Assessment- both formative and summative

Program Standard 11
We began this quarter in EDU 6613, Standards-Based Assessment, by examining our personal thoughts around formative assessment and how we use it in our classrooms. I reflected that formative assessment is essentially a check-in and that it can be tied to content, objective, or even work time. I have tried multiple formative assessment strategies in my classroom, and I enjoyed the resources to learn about ways to use it more effectively in my classroom.

The text for this course, Embedded Formative Assessment (Wiliam, 2011) encourages teachers to think through assessment at all stages of lesson. Possibly the most interesting fact I pulled from this book was Wiliam’s warning that feedback plus a score makes the feedback worthless (2011, p. 109). Students only look at the score and worry about how it will affect their grade, or compare it with their neighbors. This set the stage for research over the quarter into different ways to give students feedback and then how to use that feedback to inform my teaching. Carol Dweck’s article “The Perils and Promises of Praise” (2007) serves as a reminder that giving the right type of feedback is also very important. Dweck, a leader in the growth-mindset movement, emphasizes process praise that “keeps students focused… on processes they can all engage in to learn” is much more beneficial to motivating students than effort praise.

For students to really benefit from process praise, though, they need to know where they are in the process. Teachers need to have an objective in mind, and they need to share that objective with their students in student-friendly language. Stanier, in his 2013 article “Much to learn you still have,” advocates for inquiry models that help students reflect. Stanier writes that if teachers make explicit “what master of that piece of knowledge looks like, pupils can assess themselves and decide when they are ready to progress on to the next piece of knowledge” (2013, p. 15). In this way, teachers and students can work together to meet the learning goal. If students cannot evaluate their own work, they will rely solely on the teacher to be told when they have met the learning target. This is not only inefficient, but it also removes the partnership from education, taking us back to the days when a teacher held all the knowledge.

Example of slide with learning objective- I project this slide
to help students identify and meet the learning target

Mid-way through the quarter, I chose to focus on self-assessment to learn more about effective strategies. You can read my findings here, but my overall takeaway is that self-assessment is an integral part of standards-based assessment. I have reaffirmed throughout this course that it is important to start with the end in mind. Begin with a target, and then think of how you will get your students to that target. Plan ahead to meet student confusion or misconceptions, but also plan plenty of check-ins that will allow you, and your students, to ensure that you are all on the same road heading for the same target.

As I begin the new school year, I will use the work that I have done in this course and in Curriculum Design, EDU 6639, to re-work my freshman curriculum. This course addresses SPU Teacher Leadership standard 11, “utilize formative and summative assessment in a standards-based environment.” My future lessons will be aimed at greater understandings that ensure my students meet the social sciences standards at my school, taking away some activities that, while fun, did not advance student learning in any particular area. I look forward to working more closely with my students as I identify learning targets and together we work to meet them.

References

Dweck, C.S. (2007, October). “The perils and promises of praise.” Educational Leadership, 65(2), 34-39. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct07/vol65/num02/The-Perils-and-Promises-of-Praise.aspx.

Moss, C.M., Brookhart, S.M., & Long, B.A. (2011, March). "Knowing your learning target." Educational Leadership, 68(6), 66-69. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar11/vol68/num06/Knowing-Your-Learning-Target.aspx.

Stanier, J. (2013). 'Much to learn you still have!': An attempt to make year 9 masters of learning. Teaching History, (150), 14-19. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.spu.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1325039101?accountid=2202

Stockman, A (2015, April 25). "10 creative pre-assessment ideas you may not know." Brilliant or insane: Education on the edge. Retrieved from http://www.brilliant-insane.com/2015/04/10-creative-pre-assessment-ideas-you-may-not-know.html

Wiliam, D. (2011). Embedded Formative Assessment. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.