Formative AssessmentEDU 300 | Newberry College | Jennifer Morrison

Formative Assessment

• What are your questions before, during, and after instruction?

• What’s the difference between a formal and informal assessment? A formative and summative assessment?

• What are some formative strategies you can used to answer your important questions?

Lesson 2 Focus Questions

• What defines a formative assessment? • What is the function of teachers’ questions? • What are your questions before, during, and

after instruction? • How can summative assessments be used

formatively?• What are some formative strategies you can

used to answer your important questions?

Teacher Questions

What do you ask… Before you begin an

instructional unit? During an instructional unit? After an instructional unit (but before

the summative assessment)?

Effective teachers ask questions. Data are the answers to our questions. We design assessments to get the data we and our students need in order to progress.

What’s the Def?

Formal

Informal

• Assessment that is pre-designed like a survey, quiz, performance assessment, etc. (assessment has been written)

• Generally, the teacher has already decided and shares what a successful performance looks like in terms of points or a rubric.

• Assessment that may be pre-planned but student response or product is uncertain and/or little formal preparation is needed to conduct the assessment (answers to teacher questions, voting, post-it responses, etc.)

• Generally, the teacher has little preconceived idea what the response or product will be.

What’s the Def?

Summative

Formative

• Assessment administered at the end of a lesson or unit

• Used to evaluate learning

• Assessment administered during a lesson or unit

• Used to inform learning by the teacher and/or students

Formative Assessment

Formative assessments can be…formal informal structured or unstructured,depending on what data is needed(i.e., depending on what questions are being asked).

Any assessment can be used in a formative manner.

Formative assessment is…• A planned instructional strategy.• A habit of mind. • The foundation of a learning-oriented, student-

centered classroom.

Formal Informal

Formative Assessment

Summative Assessment

50 “Quick And Dirty” Formative Strategies

The point of this jigsaw activity is for you to quickly and collaboratively gain knowledge of

the 50+ formative strategies outlined in Dr. Laura Greenstein’s “Lexicon of Formative

Assessment Strategies.” The full document can be

accessed at http://assessmentnetwork.wikisp

aces.com

Points to Remember

• All of your objectives will need to be assessed (most by formative assessments).

• If you do enough formative assessment, you’ll know how you students will perform on the summative before you ever even give it.

Food for Thought• When do we use

formative assessments?

• When do we use summative assessments?

• How many formative assessments per class?

What’s Due?