

2. Effective Questioning: Fact First Questioning

3. Annotated Student Drawings

4. Graphic Organizers

5. Response Cards

6. Physical Response

7. Give One to Get One

8. Think, Pair, Share

9. I used to think…but now I know

10. Assessment Probes & Concept Cartoons

11. Exit Slip

1. Write-to-learn Prompts

RAFT• R= role• A= audience• F= format• T= topic

1. Write-to-learn Prompts

• Role: a tree• Audience: light• Format: text message• Topic: thanks for what you give me

1. Write-to-learn Prompts

OTHER PROMPTS• Admit Slips: Describe how sound waves travel.• Crystal Ball: What will we learn about today?• Exit Slips: The 3 best things you learned

today…

2. Fact First Questioning

1. State the Fact2. Why is X an example of Y?

EXAMPLESGlucose is a form of food for plants. Why is

glucose considered a food for plants?Sandstone is a sedimentary rock. Why is

sandstone considered a sedimentary rock?

3. Annotated Student Drawings

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=c3f70187a007859af892

4. Graphic Organizers

FRAYER MODEL CONCEPT MAPS

thinkingmaps.com

Formative Assessment

•Assessment for learning•Makes student thinking visible•Check for understanding

•For feedback not grading•Happens during learning•A process not a particular test

•Probes•Whiteboards•Clickers•Graphic organizers

•WASL•End of unit tests•SAT•GRE

5. RESPONSE CARDS

Response Cards: index cards, dry erase boards, magnet boards

Checking For Understanding--(Fisher & Frey, ASCD 2007.)

Audience Response Systems (ARS): clickers, eggs, responders, cell phones- technology based response systems

6. Physical Response

GET UP & MOVE• Human Scatterplots

• Four corners

• Sticky Bars

HAND SIGNALS– Thumbs– Fist to Five

Four Corners

• Show students a Friendly Talk, Concept Cartoon, Familiar Phenomenon, or Prediction probe

• Students go to a “corner” of the room based on their answer choice

• Students discuss answer choice with their common response group

Human Scatterplot

• Give students a formative assessment probe with 3-4 choices• Students create a scatterplot based on a answer choice (A, B,

or C) and confidence in answer.

A ++ ++++

B + ++

C ++++ +

Front of room

Confidence: Low to High

Sticky Bars

• Give students a probe with 3-5 forced choices• Students anonymously write answer choice on a sticky note• Create a bar graph of choices

a

a

a

a

b

cb

c

b

d

c

7. Give One to Get One

• This technique is best done when students are using science notebooks. The entire activity should be done with students in a standing position.

• Each student is asked to find a partner with whom he/she compares notes.

• The student takes a moment to identify the information they have in common.

Give One to Get One-Continued

• Each student identifies something he did not record but his partner did.

• This new information is then recorded in each student’s notebook.

• In effect, each student gives one and gets one.• Pairs can report to whole class regarding the

transaction.

8. Think, Pair, Share

Think-Pair-Share and Write-Pair-Share 1. Think or write about your answer individually. 2. Pair with a partner and discuss your answers. 3. Share your answer (or your partner’s answer) when called

upon.

9. REFLECTIVE PROMPTS

I USED TO THINK BUT NOW I KNOW

Formative Assessment Resources

• Science Formative Assessment: Keeley

• Checking for Understanding: Fisher + Frey

Formative Assessment Menu

Take 5 minutes: pick a strategy # 1-9 you will use

Share with a partner how you will use this strategy?

ANDWhat will you do with the information from

students?

10. Formative Assessment Probes & Concept Cartoons

• A probe is a purposefully designed question that reveals more than just an answer.

• A probe elicits a response that helps teachers identify students’ ideas about phenomena or a concept.

• Probes are also used to encourage thinking and sharing of ideas.

Developing Probes

Specific learning goal(s)

Commonly held ideas+

Assessment Probe

Three Probe Components

• Assessment Prompt

• Forced Choices

• Justification

Prompt

Forced Choice(s)

Justification

Types of Probes

• Justified List:– Determines how

students apply scientific ideas to a variety of objects or phenomena.

Types of Probes (continued)

• Prediction Probe– Asks students what they

think will happen in a familiar situation

Types of Probes (continued)

• Familiar Phenomena Probe– Elicit thinking about

relevant, everyday phenomena.

Types of Probes (continued)

• Friendly Talk Probe– Set in a context where

two or more individuals talk about their ideas of science concepts.

Can also be in the form of a Concept

Cartoon

Types of Probes (continued)

• Comparison Probe– Students are given

contrasting objects or processes to compare and are asked to select and justify which one matches the given statement.

Resources

National Science Education Standards

Science Curriculum Topic Study

Science Matters Science For All Americans Benchmarks for Science

Literacy Making Sense of

Secondary Science