Formative Assessment Institute Day 2

Display slide 14 and say, ”We have created a definition of assessment that identifies three main types of assessment but there are other ways to think about the purposes of assessment. One way that many people use is to think about how three simple prepositions can change the meaning of how we approach assessment in different situations. Different types of assessment have certain things in common: gathering evidence, interpreting that evidence, and using the interpretation in some way. But how each of these things is carried out is determined by the purpose of the assessment.”

Display slide 15. Read the three short descriptions of each of these ideas, and discuss how the preposition describes a different purpose for learning in each one. See the following examples for each:

1. A teacher gives her students a comprehensive final at the end of a unit on biodiversity. What makes “of” appropriate here? What type of assessment might this be (summative, diagnostic, or formative)?

2. A teacher asks his student to do an Exit Ticket describing the three things they learned and two things they still need to know more about. What makes “for” appropriate here? What type of assessment might this be (summative, diagnostic, or formative)?

3. A teacher asks students to peer edit paragraphs written by others and then discuss their edits. What makes “as” appropriate here? What type of assessment might this be (summative, diagnostic, or formative)?

Display slide 16 and share the following video, “Formative Assessment,” which summarizes what participants have looked at so far.

Display slide 17 and share the instructional strategy I Think, We Think with your participants. As the scenarios are shared, instruct your participants to think about whether it is describing assessment as learning, assessment for learning, or assessment of learning.

Begin by moving to slide 18.

Display slide 23 and instruct your participants to retrieve their cognitive comics from earlier. Say, “We are now going to go back to your cognitive comics and have you label instances where assessment of, as, and/or for learning are occurring. Think about whether or not learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered, and community-centered environments were integrated into that learning experience and discuss why this is important.”

• Assessment as Learning: Blue

• Assessment of Learning: Pink

• Assessment for Learning: Yellow

Display slide 24 and share the example from earlier with the added assessment types labeled.

Display slide 25 which includes the example and the instructions together.

Display slide 26 and ask participants, “let’s go back to our Anchor Chart and look for patterns. In thinking about the purposes for formative assessment, what stands out as a big idea or two about what formative assessment is used for?”

Display slide 27, pass out the attached reading, The Purposes of Formative Assessment, and say, ”Here are some ideas from Page Keeley in her book about purposes for which formative assessment can be used in the classroom. After the break, you will do a variation on a card sort to see how you might match up these purposes with different kinds of strategies from the LEARN site.”

Display slide 28, pass out the attached Note Catcher, and provide participants time to reflect on the assessment strategies that they have participated in up to this point. Have participants answer the question, ”How was (the strategy) used and how can I use it?”

Once they finish this activity, give your participants a break.