This document outlines a formative assessment model. It defines formative assessment as ongoing feedback during teaching to close learning gaps. The model involves identifying learning goals and success criteria, eliciting evidence of student learning, interpreting evidence to identify gaps, and providing feedback and modifying instruction. Teachers use strategies like questioning and observation to gather evidence. They analyze evidence to determine if students are meeting goals and identify learning gaps. Teachers then provide descriptive feedback to students and adjust instruction to help students progress in their zone of proximal development.

1. FORMATIVE
ASSESSMENT
MODEL
BY
SHAMS PANDRANI

2. WHAT IS FORMATIVE
ASSESSMENT?
Assessment that takes place continuously during the
course of teaching and learning to provide
teachers and students with feedback to close the
gap between current learning and desired goals.
( Black et al., 2003; Black & Wiliam, 1998; OECD, 2005;
Sadler,1989; Shepard, 2000)

3. MODEL OF FORMATIVE
ASSESSMENT

4. WHAT IS LEARNING
PROGRESSION?
• It means to move over time toward more expert
understanding.
• Learning progressions depict successively more
sophisticated ways of thinking about an idea that
might reasonably follow one another as students
learn.
• Using research on children’s learning, learning
progressions can be identified that trace the path
that children might follow as instruction helps them
move from naïve ideas to more sophisticated
understanding.

5. LEARNING GOAL
Learning goals provide the standard against which
evidence is elicited, performance is compared (by
both student and teacher), and feedback is
generated to close the “ gap” between current
learning and desired goals.

6. CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS
• The success criteria are indications to the teacher
and the student of the degree to which learning is
moving through the ZPD toward independent
achievement.
• The success criteria provide the framework within
which formative assessment takes place and make
possible the interpretation of the evidence
Note: Learning goals and criteria for success should
be clearly identified and communicated to students.

7. CRITERIA FOR
SUCCESS(CONTINUED)
Clearly understood learning objectives and criteria for
successful learning also have an important role to
play in managing the learning process. They guide
learners in identifying evidence of success in learning
and appropriate success criteria provide the basis for
well focused feedback.

8. HOW TO ELICIT
EVIDENCE OF LEARNING?
At its core, formative assessment must collect quality
evidence of learning in order to be effective.
According to Heritage (2009a, 2009b), no single way
to collect evidence is necessarily better than others,
but decisions should be made appropriate to the
purpose, aligned with learning goals, embed the
concepts and skills that are the focus of the lesson,
and provide sufficiently detailed information for
action. The various strategies for evidence gathering
can be categorized into the following three broad
types: curriculum-embedded (or systematic),
planned, and on-the-fly (or spontaneous)

9. HOW TO INTERPRET
THE EVIDENCE?
• What does my evidence tell me about students
current learning status?
• Is there a gap between my students current
learning status and the desired goal? what is it?
Can I determine that from the evidence I have or
do I need more evidence?
• Are my students on right track to meet the success
criteria or have they met it?

10. HOW TO IDENTIFY THE
GAP
• Assessment is not formative unless something gets
formed?( Margaret Heritage, 2007).
• Establishing where the learners are in their learning,
establishing where they are going and what needs
to be done to get them there.
• Sadler (1989) stresses the importance of identifying
the gap between what a learner knows currently
and the desired goal for him/her to reach. (just
the right gap)

11. FEEDBACK
• Feedback is the soul of formative assessment.
• Formative assessment is designed to provide
feedback at multiple levels. First, it provides
feedback to the teacher about current levels of
student understanding. This feedback also informs
what the next steps in learning should be

12. FEEDBACK
(CONTINUED)
• Effective feedback from teachers provides clear,
descriptive, criterion-based information that
indicates to the students where they are in a
learning progression, how their understanding differs
from the desired learning goal, and how they can
move forward

13. FEEDBACK
(CONTINUED)
When giving feedback to pupils, the teacher needs
to be clear about this that the:
• feedback that lacks focus because it covers too
much or is too general isn’t particularly helpful. If
feedback is based on clear learning intentions and
shared success criteria, it is much more likely to
provide a focus for meaningful improvement.

14. FEEDBACK
(CONTINUED)
To support learning while it is occurring:
• teachers must provide descriptive feedback in the
form of ideas, strategies, and tasks the student can
use to close the “gap” between his or her current
learning level and the next level. In this sense,
feedback becomes instructional scaffolding in the
zone of proximal development.

15. PLAN LEARNING AND
INSTRUTIONAL MODIFICATION
What next?
• Upon interpreting the evidence, the teacher
identifies student learning gaps relative to the
learning goal. The teacher provides descriptive
feedback to students and plans instructional
modifications based on the students’ zone of
proximal development.
• The teacher takes steps to close the gap between
the students' current learning and the goal by
modifying instruction, assessing again to give further
information about learning, modifying instruction
again, and so on.

16. PLAN LEARNING AND INSTRUCTIONAL
MODIFICATION(CONTINUED)
• Students make adjustments to what and how they
are learning.
• gathering evidence of learning and focusing
feedback on improvement all have a contribution
to make but the real success criterion for a
reflective professional is whether or not pupils have
learned through these experiences on how to take
responsibility for their own learning

17. “SCAFFOLDING” IN THE ZONE
OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
• The zone of proximal development is the area
where Vygotsky hypothesizes learning and
development take place. It is defined as the
distance between what the child can accomplish
during independent problem solving and the level
of the problem solving that can be accomplished
under the guidance of an adult or in collaboration
with a more expert peer. Through these processes,
cognitive growth occurs as the child internalizes
problem solving processes.

18. “SCAFFOLDING” IN THE ZONE OF
PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT(CONT.)
• Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976) devised the term
―scaffolding‖ to characterize the support that
adults (teachers) give to learners in the zone of
proximal development to move them from what
they already know to what they can do next

19. CLOSE THE GAP
• Finally, the students will be able to bridge the gap
between their current level of understanding and
the desired goal or goals.

20. TABLE SHOWING THE LEARNING PROGRESSION/ STANDARD/BIG IDEA,
GOALS/STUDENTS LEAARNING OUTCOMES, CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS AND
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES
Standard/Learning
Progression/ the Big Idea
All students will search for, discover and understand a variety
of text types through tasks which require multiple reading and
thinking strategies for comprehension, and enjoyment.
SLOs or Goals Criteria for Success Formative Assessment
Strategies
1-identify that the main idea
in a paragraph is carried in a
sentence called a topic
sentence
2-Recognize that other
sentences in the paragraph
support the topic sentence
Students should have the
ability to recognize the topic
sentence in a paragraph and
they should also be able to
tell how other sentences in
the paragraph build on the
topic sentence.
Different paragraphs would
be given out among the
students in groups and they
would be asked to
differentiate between the
topic sentence and the
supporting details in the
paragraphs.
Meanwhile, the groups’
activities will be kept under
continuous observation and
leading open ended and
probing question will be
asked to remove the
misconceptions and bridge
the gap between their
current understanding and
the desired goals.