These two modules were about
assessment. There is performance
assessment which makes students do an activity or make something. There are two different types of performance
assessments, summative and formative.
Summative assessments are given at the end of a chapter, unit, etc. A formative assessment is used to measure
progression during the time of learning the material. There is also authentic assessment which
makes the students solve problems using their knowledge and skills. The book gives examples of different types of
assessments that students can do rather than just taking a test. Some of these examples include presentations,
projects, and portfolios. These give
students different chances to be assessed based purely on tests, but on how
they can express their knowledge with minimal limitations. There
are also different ways to evaluate the students like with checklists, rubrics
or based off scales. These give the
students a good idea of what the teacher is looking for so they know what to
include on their assessment. Teachers do
not just purely have to assess students with physical objects but how they are
doing in class. This type of assessment
is informal and the student usually does not know they are being assessed
compared to formal which is the typical type of grading with tests, quizzes,
projects, etc. Finally there are four
different types of characteristics that make a good assessment that all teachers
should make sure the assessments meet: reliable, standardized, validity, and
practical.
One question
that I have is, should teachers put more emphasis on formal or summative
assessments or the same?
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FORMATIVE
ASSESSMENT
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SUMMATIVE
ASSESSMENT
|
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FORMALLY ASSESSED
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A
practice quiz over the weekly spelling words.
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A
quiz over the weekly spelling words on Friday.
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INFORMALLY ASSESSED
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Looking
at how Jim acted for the first week of school.
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Looking
at how Jim acted every week throughout the quarter.
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The only real way to know is if the assessment is given at
the end of a section of learning like a chapter test compared to a pop quiz
over the daily material. Other than that
the assessments should be the same it just limits the material that is going to
be on each assessment. More information
will be covered overall in a summative compared to a formal assessment.
In regards to your question, I believe this would depend on the structure of your classroom and how you teach. For example, if your classroom is based off of knowing and memorizing facts you may want to use formative assessments more than summative assessments. On the other hand, if your classroom is more discussion based you may want to put more emphasis on summative assessments than formative assessments.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit confused why memorization connects to more formative assessments and discussion to summative? Did you mean the reverse?
DeleteYour own purposes for the assessment (your learning goals) will determine which kind you should emphasize. The best assessment is one that is aligned with your stated learning goal. Additionally, do you hold a teaching philosophy that instruction is very interconnected and that students should always learn from mistakes? If so, then, you will probably use mostly formative assessments. In this way, you can connect new content with old content and revisit misconceptions students had in the past. If you believe the topics are disconnected and that you want to move on after each topic, you will probably be using a lot of summative assessment.
ReplyDeleteI think you might want to reconsider the distinction you make between formative and summative assessment. I think it's most productive to think about how each assessment is used in defining it (which isn't just about timing of the assessment). A quiz can be given in the middle of instruction, but be graded and never used to improve learning or teaching strategy (making it summative--its purpose is to quantify what has been learned at that specific moment in time). Similarly, something near the end of instruction could be used to give students and teachers information for future changes (making it formative).
I also don't think the amount of questions in each assessment would define them--you could imagine a very long formative assessment or a very short summative assessment. It's likely that many formative assessments are based on shorter periods of time, so in that sense, I see your point.