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Formative Assessment can be broken down into two categories; ongoing and pre-assessment. By nature formative assessments are not graded but more for checking in on knowledge known, knowledge learned, or knowledge misunderstood by students. These types of assessments are used to inform instruction and help teachers with lesson planning and differentiation in the classroom. It also helps students understand gaps in their knowledge and what subject matter they may need to study or get help for.

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Formative assessment is the piece of the teaching puzzle that allows us to quickly (and hopefully, accurately) gauge how well our students are understanding the material we've taught. From there, we make the important decisions about where our lesson will go next. Do we need to reteach, or are our students ready to progress? Do some students need additional practice? And which students need to be pushed to achieve the next level?

The best formative assessments will not only answer these questions but will also engage students in their own learning. With that in mind, here are 25 formative assessment techniques that will have your students looking forward to showing you what they know.

1. Doodle Notes

Have students doodle/draw a pic of their understanding instead of writing it. Studies have shown it has numerous beneficial effects on student learning.

2. Same Idea, New Situation

Ask your students to apply the concepts they've learned to a completely different situation. For example, students could apply the steps of the scientific method to figuring out how to beat an opposing soccer team. They observe data (the other team's plays), form theories (they always rely on two main players), test theories while collecting more data (block those players and see what happens), and draw conclusions (see if that worked).

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3. Tripwire

Tripwires are things that catch people off guard and mess them up. Ask your students to list what they believe are the three misunderstandings about the topic that are most likely to mess up a peer. By asking students to think about the key understandings from this angle, we can get an excellent view of how well they comprehend the topic.

4. Two Truths and a Lie

No longer just a get-to-know-you game or icebreaker, this well-known activity also makes a great formative assessment. Ask students to list two things that are true or accurate about the learning and one idea that sounds like it might be accurate, but isn't. You'll be able to assess each student's understanding when they turn in their responses, and going over them with your class the following day makes an excellent review activity.

5. Popsicle Sticks

Formative assessment doesn't need to be complicated or time-consuming to be meaningful and engaging. Have each student put their name on a popsicle stick in a jar or box on your desk. Let them know you'll be pulling popsicle sticks to see who will be answering questions about the lesson. Knowing their name could be pulled makes students who might let peers do the talking focus on the learning. It dispels notions of favoritism and identifies learning gaps. And, most importantly, provides real-time feedback teachers can use in their lesson planning.

6. Explain it to a Famous Person

Ask the student to explain the day's lesson to someone famous in an analogy that would make sense to that person. For example, the Revolutionary War was fought between the colonies and Great Britain. The colonies wanted to be independent and, after winning the war, renamed themselves the United States of America, just like when Prince left his record label and had to change his name to an unpronounceable symbol in order to break contractual obligations (I'm dating myself with this example, aren't I?).

7. Traffic Light

Printing on post-it notes is actually pretty simple and fun! Slap a clip-art picture of a traffic light on there and you have a perfect formative assessment tool that students can complete when time is short at the end of class.

8. 30-Second Share

Challenge students to explain what the lesson they learned was all about to a peer, a small group, or the entire class in 30 seconds. At first, you might want to start at 15-seconds and build their stamina. But by encouraging students to explain everything they can for a set and relatively short amount of time, you'll be building their confidence and public speaking skills at the same time as you get a good grasp on how much they've remembered about the lesson.

9. Venn Diagrams

An oldie but a goodie. Have your student compare the topic you just introduced to a tangential topic you taught in the past. This way, you're getting a formative assessment on how well they understand the new topic and they're getting a review of an older topic as well!

10. Poll Them

Polls are a great way to quickly assess student understanding. You can do this in person, or you can use apps like Poll Everywhere, Socrative, or Mentimeter to make free polls students can answer using their phones or computers.

11. S.O.S. Summaries

A great, quick formative assessment idea that can be used at any point throughout a lesson is the S.O.S. summary. The teacher presents the students with a statement (S). Then, asks the students to give their opinion (O) about the statement. Finally, the students are asked to support (S) their opinion with evidence from the lesson. For example, a teacher might say to the students, "Complete an S.O.S. on this statement: The Industrial Revolution produced only positive effects on society."

S.O.S. can be used at the start of a lesson to assess prior knowledge or at the end of a unit or lesson to determine if students' opinions have changed or if their support has grown stronger with the new information they've learned.

12. FOUR-Corners

This activity can be used with questions or opinions. Before asking the question/making the statement, establish each corner of the room as a different potential opinion or answer. After giving the prompt, each student goes to the corner that best represents their answer. Based on classroom discussion, students can then move from corner to corner, adjusting their answer or opinion.

13. Jigsaw Learning

Perfect when teaching complicated subjects or topics with many different parts. In this formative assessment, teachers break a large body of information into smaller sections. Each section is then assigned to a different small group. That small group is in charge of learning about their section and becoming the class experts. Then, one by one, each section teaches the others about their part of the whole. As the teacher listens to each section being taught, they can use the lesson as a method of formative assessment.

14. Anonymous Pop-Quiz

All the formative assessment power of a pop-quiz with none of the unnecessary pressure or embarrassment. To use this tool, simply quiz your students on the essential information you want to ensure they understand. Instruct each student NOT to put their name on their paper.

Once the assessment is complete, redistribute the quizzes in a way that ensures no one knows whose quiz they have in front of them. Have the students correct the quizzes and share out which answers most students got wrong and which answers everyone seemed to understand the most. You'll know right away how well the class as a whole understands the topic without embarrassing any students individually.

15. One-Minute Write-Up

At the end of a lesson, give students one minute to write as much as they can about what they learned through the lesson or unit. If needed, provide some guiding questions to get them started.

What was the most important learning from today, and why?

Did anything surprise you? If so, what?

What was the most confusing part of the lesson, and why?

What is something that will likely appear on a test or quiz, and why?

Challenge them to write as much as they can and to write for all of the 60-seconds. To make it a bit more engaging, consider letting students do this with a partner.

Students love to watch videos and, because of this, we end up showing a lot of short video clips. While they're engaging, it's often tough to determine if our students are getting the information we hoped they would get out of watching them. EdPuzzle solves this problem. The free app allows you to link to a video and add questions that stop the video at times you determine. So you can show your students the video of the Dust Bowl, but stop at various points to ask them what they think life might have been like during this time. You can ask them to make comparisons between what they watch and the characters they're reading about in class. All of this information is then available for you to view and use for formative assessment.

17. Historical Post Cards

Ask students to take on the role of one historical figure you've been learning about in class. Have them write a postcard/email/tweet (as long as it's short) to another historical figure discussing and describing a political event.

18. 3x Summaries

Have students write a 75-100 word summary of a lesson independently. Then, in pairs, have them rewrite it using only 35-50 words. Finally, have them work with a small group to rewrite it one last time. This time, they may use only 10-15 words. Discuss what different groups decided was the most essential information and why they chose to omit certain information. The conversation about what they left out is just as useful as seeing what they left in.

19. Roses and Thorns

Ask students to write or share out two things they really liked/understood about a topic (the roses) and something they didn't like/didn't understand (the thorn).

20. Thumbs Up, Down, or in the Middle

Sometimes things stick around because they just work. Asking students to give you a thumbs up if they understand, thumbs down if they don't, or thumbs somewhere in the middle if they are so-so about it, is probably one of the fastest formative assessments around. It's also very easy to keep track of if you're the teacher standing in the front of the room. Just make sure that you follow up with the thumbs down or thumbs in the middle folks to help them with any confusion.

21. Word Clouds

Ask your students to provide you with the three most essential words or ideas from a lesson and plug them into a word cloud generator. You'll quickly have an excellent formative assessment that shows you what they thought was most worthy of remembering. If it doesn't line up with what you think was most important, you know what you need to reteach.

22. Curation

Ask students to gather a bunch of examples that correctly demonstrate the concept you taught. So if you're studying rhetorical strategies, have students send you screenshots of ads that demonstrate them. Not only will you be able to tell immediately who understood the lesson and who didn't, but you'll also have a bunch of great examples and non-examples ready to go for those students who need additional practice.

23. Dry Erase Boards

Another time-tested method of formative assessment that teachers often overlook is individual dry erase boards. They really are an awesome and fast way to see where each student's level of understanding is at any given point.

24. Think-Pair-Shares

Like so many teacher tools, this one can get stale if overused. But, if used as a method to encourage all students to find their voice and share their learning, it's perfect for formative assessment. To ensure its effectiveness, ask a question of the class. Have every student write down their own answer. Pair students up with a classmate and give them time to share and discuss their answers. After pairs have had a chance to discuss, have them share out with a larger group or the class as a whole. Circulate, listening to groups who have students you know might be more likely to struggle with the current topic. Collect the papers for extra accountability.

25. Self-Directed

This one can intimidate some students at first, but it can be incredibly powerful to let students themselves choose how they want to demonstrate learning. You can support students by giving them managed choice, but let them decide if they want to show you they understood the essential parts of your lesson by drawing a picture, writing a paragraph, creating a pop quiz, or even writing song lyrics. This shows you're putting them in charge of their own learning.

What's your go-to method of formative assessment? Tell us in the comments.

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25 Formative Assessment Options Your Students Will Actually Enjoy

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Formative assessment is a vital tool in lesson planning and teaching. Check out this list of ways to get students to show you what they know.

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This is a great summary of what formative assessment are, what they are used for, and how to use them.

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Formative Assessments: Why, When & Top 5 Examples

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Writing journals/doodle- a prompt for students to respond too

Thumbs Up/down/and in the middle

Number Scale- number of fingers up corresponds to the level of understanding

Stoplight-red, yellow, green

Sides- get them moving, there are two sides of the Class I know and I am not sure, the middle is I kind of understand

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Bellringers (start of class)

Make art for assessment

Digital journals

Black out- use thumbs to cover the camera if understood or not (up to teacher discretion)

Emojis

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Under each tool it gives recommended age group, there are many for young learners!
Here are a few others:

Lino (post it wall)

Peardeck (interactive slideshow)

Google forms

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Top Tech Tools for Formative Assessment | Common Sense Education

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Find the right formative assessment tools for your classroom. These digital tools range from discussion (e.g., Piazza, TodaysMeet) to quizzing, polling, and student responses (e.g., Kahoot, Formative) to interactive lessons and videos (e.g., Nearpod, Flipgrid).

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It's an ongoing assessment that encompasses diagnostic and formative assessments. The teacher can collect informative to better reach and teach the students. Students can self reflect on their understanding, misunderstanding, and gaps in their knowledge.

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By Elizaveta Baboshko What Is a Performance Assessment?

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By Elizaveta Baboshko What Is a Performance Assessment?

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Performance assessments are a useful tool for evaluating a student's understanding of a subject and if they're able to apply their knowledge in specific situations. Educators use performance assessments often to identify the best methods for teaching students and assisting them throughout their learning process in a course. In this article, we review what performance assessments are, why educators use them, how to use them effectively and give helpful tips on creating performance assessments.

A performance assessment involves applying and showing skills and knowledge through various performance tasks. The purpose of a performance assessment is to improve the student learning experience and evaluate the effectiveness of lesson plans. These assessments measure how well a student can apply the knowledge they've learned, not if they can recall the knowledge. Performance assessments often use the following components:

Developmental checklists

Portfolios of student work

Progress reports

Reference: What Is a Performance Assessment? (Definition and Tips Included). (n.d.). Indeed Career Guide. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/performance-assessment

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r1yTJHS74w

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Performance Assessment - Classroom Vignette (TELL Project)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NXBdSK2vGk

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Performance Assessment Tools| Assessment in Learning

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Because performance-based assessments allow students the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned, there are many ways to assess their learning. Some examples of performance assessments include:

Answering open-ended questions. Open-ended questions require an answer with an explanation, as opposed to a yes or no question. When students are asked to compose a short paragraph response to an open-ended question they show their thinking process. Answering open-ended questions can be considered a performance-based assessment because students must explore how they got to their answers. For example, instead of asking, "Was Macbeth ambitious?", an instructor could ask, "How did Macbeth's ambitions affect him?" Changing the yes or no question into an open-ended question allows for a detailed, rational answer.

Developing an analysis. By developing a thorough analysis in an essay format, students must perform a detailed investigation on a subject. An analytic essay is a lengthy assignment that requires many steps from research to compiling evidence. This type of essay allows students to show their abilities at multiple benchmarks and gives them time to develop and perform their knowledge.

Conducting an investigation. Conducting a laboratory investigation is a hands-on approach to a performance-based assessment. Conducting an investigation puts students in charge of carrying out their project and allows them the space to explore avenues of inquiry and examination.

Curating a portfolio. Student portfolios are a creative and exhaustive compilation of a students' work. By compiling their work over a course of a project, students reflect on their learning and show their developments. Most importantly, it helps students think about their thinking process. Additionally, student portfolios help students with lifelong skills like setting goals and planning, which are required for a strong portfolio.

Reference: Study.com | Take Online Courses. Earn College Credit. Research Schools, Degrees & Careers. (n.d.). Study.Com. https://study.com/learn/lesson/performance-assessment-overview-examples.html

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63PdFKIFzNU

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPVrLBeXGko

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Reference: Assessment as Learning. (n.d.). [Illistration]. https://www.slideshare.net/vsk84/assessment-of-learning-56492610

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Summative Assessments FOR Learning - by Em Marais

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Summative Assessments FOR Learning - by Em Marais

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Summative assessments are usually large, data-heavy tests and assignments that are conducted at the end of a term, semester, or similar large timeframe. They are used to:
- Evaluate
- Certify
- Measure
- Monitor
- Observe
- Document
in a summative manner, taking in data from the time period as a whole, as well as (often) from a test. The most common examples are end-of-unit, end-of-term and end-of-semester formal tests or exams, but with ECE learners, there are more varied ways of achieving the summative aims.

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An extensive list of parameters to evaluate early childhood students:

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An extensive list of parameters to evaluate early childhood students:

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When you enter into the world of Early Childhood Education it’s no doubt just about play and teaching! Educator’s alike would agree that observing and documenting children’s learning makes up a huge part of the job. Assessment and documentation is crucial for educators, parents and other professionals to collate information and reflect on individual children’s progressions, abilities, and developmental needs.

Whether you have just finished your studies or are an experienced educator it is not uncommon to get stuck when observing and writing up documentation. Using the correct terminology and understanding a range of developmental skills will greatly affect an educators ability to document appropriately.

Having worked in Early Childhood for years as well as mentoring University Students across Sydney I had come to notice the lack of knowledge of key developmental terms and ability to write observations in a professional manner. Particularly observations that need to be passed on to other professionals for children with additional needs, or transition to school reports that are passed onto primary schools.

I therefore decided to create this simple resource for educators to use as a reference or quick guide while documenting. All key terms are gathered from professional sources including University documentation, developmental text books and psychology papers.

Download Resource:

developmental-terms-and-definitions

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Diagnostic assessments are given before introducing a new subject or topic. They give teachers an idea of what knowledge students already have and maybe misunderstanding that they may have. With this information teachers can better prepare their lesson plans for the unit.

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Here is a quick overview of diagnostic assessments, definition, kinds, and examples

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Before introducing students to a new topic, it's best to find out how much they know about the subject. Diagnostic assessments are specially designed for this purpose. You can think of diagnostic assessments as a quick-fire method of gauging your students' knowledge.

One of the most important benefits of diagnostic assessments is they help you to streamline your course content and teaching methods. In other words, you can tailor the entire pedagogy to the specific challenges your students are facing. This helps you to optimize your teaching model.

Use this guide to learn more about diagnostic assessments, their features, and how to conduct one with Formplus.

What is a Diagnostic Assessment?

A diagnostic assessment is a type of pre-evaluation that allows the teacher to discover how much knowledge a student has on a subject matter. In other words, it is used to gauge the level of a student's knowledge and to discover any learning gaps they might have. They happen at the beginning of a learning experience; that is, a unit, lesson quarter or period of time.

Diagnostic assessments are "low-stake" assessments because they are non-graded and do not determine whether the student moves to the next educational level. Rather, they show a student's strengths and weaknesses regarding a specific field of study. With this information, the teacher can make any required adjustments to the learning framework to get the most results.

Here's an example of how diagnostic assessments work. Suppose you're starting a new mathematical lesson on quadratic equations. In that case, you can conduct a simple test to discover how much pre-loaded information a student has about a topic.

Use for Free: Assessment Tools: Types, Examples & Importance

What are the Features of a Diagnostic Assessment?

To describe an assessment method as "diagnostic", it must meet the following criteria:

1. A diagnostic assessment must happen at the beginning of a learning experience such as a new semester or lesson unit.

2. It should focus on understanding a student's current knowledge base

3. A diagnostic assessment must identify the strengths and areas of improvement for the student.

4. It must be non-graded

5. It should establish a baseline to compare what a student knew prior to a lesson and what they learned after in order to measure growth.

Purpose of Diagnostic Assessment

Why should teachers bother about diagnostic assessments? The main purpose of a diagnostic assessment is to collect enough data about what students already know about a topic. The teacher uses this data to create a realistic roadmap that addresses any gaps of knowledge.

Diagnostic assessments also benefit the instructor by providing a baseline for teaching. The teacher would know the most important areas to focus on, and the topics that should be ignored. They also have the chance to correct any misconceptions before beginning a learning activity.

Ultimately, diagnostic assessments make the teaching/learning process more efficient and effective by zeroing in on content that needs to be taught and mastered. It puts the students and teachers on the same page and creates a better learning experience for everyone.

Types of Diagnostic Assessment

Diagnostic assessments are broadly placed in two categories-informal diagnostic assessment and standardized diagnostic assessment.

1. Informal Diagnostic Assessment

When to Use Informal Diagnostic Assessments

Informal diagnostic assessment works best when you swiftly need to measure how much students know about a subject. It is fast and allows you to gather information on the go.

2. Standardized Diagnostic Assessment

When to Use Standardized Diagnostic Assessment

You should use standardized diagnostic assessments when you need to gather comprehensive information about a student's learning weaknesses and strengths.

Examples of Diagnostic Assessments

Surveys and questionnaires are some of the most common methods of conducting diagnostic assessments. You can create an online survey/ questionnaire with Formplus, and administer them at the beginning of your lesson. Alternatively, you may use the email invitation feature to send the survey to students beforehand.

When preparing a unit preset, it's best to focus on the core concepts and skills that you want students to know at the end of the learning period. Many textbooks and other learning materials have unit presets in different chapters. You can build yours from scratch using a form builder like Formplus.

A checklist is a simple tool that outlines specific assessment criteria for diagnostic evaluation. Checklists are highly collaborative, which means the teacher and the students can participate equally in the evaluation process. It also allows for self-evaluation.

During curriculum-based testing, the students partake in brief assessments lasting 1-5 minutes each. The teacher records their scores for each of these tests. After the scores have been recorded, the teacher decides whether to continue instruction in the same way or to change it.

Common examples of curriculum-based measurement include:

1. Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)

2. Gray Oral Reading Test (GORT)

3. Group Mathematics Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GMADE)

As the name suggests, an impromptu quiz is a spontaneous assessment of your student's knowledge. You can conduct this offline or use Formplus to create and administer an online quiz.

If you like, you can switch things up by organizing the impromptu quiz as a class game with rewards for the winners.

Advantages of Diagnostic Assessments

One of the key benefits of a diagnostic assessment is it allows the teacher and student to highlight and address knowledge gaps. When you have a clear idea of a student's level of knowledge, you can restructure your teaching program to address their most pressing challenges. Let's look at some other advantages of conducting diagnostic assessments in the classroom.

1. It helps you to tie learning outcomes to specific goals and objectives.

2. Diagnostic assessments provide substantial data for creating an effective curriculum that improves learning outcomes for students.

3. It makes the teaching and learning process more efficient by zeroing in on content that needs to be taught.

4. It creates a rewarding and amicable learning environment for the teacher and the students.

5. Diagnostic assessment allows the teacher to map out a meaningful and efficient instruction plan for the course duration.

6. It creates a baseline for future assessment. At the end of the course, the teacher can compare students' performance viz a viz their level of knowledge at the beginning of the course, and record any improvements.

7. Diagnostic assessment allows the teacher to individualize instruction. From the data, you can identify students who need extra tutoring on a particular portion of a unit or course of study. In the same vein, if a teacher discovers that a group of students has already mastered a large portion of a unit of study, he can design activities that allow that group to go beyond the standard curriculum for that topic through independent or small group study.

Limitations and Disadvantages of Diagnostic Assessment
1. Large Class Size
It's easy to carry out a diagnostic assessment when you're dealing with very few students. However, if you have a large class, it becomes more difficult to conduct this type of assessment, analyze results and arrive at a realistic conclusion. One way to get past this challenge is using an online form for administering the assessment.
2. Time-consuming
Again, this is a challenge if you're dealing with a large class. In fact, many instructors argue that diagnostic assessments are impractical in large classrooms. Conducting this type of assessment means sacrificing useful time that can be used for teaching and learning.

Other challenges you should expect with diagnostic assessments include:

3. They generally require special training in order to be administered and scored reliably.

4. If the teachers lack commitment, then you wouldn't get the best results from this process.

5. Diagnostic assessments can trigger anxiety in students.

6. It can lead to false inferences about a child's knowledge or abilities in the classroom.

How To Use Formplus for Diagnostic Assessments

With Formplus, you can create powerful surveys, questionnaires and quizzes for diagnostic assessment. Formplus has several features that allow you to gather, organize and analyze data seamlessly. Let's show you how to create an online form for diagnostic assessment with Formplus.

Step 1: Sign up for a Formplus account here. If you don't have a Formplus account, you can sign up for one easily.

Step 2: On your dashboard, click the "create new form" button. If you'd like, you can explore the templates library to discover a sample that suits your needs.

Step 3: Now, you should be in the form builder. On the left corner of the builder, you'd find the inputs section with several field options.

Step 4: Drag and drop preferred fields into the form's work area. Next, use the pencil icon beside each field to edit them.

Step 5: Click on the "save icon" to save all the changes you've made. This gives you automatic access to the builder's customization section.

Step 6: Use the customization options to change the look and feel of your form. You can add preferred background images, change the form's font or add your school's logo to the questionnaire or survey.

Step 7: Copy the form link and share it with respondents. You can also use the email invitation feature, or share the form via QR code.

Conclusion

Diagnostic assessments help teachers to plan meaningful and efficient instruction and can provide students with an individualized learning experience. Remember that it is a low-stake assessment so, there's no need to use the assessment results for summative evaluation.

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Diagnostic Assessment in Education: Purpose, Strategies, Examples

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Before introducing students to a new topic, it's best to find out how much they know about the subject. Diagnostic assessments are specially designed for this purpose. You can think of diagnostic assessments as a quick-fire method of gauging your students' knowledge.

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For Young Learners

Using whole group or partner discussions and then talking about it with the entire class.

Mind Map

Doodle It

Quiz

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What is Diagnostic Assessment    Definition & Examples   Video & Lesson Transcript   Study com

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Assessment of Learning is given at the end of a unit/subject of study to see how much knowledge the students have retained. It's usually in the form of a test, you are testing what they know. Depending on the school, the district, the country there may be different standards and benchmarks the children have to reach which is an assessment of learning.

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1) Listen and colour/read and colour tests
2) Kahoots
3) Plickers

I would personally recommend Plickers to students older than 5 who are used to handling devices and can be given individual screens/iPads to use. Plickers, as we discovered in the previous unit, is an excellent online assessment tool that allows the teacher to set the questions and the students to answer them at their own pace on their individual devices. Teachers have a separate view and can see who is on which question and where each student is thriving/struggling as they go along, allowing them to collect a lot of data at the same time.

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Assessment of a child’s progress in childcare takes many forms including running records, learning journals and photo journals. As detailed as these learning journals may be it will not present the clearest picture of the child’s journey and progress – that’s where the summative assessment comes into play.

The word assessment in childcare causes some confusion. Early childhood educators aren’t assessing children against defined measures but are rather plotting and mapping the child’s developmental progress over the course of a period of time. Over the span of the year they will use a variety of assessment tools to record the child’s progress. To bring all of the evidence together the educator uses a summative assessment to provide an overview of the child’s progress.

Ultimately the summative assessment should:

Highlight the strengths, learning development and interests of the child while acknowledging the child’s cultural background
● Identify any gaps in knowledge about the child
● Identify any potential learning difficulties
● Assist in planning for further support of the child’s development
● Promote and facilitate discussion with the child’s parents
● Assist in helping the childcare centre to meet all the requirements of national regulation and the national quality standard.

The key element to remember is that summative assessment childcare does not need to be a huge task if you are well organised and have been recording assessments throughout the assessment period.

How you Implement Summative Assessments

When considering how to write summative assessments in childcare it is important to remember that the process involves analysing a collection of records concerning the child’s progress and turning that information into a summary.

With this in mind implementing summative assessments is a relatively straight forward process where you:

Have a thorough understanding of the assessment process and why you need to do a summative assessment
● You have an organised system of information storage and filing that you can assess easily. It is a good idea to keep some sort of master organisation form so that you know where everything is filed.
● Commit to a time frame to complete assessments and work consistently towards achieving that goal by keeping accurate records of each child’s progress
● There is no set format for summative assessments and it is worth experimenting with different styles until you find one that best suits the way you work
● After completing the summative process undertake some reflective practice to identify how the child’s future development can be supported and write down clear learning goals for the coming period.
● Use what you already know – there’s no need to over complicate the process. You’ve been documenting the child’s progress consistently -so this is simply what it says it is an overall summary of the child’s progress.

What Should they look like?

While the National Quality Standard does not specify a set format there are some areas that the summative assessment should cover. These areas include:

● An emphasis of children’s strengths and a visible demonstration of the child’s strengths
● Include a recognition of the family’s knowledge of the child so that the assessment can take account of the child’s home and centre life
● Not contain any bias
● Clear concise language that is easy for families to understand
● Acknowledge the child’s social and cultural background
● Be regular and systematic so that a complete picture of the child’s progress emerges

Summative Assessment Childcare Examples

There are a number of ways that the summative assessment can be presented in a number of formats including:

● Pictorially using photographs to demonstrate progress with links to specific learning outcomes
● Flow charts identifying learning outcomes and plotting progress
● In table format
● Or in letter form

Regardless of which style you choose to use, you will need to provide summative assessments for the key learning outcomes. These are

● Children have a strong sense of identity
● Children are connected with and contribute to the world
● Children have a strong sense of well being
● Children are confident learners
● Children are effective communicators

Summative assessment childcare example templates on each key learning outcome follow..

Children have a strong sense of identity

Amanda works collaboratively and cooperates with others. She is equally at home in small and large group and game situations. In these situations she demonstrates respect for the feelings and rights of others. This is particularly evident during play where she works to resolve squabbles by listening to both sides of the story, asking relevant questions such as “why did you say that?” and working towards a solution that everyone will be happy with. Amanda also enjoys participating in dramatic play situations and takes a leading role by providing ideas and introducing characters.

Children are connected with and contribute to the world

Amanda actively seeks the involvement of other children and is always looking to bring others into her play. If she notices a child who appears to be alone, she will invite them to be involved with her play. She confidently expresses her opinion and this is particularly evident in group discussion. She understands that there are different ways of contributing to play or projects. She will ask educators if they need more materials to complete the project. If need be, she will look for other items to play with. Additionally, Amanda enjoys learning about other cultures.

Children have a strong sense of well being

Amanda happily connects with friends in a positive way. She has a wonderful sense of humour and enjoys making others laugh. Amanda actively participates in many physical activities such as dance in particular. She uses her senses to explore and respond to her surroundings. When using play equipment, Amanda shows respect for the safety of others and herself when using equipment. She also displays an understanding of looking after her health and always brings a healthy lunch.

Children are confident and involved learners

Amanda enjoys learning. She always is one of the first children to try something new and is an early and eager participant in new projects. She uses her imagination positively to express her creativity. When we introduced our under the sea theme, Amanda was excited and wanted to be a mermaid. She created a tail using cardboard, newspaper, glitter and paint. After she had created her own tail, she helped others to create mermaid tails as well.

Children are effective communicators

Amanda is a confident communicator. Her speech is clear and easy to understand. She is a confident communicator in both small and large groups and displays active listening skills in both scenarios. Her understanding is evident by the questions she asks and the answers she gives. Amanda’s enjoyment of group time is evident from her participation and communication at these times. She enjoys story and enjoys using creative arts like drawing and painting to convey her ideas.

The summative assessment should simply summarise the observations that you have previously observed and recorded.

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Assessment of a child’s progress in childcare takes many forms including running records, learning journals and photo journals. As detailed as these learning