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Michelle: Formative assessments are assessments for learning. These assessments can be formal and informal, and they occur throughout the teaching and learning process, rather than at the end of something. Their main purpose is to provide ongoing feedback to both teachers and students so that they can improve their teaching and learning. More specifically, formative assessments help teachers understand where students are struggling and how they can better help these students meet the standards of the course. Meanwhile, students also can see what their strengths and weaknesses are from their performance on formative assessments.

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This article covers the following examples:

1. Entry and Exit Slips

2. Low-stakes Quizzes and Polls

3. Dipsticks

4. Interview Assessments

5. Methods that Incorporate Art

6. Misconceptions and Errors

7. Self-Assessment

Reference: Thomas, L. (2019, April 26). 7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/7-smart-fast-ways-do-formative-assessment.

Added by Michelle

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Formative assessment-discovering what students know while they're still in the process of learning it-can be tricky. Designing just the right assessment can feel high stakes-for teachers, not students-because we're using it to figure out what comes next. Are we ready to move on? Do our students need a different path into the concepts? Or, more likely, which students are ready to move on and which need a different path?

When it comes to figuring out what our students really know, we have to look at more than one kind of information. A single data point-no matter how well designed the quiz, presentation, or problem behind it-isn't enough information to help us plan the next step in our instruction.

Add to that the fact that different learning tasks are best measured in different ways, and we can see why we need a variety of formative assessment tools we can deploy quickly, seamlessly, and in a low-stakes way-all while not creating an unmanageable workload. That's why it's important to keep it simple: Formative assessments generally just need to be checked, not graded, as the point is to get a basic read on the progress of individuals, or the class as a whole.

7 Approaches to Formative Assessment

1. Entry and exit slips: Those marginal minutes at the beginning and end of class can provide some great opportunities to find out what kids remember. Start the class off with a quick question about the previous day's work while students are getting settled-you can ask differentiated questions written out on chart paper or projected on the board, for example.

A quick way to see the big picture if you use paper exit tickets is to sort the papers into three piles: Students got the point; they sort of got it; and they didn't get it. The size of the stacks is your clue about what to do next.

No matter the tool, the key to keeping students engaged in the process of just-walked-in or almost-out-the-door formative assessment is the questions. Ask students to write for one minute on the most meaningful thing they learned. You can try prompts like:

What are three things you learned, two things you're still curious about, and one thing you don't understand?

How would you have done things differently today, if you had the choice?

What I found interesting about this work was...

Right now I'm feeling...

Today was hard because...

Or skip the words completely and have students draw or circle emojis to represent their assessment of their understanding.

2. Low-stakes quizzes and polls: If you want to find out whether your students really know as much as you think they know, polls and quizzes created with Socrative or Quizlet or in-class games and tools like Quizalize, Kahoot, FlipQuiz, Gimkit, Plickers, and Flippity can help you get a better sense of how much they really understand. (Grading quizzes but assigning low point values is a great way to make sure students really try: The quizzes matter, but an individual low score can't kill a student's grade.) Kids in many classes are always logged in to these tools, so formative assessments can be done very quickly. Teachers can see each kid's response, and determine both individually and in aggregate how students are doing.

Because you can design the questions yourself, you determine the level of complexity. Ask questions at the bottom of Bloom's taxonomy and you'll get insight into what facts, vocabulary terms, or processes kids remember. Ask more complicated questions ("What advice do you think Katniss Everdeen would offer Scout Finch if the two of them were talking at the end of chapter 3?"), and you'll get more sophisticated insights.

3. Dipsticks: So-called alternative formative assessments are meant to be as easy and quick as checking the oil in your car, so they're sometimes referred to as dipsticks. These can be things like asking students to:

write a letter explaining a key idea to a friend,

draw a sketch to visually represent new knowledge, or

do a think, pair, share exercise with a partner.

Your own observations of students at work in class can provide valuable data as well, but they can be tricky to keep track of. Taking quick notes on a tablet or smartphone, or using a copy of your roster, is one approach. A focused observation form is more formal and can help you narrow your note-taking focus as you watch students work.

4. Interview assessments: If you want to dig a little deeper into students' understanding of content, try discussion-based assessment methods. Casual chats with students in the classroom can help them feel at ease even as you get a sense of what they know, and you may find that five-minute interview assessments work really well. Five minutes per student would take quite a bit of time, but you don't have to talk to every student about every project or lesson.

You can also shift some of this work to students using a peer-feedback process called TAG feedback (Tell your peer something they did well, Ask a thoughtful question, Give a positive suggestion). When you have students share the feedback they have for a peer, you gain insight into both students' learning.

For more introverted students-or for more private assessments-use Flipgrid, Explain Everything, or Seesaw to have students record their answers to prompts and demonstrate what they can do.

5. Methods that incorporate art: Consider using visual art or photography or videography as an assessment tool. Whether students draw, create a collage, or sculpt, you may find that the assessment helps them synthesize their learning. Or think beyond the visual and have kids act out their understanding of the content. They can create a dance to model cell mitosis or act out stories like Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" to explore the subtext.

6. Misconceptions and errors: Sometimes it's helpful to see if students understand why something is incorrect or why a concept is hard. Ask students to explain the " muddiest point" in the lesson-the place where things got confusing or particularly difficult or where they still lack clarity. Or do a misconception check: Present students with a common misunderstanding and ask them to apply previous knowledge to correct the mistake, or ask them to decide if a statement contains any mistakes at all, and then discuss their answers.

You can use sticky notes to get a quick insight into what areas your kids think they need to work on. Ask them to pick their own trouble spot from three or four areas where you think the class as a whole needs work, and write those areas in separate columns on a whiteboard. Have you students answer on a sticky note and then put the note in the correct column-you can see the results at a glance.

Several self-assessments let the teacher see what every kid thinks very quickly. For example, you can use colored stacking cups that allow kids to flag that they're all set (green cup), working through some confusion (yellow), or really confused and in need of help (red).

Similar strategies involve using participation cards for discussions (each student has three cards-"I agree," "I disagree," and "I don't know how to respond") and thumbs-up responses (instead of raising a hand, students hold a fist at their belly and put their thumb up when they're ready to contribute). Students can instead use six hand gestures to silently signal that they agree, disagree, have something to add, and more. All of these strategies give teachers an unobtrusive way to see what students are thinking.

No matter which tools you select, make time to do your own reflection to ensure that you're only assessing the content and not getting lost in the assessment fog. If a tool is too complicated, is not reliable or accessible, or takes up a disproportionate amount of time, it's OK to put it aside and try something different.

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7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment

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Within these methods you'll find close to 40 tools and tricks for finding out what your students know while they're still learning.

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Additional Examples of Formative Assessment

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Reference: Finley, T. (2016). 53 Ways To Check for Understanding [PDF]. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/sites/default/files/2018-01/edutopia-finley-53-ways-to-check-understanding-2016.pdf

Added by Michelle

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Michelle: Summative assessments are assessments of learning. These formal assessments are used to evaluate student learning at the end of some longer defined instructional period – whether it's a chapter, a unit, a semester, or a school year. Teachers can use the results of these assessments to inform and adjust their future instruction and build more suitable learning plans for their students.

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Michelle: Diagnostic assessments are assessments given before the start of a defined instructional period (a lesson, a unit, a chapter, a semester). Their purpose is to provide teachers with an understanding of what their students know and what they don't know about upcoming topics so that they can then identify areas to spend more or less time on. They give teachers a baseline to start from.

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Corey: Performance assessments can come in a couple of forms.

Project Based Learning sets students up to learn through doing something, and at the end of a project, should be able to show competency or knowledge of a skill or information.

Performance tasks set a student to show their skill with a predesigned scenario. Many technology or hands on classes use this style of assessment.

Proficiency or competency based learning sets students to evaluate themselves and build their own study plans, often having students learning at a different pace.

Performance assessments ask a student to prove their knowledge or possession of a skill to create something, like a work or writing, showing of a skill or competency in a task, or a detailed and thorough experiment.

Reference: The Editors. (2029, February 5). What is Performance Assessment. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/what-is-performance-assessment/2019/02 on October 24th, 2021

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Project-based learning is nothing new. More than 100 years ago, progressive educator William Heard Kilpatrick published "The Project Method," a monograph that took the first stab at defining alternatives to direct instruction. Predictably, the document sparked a squabble over definitions and methods-between Kilpatrick and his friend and colleague John Dewey.

Not much has changed. Today, despite major advances in ways to measure learning, we still don't have common definitions for project-based learning or performance assessment.

Sometimes, for example, performance assessment is framed as the opposite of the dreaded year-end, state-required multiple-choice tests used to report on schools' progress. But in fact, many performance assessments are standardized and can-and do-produce valid and reliable results.

Experts also emphasize the "authentic" nature of performance assessment and project-based learning, although "authentic" doesn't always mean lifelike: A good performance assessment can use simulations, as long as they are faithful to real-world situations. (An example: In science class, technology can simulate plant growth or land erosion, processes that take too long for a hands-on experiment.)

In the absence of agreed-upon definitions for this evolving field, Education Week reporters developed a glossary based on interviews with teachers, assessment experts, and policy analysts. They've organized the terms here generally from less specific to more specific. These terms aren't mutually exclusive. (A performance assessment, for instance, may be one element of a competency-based education program.)

Proficiency-based or competency-based learning: These terms are interchangeable. They refer to the practice of allowing students to progress in their learning as they master a set of standards or competencies. Students can advance at different rates. Typically, there is an attempt to build students' ownership and understanding of their learning goals and often a focus on "personalizing" students' learning based on their needs and interests.

Project-based learning: Students learn through an extended project, which may have a number of checkpoints or assessments along the way. Key features are inquiry, exploration, the extended duration of the project, and iteration (requiring students to revise and reflect, for example). A subset of project-based learning is problem-based learning, which focuses on a specific challenge for which students must find a solution.

Standards-based grading: This refers to the practice of giving students nuanced and detailed descriptions of their performance against specific criteria or standards, not on a bell curve. It can stand alone or exist alongside traditional letter grading.

Performance assessment: This assessment measures how well students apply their knowledge, skills, and abilities to authentic problems. The key feature is that it requires the student to produce something, such as a report, experiment, or performance, which is scored against specific criteria.

Portfolio: This assessment consists of a body of student work collected over an extended period, from a few weeks to a year or more. This work can be produced in response to a test prompt or assignment but is often simply drawn from everyday classroom tasks. Frequently, portfolios also contain an element of student reflection.

Exhibition: A type of performance assessment that requires a public presentation, as in the sciences or performing arts. Other fields can also require an exhibition component. Students might be required, for instance, to justify their position in an oral presentation or debate.

Performance task: A piece of work students are asked to do to show how well they apply their knowledge, skills, or abilities-from writing an essay to diagnosing and fixing a broken circuit. A performance assessment typically consists of several performance tasks. Performance tasks also may be included in traditional multiple-choice tests.
With thanks to: Paul Leather, director for state and local partnerships at the Center for Innovation in Education; Mark Barnes, founder of Times 10 Publications; Peter Ross, principal at Education First; Scott Marion, executive director at the Center for Assessment; Sean P. "Jack" Buckley, president, Imbellus; Starr Sackstein, an educator and opinion blogger at edweek.org; and Steve Ferrara, senior adviser at Measured Progress.
Have we missed any terms that confuse you? Why not write and tell us?

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Here's a handy glossary on terms like project-based learning, competency-based learning, and standards-based grading.

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Corey: Assessments for learning refer to formative assessments, often to influence the teachers future lessons and learning plans.

Assessments as learning refer to students evaluating themselves, often to influence the students study techniques or habits.

Assessments of learning refer to summative assessments, often used to evaluate a students learning of a core concept or  knowledge of a range of information.

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Reference: Arella, F. [Teachings in Education]. (2017, January 17). Summative Assessment: Overview & Examples [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjnrI3ZO2tU

Added by Michelle

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Corey:
Source - Promethean. (2017). Types of summative assessment and formative assessment.

retrieved from https://resourced.prometheanworld.com/types-of-summative-formative-assessment/ on October 24th, 2021

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Corey: Formative assessments (for learning) are used to evaluate students on a lesson by lesson basis. These assessments can take many forms, from exit quizzes to online surveys, or even a show of hands. These assessments often influence a teacher's day to day planning, if students do not understand a concept, the teacher is aware of this and can work with the students on the next lesson.

Summative assessments (of learning) are used to assess student knowledge over a longer period of time than formative assessments. Often, these tests take the form of a unit, chapter, or module test or exam, and can be many pages long, taking quite a bit of time. These assessments are useful to determining if students understand a range of skills or possess information, as well as help to identify educators who may not be teaching content effectively. The disadvantage of using summative assessments is that they usually occur far apart, and by the time an educator realizes students don't understand a wide range of ideas or concepts, it can be difficult to "catch up".

Assessments as learning are often used by students whom are more aware of their education, and have a more active roll in their personal education plan. These can be reflective works, peer evaluations, self evaluations, or even student / teacher conferences. These can be very effective if a student wants to be active in their learning and success as a student.

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A diagnostic tool I am currently using in my classroom.

Reference: IXL. (2020, September 4). IXL's Real-time Diagnostic: Get instant assessment results [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF6QScSifjc

Added by Michelle

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IXL's Real-Time Diagnostic: Get instant assessment results

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In this example of a performance-based assessment in a high school pre-calculus class, students play the role of air traffic controllers and pilots as they solve a series of disaster missions using concepts like polar coordinates, law of sines, and law of cosines.

Reference: Edutopia. (2015, June 24). Performance-Based Assessment: Making Math Relevant [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZomm-1BbYQ

Added by Michelle

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Corey: Goal setting with the Start Smart framework puts students in the seat of setting their own academic goals and build a path to achieve their goals. Teachers can check in on students to provide guidance and mentor the students on how best to proceed. I find it helpful for students to keep a journal of what their goals are, what they are doing to achieve their goals, and check in notes. Start Smart goals should be "Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time based" Students assess their progress with their teacher or mentors to adjust their plans to better reach their goals.

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Corey:  I use a couple of diagnostic assessments in my lessons pretty regularly.

Pretest - Questions about the material students will cover. I explain to the students that there is no score but it is important to try their best, or I mix it in as a review quiz.

Idea Clouds - Students will write a statement or question in the middle of a page and write down their answers or thoughts about the topic all around it in small balloons or clouds. It gives me a good understanding of what students know.

KWL Charts - Students write a chart with three spaces, a what I know space, What I want to know space, and what I have learned space. Students may complete this chart over the unit, but should complete the first part before the lesson, filling in the other two areas throughout the lesson or unit. I find it useful to have students talk about what they already know and think about what they want to know together, to build interest.

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For mathematics

Added by Michelle

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These tasks are grade-level formative performance assessment tasks with accompanying scoring rubrics and discussion of student work samples. They are aligned to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. You may download and use these tasks for professional development purposes without modifying the tasks.

The tasks for 3rd Grade through High School were developed by the Mathematics Assessment Resource Service (MARS) of the Shell Centre for Mathematical Education, University of Nottingham, England. The tasks for 2nd Grade were developed by the Silicon Valley Mathematics Initiative's Mathematics Assessment Collaborative (MAC).

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Performance Assessment Tasks | Inside Mathematics

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These tasks are grade-level formative performance assessment tasks with accompanying scoring rubrics and discussion of student work samples. They are aligned to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. You may download and use these tasks for professional development purposes without modifying the tasks.

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Corey:
Taylor, J. (2014, July 30).

Using Homework as a Formative Assessment (Part 2). Retrieved on October 24th, 2021 from https://edulastic.com/blog/using-homework-as-a-formative-assessment-part-2/

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Cheat Sheet: Make Formative Assessment More Student-Centered

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Some quick tips on how to make formative assessments more student-centered by getting students to reflect on their own progress and weaknesses, with suggestions of online tools

Reference: Common Sense Education. (2018). Make Formative Assessment More Student-Centered [PDF]. Retrieved October 24, 2021 from https://www.commonsense.org/education/sites/default/files/tlr-asset/document-twt-cheat-sheet-checks-for-understanding-081916.pdf.

Added by Michelle

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Corey: