Formative assessment is a huge part of my school's daily schedule. It is mandatory for teachers to do and document all assessments. I have seen my teacher use many types of formative assessments. Some have included matrixes, tickets out the door, thumbs up, and many more. An example of formative assessment being used is when my teacher told all the students who understood a topic to put their thumb up, the ones that were a little fuzzy to put their thumbs sideways, and the ones who were completely lost to put their thumbs down. Luckily, there were no thumbs down. There were about 5 thumbs sideways. She said that everyone can work independently and she went over to the students with thumbs sideways to help them understand by wording it a different way and giving each of them individualized attention. That is how she remediated their learning. At the end of the lesson, all of the students handed in a writing piece as a ticket out the door so the teacher could see if all of the students finally understood the concept.
Formative assessment is very important at Shadybrook. This is because their is a new principal that is working hard to make sure all students get the education they deserve. He does not want any of them to fall behind so formative assessment is a way that he can check to see how each individual student is doing.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Learning Gaps
Learning gaps are determined by the difference in what the student knows and where they are in their learning and where they should be based on the state objectives and standards. Learning gaps occur when students are below grade level and struggling to comprehend their grade's concepts. To address learning gaps, teachers must anticipate where students might struggle and fall behind. I do this by creating a formative assessment plan. This way, I will be able to prepare for them and eliminate any foreseen problems while making the lesson plan. I will make sure all the predicted problems with the lesson will not happen so my students will have ample opportunity to learn. During the lesson, I must document evidence of learning. There are many different assessments I use. Matrixes, rubrics, ticket out the door, muddiest points, and one thing I learned are all ways to creatively assess your students. This formative assessment is done many times throughout the unit and lessons. Teachers must analyze the documented learning evidence to see exactly where the problems are and what students need help with. With this learned information from the formative assessment, teachers must remediate their instruction to cater to the students needs and provide feedback for them so they can succeed.
Formative Assessment Concerns
Formative Assessment is a great tool to use throughout the school day. There are a lot of positive aspects of the assessing tool but there are some things that concern me. I am worried about what to do with the students I know who understand the concept by doing my formative assessment and helping the other students who are struggling. Through formative assessment, I will know which students understand and which ones need extra time and help. I will have to help the confused students. I am worried that the students who are quicker to understand concepts will not get to achieve their full potential because they are not given the proper opportunities to succeed. This is due to the concentration being on the lower achieving students. They still need to improve themselves even though they are on grade level, they are not achieving the most they can and that is unacceptable. I also do not know when a good time is to move on to the next subject if not all students have grasped the concept. There are so many objectives needing to be met in a year and if we wait for every student to understand the concept concretely then not all objectives will be explored.
I will definitely need to come up with a plan to facilitate the learning of higher order thinking and inventive thinking for the students who are quicker to understand. I will do this by giving those students opportunities to dig down deeper into the concept by taking other steps of analysis, application, and creation while the other students are working on remembering and understanding. This way both sets of students get authentic learning experiences. To make sure all objectives are met, there comes a point where the class must move on. The students who do not understand will get the concepts intertwined in other subjects and objectives throughout the year. This way they all get all the objectives hit and have a concreate understanding of them.
Formative assessment will help me determine which students need the extra help and which ones need deeper thinking work.
I will definitely need to come up with a plan to facilitate the learning of higher order thinking and inventive thinking for the students who are quicker to understand. I will do this by giving those students opportunities to dig down deeper into the concept by taking other steps of analysis, application, and creation while the other students are working on remembering and understanding. This way both sets of students get authentic learning experiences. To make sure all objectives are met, there comes a point where the class must move on. The students who do not understand will get the concepts intertwined in other subjects and objectives throughout the year. This way they all get all the objectives hit and have a concreate understanding of them.
Formative assessment will help me determine which students need the extra help and which ones need deeper thinking work.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Understanding Formative Assessment
The article by Sarah McManus, Understanding the CCSSO Definition of Formative Assessment, gave clear and helpful definitions of what formative assessment should look like in the classroom. To me, this means that it described it as an action instead of a test or worksheet you give to students. It is not to see if students understood the lesson but rather to see if they are learning the steps to comprehend the bigger picture. Throughout the lesson, teachers should do check points to see if the students are following.
There are four words that Dr. McManus discussed in this article are process, during, feedback, and students. Formative assessment is a PROCESS, not an end result. It should be done throughout the lessons and there are many steps. DURING the process of learning and the lessons the student learning is assessed by question and answer sessions, kid watching, and many more activities or strategies. The teacher either moves on if the students understand or adjusts the instruction to remediate. The teacher should also give FEEDBACK to guide students and let them know what they are doing right and wrong. This will help them understand what they are doing and how to fix it. The final key word is STUDENTS. Formative assessment should be student focused and engaged. The students should take an active part in the learning process. They need to be able to know what, why, and how to get the answers and understand the concept.
It is important to plan the lessons and units carefully for many reasons. First off, it is important to map out lessons to make sure all concepts and standards are covered. Next, it is also important to plan out time for formative assessments and time for remidiation. During the lesson is the time for students to have questions, get confused, and make mistakes. Teachers need to know that this is going to happen and plan for it. Another thing all teachers need to plan for is the unexpected. Anyhting can happen in a classroom and teachers need to be flexible and prepared for anything!
There are four words that Dr. McManus discussed in this article are process, during, feedback, and students. Formative assessment is a PROCESS, not an end result. It should be done throughout the lessons and there are many steps. DURING the process of learning and the lessons the student learning is assessed by question and answer sessions, kid watching, and many more activities or strategies. The teacher either moves on if the students understand or adjusts the instruction to remediate. The teacher should also give FEEDBACK to guide students and let them know what they are doing right and wrong. This will help them understand what they are doing and how to fix it. The final key word is STUDENTS. Formative assessment should be student focused and engaged. The students should take an active part in the learning process. They need to be able to know what, why, and how to get the answers and understand the concept.
It is important to plan the lessons and units carefully for many reasons. First off, it is important to map out lessons to make sure all concepts and standards are covered. Next, it is also important to plan out time for formative assessments and time for remidiation. During the lesson is the time for students to have questions, get confused, and make mistakes. Teachers need to know that this is going to happen and plan for it. Another thing all teachers need to plan for is the unexpected. Anyhting can happen in a classroom and teachers need to be flexible and prepared for anything!
Monday, August 27, 2012
Self-Reflection: Formative Assessments
Although I am not in a classroom of my own yet, I feel that I have grasped the concept of formative assessments. Without knowing it, I have already use these assessments in lessons I have taught previously.
I have had all students hold up white boards with their answers on them as a asked questions, I have had tickets out the door so I could see if they understood the lesson or need more time on it, and I have used a clipboard and check marks to see if they have the correct answers and process.
I believe that these assessments are more beneficial because they alter what you are teaching the kids immediately.
I wish to learn more about what to do with that information after it is collected. What is a good number or percentage of students who understand to move on to another topic? Or should we continue with no child is left behind and drill it into the students heads, even the ones that understand it. Wouldn't that mean that those ones are losing valuable learning time in other areas? Where do you draw the line at student understanding. Not all schools have the staff, time, money, or resources to ensure that all students have a concrete understanding of each topic.
In the survey, I rated myself positively on most of the identifying and using formative assessments. I did not think I am an expert in planning remediation or guiding students to discuss their own feedback. I hope to learn more about this as I study formative assessments in depth.
I have had all students hold up white boards with their answers on them as a asked questions, I have had tickets out the door so I could see if they understood the lesson or need more time on it, and I have used a clipboard and check marks to see if they have the correct answers and process.
I believe that these assessments are more beneficial because they alter what you are teaching the kids immediately.
I wish to learn more about what to do with that information after it is collected. What is a good number or percentage of students who understand to move on to another topic? Or should we continue with no child is left behind and drill it into the students heads, even the ones that understand it. Wouldn't that mean that those ones are losing valuable learning time in other areas? Where do you draw the line at student understanding. Not all schools have the staff, time, money, or resources to ensure that all students have a concrete understanding of each topic.
In the survey, I rated myself positively on most of the identifying and using formative assessments. I did not think I am an expert in planning remediation or guiding students to discuss their own feedback. I hope to learn more about this as I study formative assessments in depth.
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