Best Practice: Formative Assessment Done Right
Another Reading Response option (Week 4 or 5): Check this link out as it relates directly to our discussion from the text and from "Teaching to the Test." I also found some of the additional comments by readers of her post interesting. What do you think about the value of formative assessment? Do we need more structure and training in this area? What do you do? A response here can count for reader response for 4 or 5.
This speaks to the "teaching to the test" discussion. Also note the discussion thread that follows. Interesting!
ReplyDeleteWhat an article! It is an interesting topic. Although I can understand the reasons behind standardizing formative assessments, it seems to contradict the whole idea of formative assessment. It is supposed to be a quick, real check of whether your students have gotten something and are ready to move on. Quick, informative, effective are words I relate to formative assessment. Long, impractical are words I relate to standardizing assessments.
ReplyDeleteI found this article very interesting, I don't know if I missed the formative assessment class in college but I think that maybe having a little more training on it would have been nice, but not necessary. It is something that many teachers just get the knack of as they are teaching and is something that is not necessarily going to get better if it is standardized it would just defeat the purpose of formative assessments. Like Meghan said they are supposed to be a quick check of student understanding. More of a mental checklist of who understands and who needs more assistance on the topic. I find myself doing this multiple times a day as a review of the main concept of the class or lesson. Just asking a few simple questions gives me an idea of who got it and who was completely "out in space" during the lesson.
ReplyDeleteI think that the teachers who are able to keep a mental list of who *really* understands what, long enough to write it down, have incredible memories, and I am impressed. I was taught the value of data, and I have had positive experience with the use of standardized formative assessments, or "probes," if I am correct in thinking they are the same thing, in my classroom. I like to do weekly probes for progress monitoring purposes. A quick free-write, in which I count the words and the correct-word-sequences; a multiplication "mad-minute"; a timed read-aloud; give me data to use in many ways. The data indicates whether or not the student is making progress, which is the most important thing for it to show me- whether or not my instruction is effective. In addition, the data gives me the proof I need to show parents, general ed teachers, special ed partners, and administrators that what I am doing is working! (That's always nice.) My favorite way to use this data is to motivate the kids to beat their scores. They're so excited on Fridays. They remember their scores from last week, and they strive to do better. (Maybe that earnest enthusiasm is just a 4th grader thing?)
ReplyDeleteI would agree with Meghan. Formative assessment is just a way for me to do a quick check on concepts. Also helps me to know as a teacher if I need to change the presentation style of a particular concept and reteach. I am not in favor of standardizing this type of assessment.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of standardizing I think of more paperwork and a more formal rigid environment for students.