Formative Approaches for Assessment and Feedback

Sharing the learning focus with students allows them to identify what
Learning learning is expected from them within that lesson and how it fits into
objectives/outcomes the larger sequence of teaching. Think about how you word learning
objectives; are they for you or to share with the students?
Success criteria should make it clear what a student is expected to do,
explain, create, etc. to demonstrate they have achieved the expected
learning objective for that lesson. Consider the key aspects you would
Success criteria
be looking for and avoid having too many success criteria. Again, share
them with students as it will clarify what is expected of them and enable
them to self or peer assess.
These are different to success criteria as they focus more on a
procedural process or expected features. For example, a writing
checklist identifying the features of a newspaper report, or a checklist
Checklists
identifying the features of an effective group presentation. These can
be tailored to any task. However, as with success criteria, avoid having
too many things on a checklist.
This approach can take many forms from a simple smiley face to show
confidence to a checklist as described above. In order for students to
assess their own work effectively, they have to understand what is
Self-assessment
expected and what they are looking for. Therefore, as previously
mentioned, share learning objectives/outcomes and success criteria
with them in a form they can understand.
Getting students to assess each other’s work and provide feedback
provides a great opportunity for the students to take some ownership
over the assessment process. It also allows them to gain a better
understanding of what is expected of them as well as developing skills
such as evaluation, critique and providing constructive feedback.
Peer assessment Depending on the task and context, peer assessment can take many
different forms such as, open discussions, written or one-to-one
feedback. It can also be anonymous if needed.
A key point to remember when using peer assessment it to ensure that
the students understand the purpose of peer assessment and what is
expected of them both in terms of the learning but also how to provide
appropriate feedback.
Peer teaching is not only an effective method for consolidating and
reinforcing learning but it also provides an excellent opportunity for
formative assessment. However when setting peer teaching tasks,
ensure that the expectations are clear not just on what is being taught
Peer teaching
but also how a student should approach the teaching of it. Remember
that students are not trained teachers and will need to be taught how
to respond when a peer they are teaching is struggling to access a
concept.
Questioning is one of the most powerful assessment tools in a teacher’s
repertoire. By adapting and targeting questions, it enables the teacher
to gain a deep and detailed insight of a student’s current level of
Verbal questioning
understanding and knowledge.
We will explore the use of questioning, in particular Bloom’s Taxonomy,
in the next step.
Tests are usually viewed as summative assessment. However, as Prof.
Tests/quizzes John Hattie states, the type of assessment is simply dependent on when
it is done and what you do with the information. Therefore, using the
 Formative Approaches for Assessment and Feedback

results of an initial test or quiz to identify misconceptions or gaps in

knowledge can be a very useful tool in guiding the resultant teaching
sequence.
This can be an effective assessment approach. However, when
providing written feedback, remember it is to enable the students to
make progress. Therefore, it needs to be written in a way the students
can access and sufficient time provided for them to read and respond.
Also, from a workload perspective, being selective about where in-depth
Marking and written written feedback is given prevents it from quickly become an
feedback unmanageable task.
Many schools are now using ‘Live marking’, where written feedback is
provided during the lesson to some, not all, students. This means that
not only can the student actively respond to the feedback within the
lesson but it also reduces the marking for the teacher at the end.

Verbal feedback can occur between many different people within a

classroom, from the teacher feeding back to a student; the student
explaining to the teacher or between peers.
However, irrespective of who the dialogue is between, for verbal
Verbal feedback feedback to be effective, it should be clear, explicit and appropriate for
the age of the student.
When feeding back to students, it may be an idea to ask them to repeat
back what they have to do, as this will allow you to check they have
understood.
Take time within your lessons to watch your students. How are they
engaging with the task and each other? However, do not assume that
because a student is on task and working they are learning. Look closely
Observation of learning
at what they are doing or producing. You may wish to combine this
approach with your own checklist to help focus and guide your
observations.
Investigations provide opportunities for the students to demonstrate
their ability to apply the skills and knowledge they have gained in
context. They can be open-ended, allowing the students to guide where
Investigations the investigation goes or have very specific goals. Therefore, when
designing an investigation, consider what learning you want to assess
and how the structure and aims of the investigation will allow the
students to demonstrate it.
Cold tasks involve the students completing a set task related to the
learning sequence before any teaching has taken place. For example,
writing a diary or building something in design and technology. They
are used to assess student’s initial level of understanding or knowledge
Cold tasks
in order to guide the teaching that follows. At the end of the teaching
sequence, the students repeat the same task, this time referred to as a
‘hot task’. The results of the ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ tasks are compared to
allow the progress and achievement of that student to be assessed.