This document discusses formative assessment and its importance in the teaching and learning process. It defines formative assessment as a way for teachers to regularly check in with students to understand how they are processing material and what improvements can be made. The document provides examples of formative assessment strategies teachers can use, such as asking multiple choice questions to reveal misconceptions, encouraging writing to assess understanding, and cold calling students to get feedback from all learners. It emphasizes that formative assessment should be ungraded and used to inform future instruction.

1. Reveal Thinking
Formative Assessment

2. Teaching and learning are not simple
processes:

3. Because teaching and learning require a
dynamic interaction between human
beings, there are many things that can
get in the way of success:
A few students
were tired after
an exam in a
previous class.
The teacher
used a word
no one
understood. Students focused
on an example
and missed the
big picture.

4. The only way to know if students
learned what the teacher intended
them to learn is to solicit evidence of
it and evaluate it.

5. Unfortunately, the evidence and
evaluation often happen too late in
the learning process.
Teach & Learn Assess Evaluate

6. Evidenceandevaluation needtohappen
throughouttheteachingandlearningprocessso
thattheycaninforminstructionandlearning.
Teach & Learn
Assess
Evaluate

7. Formative evaluation is a way to check in regularly
with students to understand how they are
processing the material and what improvements
teachers and students can make while teaching and
and learning are still happening.
"Students seem to be
struggling with this concept.
I'll try explaining it
differently."
"I'll take another
stab at this using the
feedback I got on
my draft."

8. Ways to incorporate
formative assessment
into daily instruction:

9. Action #1:
Ask strategic multiple choice questions
that illuminate students' knowledge and
misconceptions.
The wrong answers
that students select
should tell you
what is misguided
about their
thinking.

10. Example:
What explains the existence of seasons?
}
The first three
are tempting
incorrect
answers that
take advantage
of students'
misconceptions.
Correct answer
-
a. The elliptical path of the
earth’s orbit
b. The sun’s off-center position
in the earth’s orbit
c. The change in the angle of
the earth’s tilt
d. The tilt of the earth as it
revolves around the sun

11. These questions can be handed out at the end of class in the
form of an exit slip that students turn in before leaving.
"Before you leave today, be sure to
jot down your answer to this question
and hand it in on your way out."

12. If students select the wrong answer,
interpret the results to figure out what
they've fundamentally misunderstood.
"They don't
understand the
basic model of
the solar
system."
"We need to
review how
planets orbit in
relation to the
sun."
"They are
having trouble
visualizing the
Earth's
movement in
space."

13. Figure out how you can fix the
underlying misconception.
Today we're going
to make a 3D
model of the solar
system and
demonstrate how
the planets orbit
the sun.

14. Action #2:
Encourage students to write extensively to
see how they construct knowledge
Reviewing students' annotations or
answers to short-answer questions
reveals the way students construct
knowledge. Teachers figure out if
the material is resonating with their
students based on the quality and
accuracy of the responses.

15. Interpret their writing to assess how
they're processing the material.
Compare it with how you want them
to think about the material.
Are they
thinking
critically?
Are they
making
connections?
Are they using
scientific/historical
reasoning?

16. Action #3:
Cold call students
Calling only on the students who raise their hands does
not present an accurate snapshot of the group. Teachers
need to ask questions that require explanation and
analysis, then call on students randomly.

17. Cold calling is a way to see how ALL students respond
to questions. It includes the students who never
volunteer, and it reframes discussion to be about
figuring out the answer together rather than seeing
who can get it right.
"I'm not just
looking for the
right answer. I
want to know
how you're
thinking about
this."
"If you're not sure
about the
answer, that's
OK. We'll work
through it."

18. Action #4:
Use the information from formative
assessment to inform your teaching.
What are you seeing
in students' answers?
Students
are almost
there.
Students
are getting
it.
Students
are
struggling.
Provide
more
scaffolds.
Reteach in
a different
way.
Build on
existing
knowledge.
Deepen
understanding
with
enrichment.
Move on to
next concept.

19. A few caveats about
formative assessment

20. Formative assessment
needs to be ungraded.
Teachers can give
feedback on the quality of
student work, but
receiving a grade shuts
down the learning process
for students.

21. Formative assessment needs to feed
back into the teaching and learning
cycle. If the assessment fails to inform
the next steps in teaching and learning,
then it has failed in its purpose.
The goal is not to judge performance.
It's to help figure out how to improve.

22. Formative assessment recognizes the
complexity of teaching and learning; it
ensures that the material is being
communicated and understood effectively.
It's also one of the best ways to improve
instruction because it gives valuable data
about what students did and did not learn.
Missing out on this practice means being in
the dark about students' daily progress.

23. #deepreading
#formativeassessment