Teachers have to use many different kinds of assessments during the year to see if and what their students are learning. It is important for teachers to determine what kind of assessments will be best suited for certain topics and learning periods.
If a teacher gives a summative assessment at the end of a week-long learning period, and sees that many of her students are struggling, what is the best next step for the teacher to take? Since the learning period is over, would it still be beneficial for the teacher to keep reviewing the material until she determines have sufficiently learned the material?
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
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SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
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FORMALLY ASSESSED
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A worksheet that is over the material covered in class that day.
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A final graded test at the end of a social studies unit
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INFORMALLY ASSESSED
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Asking students a series of questions that deal with what was covered in class the day before.
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The teacher spontaneously has the class make a poster board that summarizes the main points of the science unit they have just finished.
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You cannot tell whether an assessment is formative or summative simply by looking at it. They each have different purposes. One way to tell what kind of assessment it is it to look at when it is used. If a quiz or homework assignment is given during the learning period, it is a formative assessment. Formative assessments are used to help the teacher see what she needs to modify about the lesson or her teaching in order to help her students best learn what they need to learn. If there is a test or project given at the end of learning period, it is a summative assessment. Summative assessments are used to evaluate what students have learned, and if they have demonstrated the knowledge that they need to have.
Since the teacher is the controller of her own classroom, she has the opportunity to decide if she wants to revisit a topic that wasn't mastered by here students. In my opinion, if a lot of students missed a question, then it would reflect the way I taught that information. I would take some time in the next class to go over the test or whatever assessment I decided to give and go through that problem with the students. If it is the concept that was confusing, I would address the concept, because information builds on other information. Learning the concept is the most important thing because if the students don't understand it now, it will be difficult for them to understand the next higher topic.
ReplyDeleteIf many students do not understand the same thing, the teacher should reflect on the teaching methods used. If it is determined to be a fault of the teacher, the teacher should consider giving back points (if they were deducted) and try to explain the content better. If the information is not really relevant to anything the class will need to know or be learning in the future, it may be wise just to give deserved points back and move on.
ReplyDeleteI like your ideas here, particularly your suggestions for the table!
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of factors that go into your question. Does he have time to go back? Is the content important (in his judgement)? We know it's always good for learning if topics can be connected to each other, so I think a great way to address this is to work in some of the content into the topic of the following week. If he gets creative, a teacher can almost always make some connection, and improve learning of both sets of concepts.