
Formative and Summative Assessment Julie Sanchez, Ph.D December 1, 2016
What is classroom assessment? • All processes involved in making decisions about students’ learning progress Reasons for assessment • Promote learning • Increase motivation • Accountability
THE BIG VISION TO PONDER • What is the purpose of the assessment? • Think clearly about what the student will learnby completing their work. Then we design assignments and select content that will promote that learning. • Think clearly about what you will learnby having students completing their work.
Student & Teacher Gains • What does it show you about the student’s thinking? What does it NOT show you? • What does it show you about the student’s metacognitive skills? • Where would you place more emphasis when teaching this concept? • Are there any misconceptions apparent that you need to address? • Are there interesting relationships to explore further? • What ideas does it provide you for your teaching of this subject in the future?
A classification of classroom assessments FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT Formal assessment Informal assessment Teacher made assessments Commercially made assessments • Formal assessment • Informal assessment • Teacher made assessments • Commercially made assessments
When do we use formative vs. summative? FORMATIVE SUMMATIVE Directly following the end of a unit, chapter or series of lessons When students need to evidence learning on sequential lessons that have continual building of knowledge Mid-semester/End of semester • Directly following concept learning/skills based learning • To practice new knowledge/elaborate on new knowledge • When we jump Bloom’s levels
Formative Assessment Activity HOMEWORK/IN-CLASS WORK • What is my homework or low stakes class work philosophy? a. How does this work fit into my class? How is it valued? b. Why do I assign? 2. What are my policies? a. Late? b. Incomplete or below standard work? 3. How is this work graded? a. How do my students know how they did?
Selected-Response Assessments • Multiple choice items • Matching items • True-False items
Constructed response assessments • Short answer/open-ended • Essay • Completion items • Problem solving items
How effective are selected responseassessments? DISADVANTAGES Students may guess Cannot measure creative or elaborative skills ADVANTAGES • Efficient • Quick to score • Good measure of discrete knowledge • Assess many topics in a short time
How effective are constructed responseassessments? DISADVANTAGES Time consuming to grade Cover less material More likely to be unreliable Rubrics may help improve reliability ADVANTAGES • Easier to construct • Measures knowledge, organization, and communication skills • Assesses Bloom’s higher levels
Alternative assessments • Main goal is to “gather evidence about how students are approaching, processing, and completing real-life tasks in a particular domain” • Authentic assessments • Portfolios • Performances • Exhibitions • Journals
Summative assessment activity: • Assignment analysis • Rubric analysis
Understanding the Assessment Cycle
Administering assessments • Create a comfortable and organized environment. • Keep the assessment environment as similar as possible to the learning environment. • Monitor your students as they are being assessed. • Give precise directions before and during your assessments (dual-modality). • Promote metacognition.
Evaluating and Revising • LANGUAGE: Ambiguous wording? Clear directions? Language align with instruction? • INSTRUCTION: Strong vs.? Insufficient? • LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY (Blooms taxonomy)? Does level of curriculum match the level of assessment? • AMOUNT of formative assessment? • Used for INTENDED PURPOSE(S)/align with objectives? Learning behaviors?