The document discusses formative assessment and its key principles and practices. Formative assessment involves making judgements about pupils' knowledge and abilities based on evidence, in order to inform next steps in learning. It focuses on improving learning through techniques like questioning, feedback, peer and self-assessment. The goals are to understand pupil development and decide how to progress, which helps both teachers and pupils.

1. Assessment
Principles and Practices

2. What do we mean by ‘assessment’?
• Making a judgement about what pupils know or are
able to do.
• These judgements are based on the evidence of
learning produced by pupils.

3. Summative and formative assessment approaches
There are two main approaches to assessment for its different
purposes and uses: summative and formative assessment.

4. What do we mean by ‘formative’?
• Something that helps form or shape something else.
• The word formative in formative assessment refers to
the purpose of assessment: that it is carried out to help
shape and inform the learning.

5. What is formative assessment?
Assessment becomes formative assessment when
teachers and pupils use evidence about pupils’ learning
to help them:
• understand how pupils are developing
• decide the next steps in learning.
These decisions are likely to be better than decisions that
do not use that evidence.
(adapted from Wiliam, 2018)

6. Summative assessment
4. Assessment of learning
6. Designed for people who are not directly involved in
daily learning and teaching.
9. Final and one-way; presented in a formal report.
10. Usually compares a pupil’s learning with either
other pupils or the “standard” for a grade/level.
11. Given at the end of the year or a unit to check a
pupil's learning after teaching.

7. Formative assessment
3. Designed to assist teachers and pupils.
5. Focuses on improvement and progress towards a learning
goal.
7. Assessment for learning
8. Needs to involve the pupil because the pupil is the person
most able to improve the learning.
12. Checks learning throughout teaching to determine
progress and decide next steps.
13. Usually detailed, specific, and provides descriptive
feedback in words and in relation to success criteria
that have been set.

8. TYPES OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment of
learning
Assessment as
learning
Assessment for
learning
Administered at the end
of a unit or grading period
and evaluate a student’s
understanding
Assess a student’s
comprehension and
understanding of a skill or
lesson during the
learning and teaching
process.
Assess a student’s
comprehension and
understanding of a skill or
lesson during the
learning and teaching
process.

9. ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING
• Formerly known as summative assessment, 'assessment of
learning' helps to summarise what pupils know, understand
or can do against the relevant year level achievement
standard for different learning areas/subjects, in order to
report on achievement and progress.
• Assessment of learning takes place after the learning has
occurred - to determine if it did - and is used to:
1. plan future learning goals and pathways for students
2. provide evidence of achievement to the wider community,
including parents, educators, the students themselves and
outside groups
3. provide a transparent interpretation across all audiences.

10. ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING
• https://cambridge-community.org.uk/professional-
development/gswafl/index.html#:~:text=What%20is%2
0assessment%20for%20learning,learn%20and%20to
%20what%20standard.

12. Formative assessment – key concepts
Learning
Formative
assessment
Teaching
Where are we going?
Where is each pupil now?
How do we get there?

13. Key concepts: Where are we going?
• Sharing learning objectives and success criteria
Learning objectives describe the new knowledge,
understanding and skills, as well as changes in attitudes,
that pupils will gain by the end of a lesson.
Identifying success criteria for assessing learning will help
the teacher to give specific feedback.
• Exemplars
Providing examples of language use will help pupils
understand where exactly they are going with their learning.

14. Key concepts: Where is each pupil now?
• Starters and plenaries
These help the teacher know the starting point, and to see a change after
learning.
• Deliberate practice
Learning needs to be broken down into small steps.
• Questioning
Teachers can ask different question types for different purposes.
• Discussions
These may be simple opinion-sharing activities for younger children.
• Quick Scans
All-pupil-response techniques that enable the teacher to quickly check
understanding across a whole class.
• Self-assessment and peer-assessment
Primary pupils will need plenty of support while developing these skills. Pre-
primary children can begin to do this in a very simple way.

15. Key concepts: How do we get there?
• Feedback as part of a formative process
Three types:
– Feed-up ensures that pupils understand the purpose
of the assignment, task, or lesson (learning
objectives), including how they will be assessed
(success criteria)
– Feedback provides pupils with information about their
successes and needs
– Feed-forward identifies the next step in the learning
and how to get there
All three are required if pupils are to learn at high levels.

16. Checking your answers
Where are we going? Sharing learning objectives and success criteria
Examples
Where is each pupil now? Starters and plenaries
Deliberate practice
Questioning
Discussions
Quick scans
Self and peer assessment
How do we get there? Feedback

17. Principles of formative assessment
1. Sharing and understanding learning objectives and
success criteria
2. Helping pupils to show what they learned (e.g. in
classroom discussions)
3. Giving feedback that moves learning forward
4. Helping pupils to help and support each other with their
learning
5. Helping pupils to be owners of their learning
(Adapted from Wiliam, 2018)

18. Formative assessment classroom culture
• Placing emphasis on the process of teaching and
learning, and actively involving pupils in that process
• Building pupils’ skills for peer assessment and
self assessment
• Helping pupils to understand their own learning, and
develop appropriate strategies for “learning to learn”

19. Time cycles in formative assessment
Short cycle
Span Within and between lessons
Length Minute-by-minute and
day-by-day
Teaching and learning
strategies
Starters and plenaries
Questioning
Self assessment
Peer assessment
Exit cards

20. Time cycles in formative assessment
Medium cycle
Span Within and between
teaching units
Length One to four weeks
Teaching and learning
strategies
Assignments
Practice tests
End of unit quiz

21. Time cycles in formative assessment
Long cycle
Span Across terms or
teaching units
Length Four weeks to a year (or
more)
Teaching and learning
strategies
Benchmarking tests
End of term/year tests and
exams

22. Impact of time cycles in formative assessment
Short cycle Medium cycle Long cycle
Pupil engagement
increases
Teacher
responsiveness
improves
Pupils understand
how they are being
assessed
Teacher
understanding of
assessment
improves
Benchmarking for
pupil progress
Improvements
made to the
curriculum

23. Formative assessment techniques: quick scans
Quick scans
All-pupil-response techniques that enable the teacher to
quickly check understanding across a whole class.
– Traffic lights
– Thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs sideways
– Hinge question (a big question to check pupils’
understanding)

24. Formative assessment techniques: quick scans
Do you know how to use a Quick Scan
in a lesson?
• Red: I don’t understand
• Amber: I almost get it, but I need
confidence
• Green: I understand it, and I can
support others

25. Formative assessment techniques: effective questioning
• On average teachers ask 300 + questions a day
• Most questions involve the IRF (or IRE) cycle:
Initiation, Response, Feedback (or Evaluation)
• Average wait time is less than 1 second
• 80% of talk in the classroom is done by the teacher
• Pupils ask surprisingly few questions given that they
are doing the learning

26. Formative assessment techniques: effective questioning
Open and closed questions
Closed questions = ‘yes’ / ‘no’ / one-word answers
Open questions = several possible answers / encourage
thinking
Follow-up questions = extend thinking and learning

27. Formative assessment techniques: effective questioning
Teaching strategies for effective questioning
1. ‘No hands up’ and nominated questioning
(the teacher selects a pupil to answer)
1. Wait time and pose/pause/pounce/bounce
(basketball not ping pong!)
3. Distributing questions using lollypop sticks
4. Mini whiteboards

28. Formative assessment techniques: effective questioning
Types of questioning
(from the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates)
1. The Ignoramus: Pretend to be stupid or ignorant to
encourage explanation.
2. The Stingray: Give a shock to pupils’ traditional
way of thinking in the same way a stingray uses
its sting.
3. The Gadfly: This involves asking lots of little
questions intended to push thinking.
4. The Midwife: Ask questions that help give birth to
ideas.

29. Formative assessment techniques: effective questioning
Tips for effective questioning
• Plan questioning carefully
• Use big questions to introduce a new topic
• Ask questions that dig deeper than the surface
(‘probing’ questions)
• Use statements for discussion rather than questions
• Encourage pupils to make their own questions
• Create a supportive atmosphere – welcome mistakes
• Interpret what pupils say – don’t just evaluate

30. What are the benefits of formative assessment?
Benefits for teachers:
• Planning, teaching, responding and intervention
become more in line with pupil learning.
• Teaching and learning are focussed
on ‘the Zone of Proximal
Development’ (Vygotsky).
• There is more emphasis on
learning than performance.

31. What are the benefits of formative assessment?
Benefits for pupils:
• Pupils are encouraged to think more explicitly about
learning.
• Pupils become owners of their own learning: setting their
targets, monitoring and evaluating their own learning,
becoming aware of their own strengths and areas for
development as a learner.
• Motivation raised through active engagement in learning.
• Helps develop a ‘growth mindset’: pupils develop
strategies to help themselves when they find things
difficult.

32. Features of good feedback
• It is descriptive
• It is specific
• It focuses on changeable actions
• It identifies what was done well
• It identifies what can be improved
• It should be tied to the lesson plan
• It is most effective when understood using familiar and
relevant words related to the lesson and when it relates to
learning objectives and success criteria

33. Techniques for corrective feedback while speaking
• On-the-spot verbal feedback techniques (explicit
correction; elicitation; metalinguistic feedback; clarification
requests)
• Silent pointing & gesturing

34. Correction code for writing
WW Wrong word
WG Wrong grammar
WO Wrong word order
SP Spelling
P Punctuation
X Extra word
M Missing word
? Not clear
! Silly mistake!
RW Try re-writing