1. Formative Assessment
Kelly Gardner
PARATESOL 2009

2. A Little Bit About Me

3. What´s happening with assessment
in the United States?
 Thetraditional system ranked
students.
 Now all students are expected to reach
a certain level of proficiency.

4. What´s happening with assessment
in the United States?
 Now teachers and school are being held
accountable for ALL students´ success due
to a law called ¨No Child Left Behind.¨
Schools are closed if students test scores
are too low.
Some teachers´ salaries are affected by
student performance.
 As a result, schools are focussing on
improving their assessment practices.

5. Why Work on Assessment?
Shows how performance
improves when teachers are
better at classroom assessment
Marzano (2006) Classroom Assessment and
Grading that Work. Virginia: Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.

6. What is Summative
Assessment?
Examples
 Final Exams
 Quizzes
 What else?
 Rick Stiggins
calls it
¨assessment OF
learning¨

7. What is Formative
Assessment?
Examples
 Assessments that
provide feedback
 Self assessments
 Quizzes
(sometimes)
 What else?
 Stiggins calls it
Assessment FOR
Learning and
suggests that we do
not do enough of it.

8. What is the purpose of
summative assessments?
Your thoughts

9. What is the purpose of
formative assessments?
Your thoughts

10. What is the value of
summative assessments?
Your thoughts

11. What is the value of
formative assessments?
Your thoughts

12. What makes an
assessment formative?
Informs instruction
 Is given before the end of the
unit
According to Stiggins, it should
provide descriptive feedback
The students knows where he or she
is and what needs to be improved.

13. What is good descriptive
feedback?
 Blindfold Activity

14. What is good descriptive
feedback?
Limited information
One thing that the student is doing well
and one thing to work on
Specific and high quality
Words like good job, excellent don´t tell
you much.
Clear and related to the assessment
criteria

15. How often should we give
students feedback?
Once a month?
Once a week?
Once a semester?
Once per class?

16. What are some examples
of feedback that teachers
use?
Examples

17. Classroom Examples
 Closing thoughts
 Ticket out the door
 Think- pair- share
 Magnets
 Bar graphs
 Fist to five, thumbs up/ thumbs down
 Self- reflection
 Corners
 Carousel
 Sign cards
 Chalk talk
 Quiz
 Feedback Form

18. Think- Pair - Share
 Students think
individually first.
 Then they share
their thoughts with
a partner.
 Finally, they share
their thoughts with
the class.

19. Self- Assessment/
Reflection
 Examples
Magnets
Fist to five, thumbs up/ thumbs
down
Self- reflection
Corners
Chalk talk

20. Self- Assessment/
Reflection
 Examples
l understand
 Magnets 10 10
9 9
 Students have the 8 8
opportunity to place 7
7
magnets where they 6
6
5
believe they have 4
5
performed that day. 3
4
2 3
1 2
0 1
Very Well Not Not At
Well Very All
Well

21. Self- Assessment/
Reflection
 Examples
 Fist to five, thumbs
up/ thumbs down
 Fist to Five
 5 = Very Well
 4 = Well
 3 = Somewhat Well
 4 = Not Very Well
 5 = Not At All

22. Self- Assessment/
Reflection
 Examples
Corners Chalk talk
Stand in the A written
corner that is conversation
easiest for you. about the
Stand in the content on the
corner that is chalk board.
most difficult for
you.

23. Feedback Form
 Feedback Form – A written form designed to elicit
feedback from both the teacher and the student.
S t a r s : What you did well
____________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________
S t e p s : What you need to work on
____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
My teacher’s opinion
S t a r s : What you have done well
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
S t e p s : What you should work on
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________

24. Bar Graphs
 Students graph Título principal
result their pre and 10
post test to 9
measure and 8
reflect on their 7
growth.
6
Pre test
5 Post test
4
3
2
1
0
Welco Routin What What´s
me es you he
Wear doing?

25. Carousel
 Students write or draw what they know
about a variety of topics.
Festivals
Celebrations!!

26. Quizzes
 Short quizzes can be effective ways for
students and teachers to evaluate
learning.
 If they are pop quizzes, students
shouldn´t be graded.

27. Quiz Example

28. True or False
Formative assessment is never in the
form of a test.
It is important to give students lots of
feedback on every assignment.
There should be more summative
assessments than formative
assessments.
Formative and summative assessments
should be related.
Every assessment should be graded.

29. True or False
Students can give feedback to each
other.
Assessments should take up the entire
class period.
¨Good job!¨ is an example of descriptive
feedback.
Summative assessment means
¨assessment for learning.¨
This test is an example of a summative
assessment.

30. Closing Thoughts
 Reflective sentence starters that
students use to give a closing thought
before leaving the classroom.
 One thing I learned today...
 I wonder...
 I´m confused about...
 I believe...
 One question I have is...
 I now know...

31. Sources
Marzano, R. (2006). Classroom Assessment
and Grading that Work. Virginia:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
Stiggins, R. (2007). Classroom Assessment
For Student Learning. New Jersey:
Pearson Education, Inc.