Formative Assessment

Formative Assessment

My Own Recollection

Whenever I am asked to think back or compare something to when I was back in school, I always kind of sigh and think to myself "ugh, do I have to???". I'm not sure if it is just me, but I often feel like it has been centuries since I have been in school as a child. I graduated in 2001, which truly isn't that long ago, but I always feel like it was ages ago when I am asked to think back to when I was in school as a child. I mean, I can recall things such as the friends I made, when Joshua jumped off the swing in 2nd grade and broke his arm, sneaking into the middle school girls' locker room after hours and TPing it, and my Earth Science teacher who always seemed to have those gross lip crusties in the corners of his mouth. But, I always feel like I struggle with being asked to reflect back to when I was in school on things such as my personal learning strategies, teachers approaches to teaching, testing aspects that I may have found hard or easy, etc. 

I was trying to rack my brain and recall any types of formative assessment practices any of my teachers may have used, but found I was mainly coming up with nothing (maybe my retrieval skills should have been more of a focus when I was younger!). The only thing that I could find in the back of my memory that may qualify as past formative assessment for myself when I was a youngster were times where a teacher would individually conference with students. It was typically done when there wasn't much going on in the classroom, usually some assigned silent reading from the text book. The teacher would call us to her desk one at a time to ask us different questions based on the unit we were currently working on. Our answers were never graded, and I honestly do not recall any explicit follow up to these sessions. I do recall always feeling nervous and uncomfortable during these little sessions. I felt as if I was being interviewed as the teacher would write as I spoke. Never cared for these sessions. Other than that, I was still trying to dig deeper in my memory for any other hints of formative assessment. Then it dawned on me that perhaps any other forms of formative assessment I probably was involved in as a young student were built into the teaching my teachers were conducting, as to not make it feel too "official" or test-like. Formative assessment is not like summative assessment, where it is crystal clear that an assessment is occurring. Formative assessment is to be interwoven throughout entire lessons. Just like when my teachers would "interview" me and at the time I felt that was it, they probably somehow in their magical teacher ways, used my responses to tailor other instruction for me, and I didn't even realize it! So either my past teachers were reeeally good at incorporating and flowing formative assessment into my learning, or they didn't do it at all, ha!

Reflecting on this Week's Material on Formative Assessment

In the Teach Now Tuesdays article, one phrase that stuck out to me was "mastery learning". As a graduate student of elementary education, I have had other assignments, readings, tasks, etc. on formative assessment. However, this is the first time that I can recall of hearing this term, and having it really be a main point of formative assessment. What I gathered, is that the idea of mastery learning is to have a student be taught something until they have mastered, until they are actually ready to move on. This makes complete sense. I mean, we all know that formative assessment is an ongoing process during learning to make sure students are "getting it", and we know that we use formative assessment to determine if we need to reteach, tailor our teaching, spend more time on a topic, etc., but to what extent? That extent is mastery. Only once a student has mastered an area, THEN can we move them on to the next. Makes sense, as why would we move on to the next area if the previous one wasn't fully understood? It sounds ideal. However, to what extent do we want students to achieve mastery? AND, is it easy? Is it possible? Does it make sense as a whole class? I wonder if it is truly attainable. Ideally, I hope so, but what happens when a student or a few are taking way too long to master something, and all of the students are at various levels of mastery? Does it ever get to the point where many students are at various differentiated levels? How would the teacher teach that way? Maybe the students who are not reaching mastery are on/need to be on IEPs?

Another thing mentioned in this article was in relation to not giving out official gades during formative assessment. Once a "formal" grade is given on something, I feel like that's it. That's the end of that, no matter what the grade is, and it is time to move on. This article rather uses terms such as 'meeting', 'exceeding', or 'continuing toward meeting target'. I love that last term. Instead of using 'not meeting' or 'needs work', it is turned into a positive phrasing of those two.

In the Formative Assessment is Transformational article, they use the terms just-in-time learning, just-in-time data, and just-in-time feedback. I appreciate these terms, as they truly encompass what formative assessment is all about: catching problem areas just in time in order to address them to that mastery level!

In the Retrieval Practice podcast, before really reading into the transcripts of it, my mind automatically went to memorization. I do recall being in middle school, learning certain science terms. I would memorize the definitions so I was able to just mindlessly spit out the correct word. However, this podcast points out that retrieval is not automated memorization. Retrieval is to be used to recall or remember something as a learning strategy, not a a sort of measurement assessment. It is not meant to be time consuming. It can be used anytime in forms such as simple think-pair-shares, low stakes quizzes, brain dumps, or meaningful flash card usage. 

What I've Seen in Classrooms as far as Formative Assessment

This is my fifth year as an instructional assistant in elementary school. I have worked in every grade level, K-6, and have seen various types of formative assessment. One that I commonly see is exit tickets. One third grade teacher I worked with would consistently use exit ticket at the end of every lesson. Science, social studies, math, etc. These were just simple half-sheets of paper asking a few quick questions based on what was taught that day. She would go through each and every one of the responses. She would either decide if she needed to reteach something as a whole group, move on as a whole group, or have to work one-on-one or in small groups with some. It was certainly very effective. A fourth grade teacher who I worked with was always working in check lists. She had checklists for the class as a whole, as well as checklists for individual students. She was constantly using them through out her focus lessons, one-on-one work with students, while observing students as they worked independently, etc. I was always impressed at how she was able to quickly put various check marks on various students' lists while she was actively conducting lessons. These were usually very simple checklists, evaluating if students were getting main ideas or not. If they were and just needed more background information. She would even note whether a student seemed to be focused or not during the lesson without actually questioning them at the time, but would be sure to revisit with them later just to check in that they were paying attention. 

Technology and Formative Assessment

Technology is a great tool in the educational world, needless to say. In the area of formative assessment and technology, we want to ensure that students aren't just being quizzed, asked questions, being tested, etc. Students need to be formatively assessed all of the time, so that they are used to it, and/or do not even know they are being formatively assessed. Technology can make this fun, yet effective. With tech tools such as Kahoot, Pear Deck, Plickers, even Google surveys; teachers are able to seemlesly check in on students' understanding and get some really useful information on how to proceed next, individually and as a class whole.