Rick Wormeli, author of Fair Isn’t Always Equal and Differentiation, explains the difference between the two and how formative assessment helps you offer better feedback to your students.
Click here to watch video (4:48 minutes) Rick Wormeli: Formative and Summative Assessment
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Stenhouse Publishers]. (2010, Nov. 30). Rick Wormelli:Formative and Summative Assessment. [Video File]. Retrieved from youtu.be/rJxFXjfB_B4Type your textbox content here.
Assessment for learning has been defined as:
The process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there.
Assessment for Learning: 10 Principles by the Assessment Reform Group, 2002, available from aaia.org.uk.
Click here to watch a video from Engage NY (2:36 minutes) The Teacher provides feedback during and after instruction
- The teacher’s feedback to students is timely and based on high quality questions. The feedback helps guide students to a deeper understanding of the material and allows them to use that understanding to develop alternate solutions.
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The following key characteristics identify assessment for learning in practice.
Assessment for learning
- is embedded in a view of teaching and learning.
- involves sharing learning goals with students.
- aims to help students to know and recognize the standards that they are aiming for.
- involves students in peer and self-assessment.
- provides feedback, which leads to students recognizing their next steps and how to take them.
- involves both teacher and student in reviewing and reflecting on assessment data.
- is underpinned by confidence that every student can improve.
How might we use Assessment for Learning?
Key Characteristics of Assessment for Learning and Teaching Strategies
Sharing learning objectives with students
- Share learning objectives at the beginning of the lesson and, where appropriate, during the lesson, in language that students can understand.
- Use these objectives as the basis for questioning and feedback during class discussions.
- Evaluate this feedback in relation to the achievement of the learning objectives to inform the next stages of planning.
Click here to watch Engage NY video (2:10 minutes) where the teacher communicates expectations for learning.
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Helping students to know and recognize the standards they are aiming for.
- Show students work that has met the criteria with explanations of why
- Give students clear success criteria and then relate them to the learning objectives
- Model what it should look like, for example, exemplify good writing on the board
- Ensure that there are clear, shared expectations about the presentation of work
- Provide displays of students’ work which show work in progress as well as finished products
Click here to watch the Engage NY video (1:16 minutes) Teacher communicates expectations for learning
key vocabulary.
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Involving students in peer and self-assessment
- Give students clear opportunities to talk about what they have learned and what they have found difficult, using the learning objectives as a focus
- Encourage students to work/discuss together, focusing on how to improve
- Ask students to explain their thinking: ‘How did you get that answer?’
- Give time for students to reflect upon their learning
- Identify with students the next steps in learning
Click here to watch this Video from Engage NY (3:18 minutes). The teacher uses formative assessment to monitor and adjust pacing
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Providing feedback that leads students to recognize their next steps and how to take them.
- Value oral as well as written feedback.
- Ensure feedback is constructive as well as positive, identifying what the student has done well, what needs to be done to improve, and how to do it.
- Identify the next steps for groups and individuals as appropriate.
Click here to watch Engage NY video (2:17 minutes) where the teacher provides feedback to students.
granite.pressbooks.pub/teachingdiverselearners/?p=276
Promoting confidence that every student can improve.
- Identify small steps to enable students to see their progress, thus building confidence and self-esteem.
- Encourage students to explain their thinking and reasoning within a secure classroom ethos.
Involving both teacher and student in reviewing and reflecting on assessment information.
- Reflect with students on their work, for example through a storyboard of steps taken during an investigation.
- Choose appropriate tasks to provide quality information (with emphasis on process, not just the correct answer).
- Provide time for students to reflect on what they have learned and understood, and to identify where they still have difficulties.
- Adjust planning, evaluate effectiveness of task, resources, etc. as a result of assessment.
