Formative Assessment

For the New Generation of

Learners

What things ensure high

quality learning?

Story Telling Time:

Think of the most effectivelearning

experience in your life. This need not
necessarily be a learning experience in
an academic or school setting.It could,
for example, be a learning experience at
home or in a summer activity.
List some characteristics that you feel made
this a very effective learning experience.
Share your experience BRIEFLY with a partner.
As a group, discuss the characteristics you
have in common and write the top 5-8.

Pre-Assessment

Non-examples

Defnition
Examples

Essential
Characteristics
Formative
Assessmen
t

Essential Question

How can we START to use a

formative assessment system
to strategically and effectively
improve teacher
effectiveness and positively
impact student
achievement ?

Why Formative
Assessment?

New research shows that schools do

not make differences anymore.
Good teachers make up a good
school and thus deliver quality
education.
Good teachers assess formatively.

So, what teacher practice makes

the difference?

We concluded that the research

suggested that attention to the use
of assessment to inform instruction,
particularly at the classroom level, in
many cases effectively doubled the
speed of student learning.

(Black and William, 1998)

BUZZ
What are the implications of these
fndings on practice?
On hiring? On Pre-service(teacher
preparation) education? On
Professional Development?
On curriculum, instruction,
assessment?

What do we need to
develop?

Fixed vs. Growth Mindset

(GWECK, IN TOMLINSON AND SOUSA 2011)

we develop at a young age either

a fxed or a fluid mindset about
origins of ability and success.
Growt
h

Fixed

Fixed
VS
Growth
Minset

Respectful Learning Environment:

Differentiated Instruction

FA as Central Practice in Instruction

Instruction is not just about

transmission of information.
Instruction is both teaching and
learning.
I taught them, but did they really
learn? (Or, bahala na lang sila...?)

What is Formative Assessment?

Formative assessment

A Defnition of
Formative Assessment

An assessment functions formatively to the

extent that evidence about student
achievement is elicited, interpreted,
and used by teachers, learners, or their
peers to make decisions about the next
steps in instruction that are likely to be
better, or better founded, than the
decisions they would have made in the
absence of that evidence.
(William, 2011)

Formative does not refer to

the assessment itself, but to
the FUNCTION
that evidence from the
assessment serves.

Which of these are

formative?

Teachers carry out an item analysis of

Gr. 8 Math Quarterly Exams and use
the results to review their 7 th and 8th
grade curricula.

A school asks teachers to test students

quarterly to predict which students are
on course to pass a CEM
achievement test at the end of the SY.

The teacher assesses what students

know halfway through a unit through
a reflection paper and long quiz. She
returns the graded papers the day
before the unit test and announces
that they can use this as part of their
review for the unit test.
Students who fail the quiz have to
take a similar quiz the following week.

As seatwork, the teacher asks the

students to sketch the graph of y=2x+1
on their mini-white boards. Since many
students still got it wrong, she gives the
class more drills. They do a lot of
problems during this lesson and she gives
them more drills for homework. Since she
has already given them a lot of time to
practice, she announces a quiz the next
day.

A teacher gives a quiz on her unit on

simple machines. It is a non-graded
quiz. The teacher will check the quiz
and use the results to give
appropriate review class on the day
before the long test. The teacher has
actually left this day open for such
remedial activities.

When the cook tastes the soup it is

formative, when the guests taste the
soup it is summative.
~Bob Stake

A Formative Assessment System

Understanding
Formative Assessment

A Formative Assessment System

FEED UP

FEED UP

Where am I going?
Factors that motivate the students
Establishing the purpose of the
target
Jointly shared by both teacher and
student
Provision for learning progression

3 factors that shape/change

learners perceptions
1. Task claritywhen they clearly understand
the learning goal and know
how teachers will evaluate their learning.
2. Relevancewhen they think the learning
goals and assessments are
meaningful and worth learning.
3. Potential for successwhen they believe that
they can successfully learn
and meet the evaluative expectations.
(McTighe and OConnor, 2005, p. 15)

FEED UP: Establishing a Purpose

Learning Targets

I CAN explain what a learning purpose or

target is and its importance.

I CAN identify and write a clear learning

target and its success criteria.

I CAN explain what it means to establish

purpose.

I CAN understand and explain how to identify

learning targets that lead students to
develop HOTS or other mission-related goals.

Learning Targets

the knowledge, skills, and

understandings they will learn in
todays lesson
how they will demonstrate that
understanding
criteria indicating mastery of the
target LOOK FORS that students
can use to judge how close they are
to the target

Learning Targets

For both teacher and student to

aim for

For students to know and understand

In student-friendly language

For a days lesson ONLY

example

I CAN identify a sequence of events

(beginning, middle, end) in a story.

I CAN draw and write sentences

about these actions, using signal
words to indicate the sequence.

One learning purpose/target is enough

already for it covers content,
language, and social purpose.

CONTENT PURPOSE
What big idea and content will
be learned today?

Knowledge
Reasoning
Skills
Dispositions
Based on grade-level standards
Based on a LEARNING PROGRESSION

LANGUAGE PURPOSE

What they will do with the content?

write

draw
compute
etc.

Opportunity for students to try out the learning target and

apply their student lookfors.
Produces compelling evidence of understanding through what
they do, say, make or write.
Students conclude: If I can do this, then I will know that I have
reached my learning target.
Teacher concludes: If my students can do this, then I will have
strong evidence that theyve mastered the learning target.

SOCIAL PURPOSE

How they will work with

others to accomplish the
task?
as a group
as pair
A critical 21stcentury skill that can
and should be taught

Tips for Writing Learning Targets

NOT your class activity (ies), BUT the

understandings the students will gain on
that day

There are no simple rules: many formats

WALT (We are learning to)
WILF (What Im looking for)
plus
TIB (this is because)

Learning Progression

Why does todays lesson exist

between yesterdays lesson and
tomorrows?
How does it build on what came
before?
How does it prepare students for
what comes next?

Learning Progression

A series of steps or building blocks of

conceptual knowledge leading to
mastery of a big idea
A sequence along which students
can move incrementally from novice
to more expert performance
Helps teachers better plan and
adjust instruction
Is a plan for assessment

FEEDBACK

CHECKING FOR UNDERSTANDING

AND FEEDBACK

Reinforces the teachers active role in

the learning process
Involves the teachers sensitivity to
the needs of students which usually
are not expressed by the students
themselves
Enables the teacher to assess the
understanding of students and
conveys observations to the students

How to Check for Understanding?

Oral Language
Questioning
Retelling
Think-Pair-Share

Written Language
Summary Writing
Writing Prompts
RAFT

How to Check for Understanding?

Projects and Performances

Shadowing
Reiteration

Tests
Short Test
Self Corrected Quiz
Cloze/Maze Procedure recalling missing

words or phrases
Question and Answer Relationship

Question and Answer Relationship

Right there (Text explicit)
Think and Search (Text explicit)
Author and You (Text implicit)
On my own (Text implicit)

Feedback

Characteristics of Good Feedback

KIND
SPECIFIC
HELPFUL
ADDRESSES STRENGTHS AND AREAS FOR

IMPROVEMENT
A GOOD FEEDBACK PROVIDES

INFORMATION OR DATAVERSUS GOAL

WHICH YOU CAN USE TO IMPROVE:
POWERFUL, ROBUST, AND TIMELY

How do we give feedback to our

students?

Talk about some practices on giving

feedback and comment on why these
did or did not work effectively.

Feedback

NOT an ADVICE or GUIDANCE

How near or far am I from my

goal?

Students can and should be able to

learn how to critique their own work.

FEED FORWARD

FEED FORWARD

Where am I going next?

Improves ones understanding after
receiving feedback
Treats the students misconceptions
Provides opportunity to analyze
errors

Answer the handout/template on

differentiating formative and
summative assessment

Retelling

Retell to your small group the

process in the formative assessment
system and share how helpful is this
in the learning process.
What could be some challenges in
the implementation of this system in
our present context? What could we
do to improve and integrate
formative assessment in instruction?