Best Teaching Practices for Classroom Assessment
Teaching Goals, Formative & Summative Assessments Guide Instruction
Dec 11, 2008
Pop quiz. What are the teaching goals for student assessments ? Why do teachers give tests?
A. Because it’s Friday.
B. It’s fun.
C. If students didn’t have a test to look forward to, they wouldn’t pay attention.
D. For the exact same reason that mechanics give assessments.
Best teaching practices dictate that Formative assessments are those used to form instruction and summative assessments as those used to summarize learning. Nearly every career field outside of education uses formative and summative assessments to increase effectiveness.
Non-Educational Examples of Formative Assessments
When a family car failed emissions last summer, the owner took it to the dealership. He told the service technician that he figured it was either the oxygen sensor or the EGR valve. The mechanic’s response was simply brilliant.
The mechanic said, “Those are good ideas. Personally, I have no idea why your car is failing emissions. But, your car has a little computer in it, and it is taking assessments of your engine about every 15 minutes. I’m going to plug my computer into your computer and get all that data, and when I see a number that is outside of the expected parameters, then that is where I’ll focus my attention.”
A formative assessment done by the car indicated that a port behind an EGR valve was clogged. The mechanic cleaned out the port and drove the car around for a few hours. A little summative assessment showed that his plan was effective.
Best Teaching Practices for Formative Assessments in the Classroom
Teachers don’t use assessments simply because they are embedded in the curriculum. Instead, they use them to gather information for the purpose of planning effective instruction. How does a teacher know what to teach next? Does she simply turn pages in the teacher’s manual? Or does she look at her students?
Assessments are how teachers are intentional in the classroom. This is how they teach on purpose. Every lesson, every day, every unit should be an assessment sandwich.
This is what it looks like: First teachers give a little pre-assessment to find out what the children know and what they need to know. They build on what the students know to teach towards what they need to know. Then they give a post-assessment to find out where the students are. Did the students learn the content? Which students? Do they have misconceptions? Can they move further into the curriculum, or do they need to go back a little?
Classroom Techniques for Effective Formative Assessments
- First thing in the morning, hand out four different colored 3x5 cards to each student.
- Choose four standards – one for each card. Ask students to answer anywhere from 2-5 questions per card.
- Collect the cards. If a card shows understanding, put the card in a pocket. If the card shows partial or no understanding, keep the card in hand.
- When all the cards are sorted, look at the cards in my hand. These are the small groups for today. Pull all of one color of card; call the names and provide a specific review for the students that need it. Then, pull out the next color cards, and call together the students that need a different review. The important thing is to design instruction to meet the specific needs of children.
The main thing is not so much the assessment itself as how it is used. If teachers are giving assessments are doing nothing with the information, then they might as well not give them at all. Instead each day should be an assessment sandwich – assess, teach to the target, assess.
