After reading this chapter, I believe the main idea focuses around the purposes for assessment as well as the different types of assessment. The purposes of assessment are: 1) provide feedback on students' progress and level of achievement 2) guide and motivate students in their own learning 3) improve the general effectiveness of instruction, and 4) identify modifications that will better meet the needs of individual students. In order to reach these goals through assessment, there are some different types of assessment. Formal assessment is a preplanned form of assessment in order to figure out what the students have learned, so far. Informal assessment is a more general day to day assessment of the students' progress, and can be more individually based. Formative and summative assessment can include both formal and informal assessment. Formative assessment is useful to allow the teacher to see progress in the moment, throughout a lesson/focus study. Summative assessment is more final, and assesses learning advancements at the end of a unit/chapter/book, etc. For example... Formal-Formative Assessment: small groups designed to answer one question in depth, per group. Formal-Summative Assessment: Chapter test. Informal-Formative Assessment: Leading a discussion about whatever is being learned. Informal-Summative Assessment: Pop Quiz about a chapter.
A question I had about this chapter is how much assessment goes on, on a day-to-day basis?
Both forms of assessment would generally be indistinguishable from each other, however, one small detail puts them apart. Formative assessments are for the teacher to figure out in what ways does he/she need to improve his/her teaching. Summative assessment is for the students to see how well they have learned/progressed.
All sorts of assessment happen in the classroom everyday. When the teacher asks a question to the class and someone raises their hand to answer the teacher is formatively assessing the student's performance. Worksheets as homework are a great formative assessment especially when given to get the students to think about the information before the lesson. One can think of any interaction that a teacher has with a student where she sees what the student knows as a formative assessment because she is looking at what they know and using it to adapt her teaching.
ReplyDeleteI think that assessment is constantly happening in the classroom everyday. A simple question can be a form of assessment that a teacher may ask a student. Classroom discussion is a form of assessment because ideas are being bounced off each student and they are learning new ideas from their not only their teacher, but their peers as well. Constant interactions between teachers and students and students and students represents assessment.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll disagree on your distinction between summative and formative. Formative should push on both student learning and teacher strategies. Summative assessment really has the purpose of giving a number for the amount that has been learned a the specific moment in time (and not using it for further purposes).
ReplyDelete