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Insights into the concept of formative assessment, its importance in enhancing learning outcomes, and strategies for implementing it in the classroom. It covers the definition, characteristics, and benefits of formative assessment, as well as tools and resources for educators. The document also emphasizes the role of self- and peer assessment in the formative assessment process.
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The contents of this document were developed under a Race to the Top grant from the U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
Learning Goals for the CoP Meeting on Module 5: Understand the connections among the elements of classroom formative assessment practice Identify key ideas to share with the school’s leadership team to help others understand what we have learned during the course, and to plan for next steps to implement formative assessment Success Criteria for the CoP Meeting on Module 5: I can explain how the formative assessment cycle supports student learning and enables students to take ownership of their own learning. I can identify what progress I have made implementing formative assessment, and where I will go next in my learning.
Rhode Island’s definition of formative assessment is adopted from the Council of Chief State School Officers:
Formative assessment is a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievement of intended instructional outcomes (CCSSO, 2008).
It is an intentional, ongoing instructional process to elicit and interpret evidence about student learning that allows a teacher and student to adjust teaching and learning to close the gap between that student’s current learning and a specific learning goal. It encourages a partnership in learning between teachers and students.
CCSSO identified five characteristics of formative assessment—all of which must be part of the process:
Learning progressions clearly articulate the pathway typical students take to meet a learning goal; Learning goals and success criteria are clearly defined and shared with students; Descriptive feedback is evidence based and linked to the intended instructional outcomes and success criteria; Self- and peer assessment are used frequently to encourage students to understand and internalize the success criteria; and Collaboration in the classroom creates a culture in which teachers and students are partners in learning.
Formative assessment is one part of a district’s comprehensive assessment system, which may consist of minute-by-minute formative assessment, common formative assessments (those developed by a grade- level or content-area team to assess students’ learning in a particular unit), benchmark or interim assessments, curriculum-embedded summative assessments, and annual assessments—each administered for a different purpose and often varied audiences. For example, large-scale accountability assessments, such as annual statewide assessments, are used by administrators, the public, and policymakers, while formative assessment data are used by students and teachers in the classroom.
The evidence supporting formative assessment’s positive impact on student learning comes from a spectrum of researchers approaching it from different perspectives. For more detailed information, see the handout entitled “Research Worth Knowing” on pages 20-24 in the facilitator’s guide for Module 1.
Planning for Classroom Formative Assessment
Planning for formative assessment is the only way that teachers can use formative evidence “on the fly” during instruction. Formative assessment processes are aligned to learning goals and, ultimately, to standards.
The formative assessment planning process is very similar to other standards-based lesson/unit planning frameworks, such as Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). The formative assessment planning process includes the following elements:
Understanding the big ideas of the unit/standards being taught; Clarifying the specific learning goals of a unit; Outlining what success will look like for students ( success criteria ); and Clarifying what learning looks like along the way as students progress in the unit ( learning progressions ).
Each of these elements is described more fully in Figure 1 on the next page. For more detail, see the handout entitled “Definitions for Critical Elements of Formative Assessment Lesson Planning” on page 19 in the facilitator’s guide for Module 2).
In planning lessons, the Formative Assessment Lesson Planning Template on pages 19-20 in the facilitator’s guide for Module 3 helps teachers build habits of mind, e.g., how to approach the work, how to explore different ways of thinking about the content and the path students take to meet mastery. When done by a team of teachers, they can help each other think about the different expressions of mastery embedded within a particular standard and explore a range of instructional strategies that support learning throughout a unit. Teacher dialogue promotes shared understanding of the standards, deepens strategies for differentiating instruction based on evidence, and promotes personal accountability to implement new classroom formative assessment routines.
Five Formative Assessment Routines
Pre-assessment allows teachers to uncover students’ knowledge prior to beginning instruction. It identifies students who have already mastered some of the skills in the lesson or unit, those who have foundational knowledge that allow them to quickly grasp key concepts, and those who have misconceptions or are lacking prerequisite skills. Classroom discussions and academic dialogue permit teachers to better understand what students know, the strategies they are using, and how they are thinking about content. The classroom climate for rich, equitable, academic dialogue requires that students feel safe to explain their answers, share their solutions or strategies with the group, or articulate partially formed ideas. Mistakes and misconceptions are valuable and important to uncover and explore. Questioning is one of the most powerful tools teachers have to elicit and explore student thinking. A teacher’s series of well-planned questions can quickly illuminate what students are thinking. Questioning to support formative assessment should involve a significant percentage of higher-order questions as they engage students in more cognitively complex thinking, e.g., formulating a summary of ideas, making inferences, creating new scenarios, or forming judgments based on evidence. Analyzing student’s written work offers rich information about what students know and about how they know it. It is not necessarily a formal, pen-and-paper task. For many students and learning goals this is not the most efficient or accurate way to establish what students know and how they are approaching their learning. When planning to gather written evidence, teachers can consider alternate forms of written assessment including drawing, concept maps, model building, representations, graphic organizers, and detailed outlines. Observation permits teachers to meet the challenge of collecting a range of evidence from a variety of sources to document student growth and learning over time. Several routines support observation and documentation over time, e.g., whole class logs, portfolios, dialogue journals, and conferencing.
After analyzing the evidence they have gathered on students’ knowledge of content and their thinking, teachers adjust their instruction on a day-to-day basis to help their students “close the gap” between their current knowledge and understanding and the desired learning goal. They select learning experiences that will appropriately challenge students. This may mean re-grouping students; re-teaching content in another way for an entire class, a small group, or an individual; changing instructional materials or resources; or adjusting the pacing or sequencing of lesson content.
Engaging Students to Take Next Steps in Learning
At the heart of formative assessment is a classroom environment in which students feel safe to take risks, to make mistakes, and to learn together. It is one in which all students feel that they are respected and valued, have an important contribution to make to their learning, and have a responsibility to contribute to their peers’ learning. Teachers are pivotal in building a community of learners in their
classrooms. They bear the responsibility of modeling how to provide effective feedback and of using a gradual-release approach in teaching their students the skills of peer- and self-assessment. As students become more familiar with feedback and what to look for in quality work, they will give meaningful feedback to their peers and at the same time increase their understanding of what quality work looks like.
The regular use of descriptive feedback contributes to a classroom climate that supports formative assessment and a growth mind-set—both vital to a classroom environment that supports learning. Once students understand and can apply peer assessment routines, each can be engaged in learning with a partner—giving and receiving feedback—while the teacher supports the work of another student or gathers data for observation or feedback logs. Peer feedback enables all students to be engaged in learning at one time, thereby allowing more learning to occur.
Feedback, which has an extraordinarily strong and recent research base (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, & Wiliam, 2004; Kluger & DeNisi, 1996), is given to help learners improve performance. Students must know how to use feedback and have the opportunity to act on it. They need to know what constitutes good performance, how their current performance relates to good performance, and how to close the gap between the two. Margaret Heritage notes (2010) that effective descriptive feedback helps students understand what they have done well, and focuses on what they need to do to improve. It:
Is aligned to learning goals, success criteria, and the learning progression. Accurately describes what the student is doing well using evidence from student work. Provides suggestions for improvement in learning by offering hints, clues, or guidance that support next steps in learning. Is limited and prioritized on the most important next steps, so that students have the right amount of work with which to move forward. Supports students’ self-regulation by providing hints or clues that guide next steps in learning, thus helping students identify how to move learning forward. Is actionable and readily implemented by students , as students are expected to act on the feedback. Includes information that outlines when opportunities will be provided for students to act on the feedback. Is monitored by teachers to ensure a continuous cycle of feedback and application.
Developing good feedback skills takes practice, and it helps teachers to their hone skills outside of the classroom until they become automatic.
Peer and self-assessment are the key elements in supporting students to become independent and self- regulating learners. Like all learning activities, they require teacher modeling and guided practice prior
As the facilitator, your role is to provide opportunities for participants to reflect on their learning from the online course, deepen their understanding by discussing their learning with colleagues, and determine how to embed formative assessment in their instructional practice.
The learning goals and success criteria for the fifth 90-minute meeting of your CoP are offered below. A participant agenda and an annotated facilitator’s agenda follow.
Learning Goals for the CoP Meeting on Module 5:
Understand the connections among the elements of classroom formative assessment practice Identify key ideas to share with the school’s leadership team to help others understand what we have learned during the course, and to plan for next steps to implement formative assessment
Success Criteria for the CoP Meeting on Module 5:
I can explain how the formative assessment cycle supports student learning and enables students to take ownership of their own learning. I can identify what progress I have made implementing formative assessment, and where I will go next in my learning.
Learning Goals:
Understand the connections among the elements of classroom formative assessment practice Identify key ideas to share with the school’s leadership team to help others understand what we have learned during the course, and to plan for next steps to implement formative assessment
Success Criteria:
I can explain how the formative assessment cycle supports student learning and enables students to take ownership of their own learning. I can identify what progress I have made implementing formative assessment, and where I will go next in my learning.
5 minutes Getting Started
Purpose: Review today’s agenda, learning goals, and success criteria.
Outcome: Clarity regarding the learning goals and success criteria for today’s meeting.
55 minutes Deepen Understanding of Key Content in Modules 1- 4
Purpose: Make connections and understand how the important concepts, skills, and knowledge of the formative assessment process fit together.
Outcomes: Establish how different elements of the process connect to and support each other; create a mental model of the formative assessment process on chart paper.
25 minutes Reflecting Experience
Purpose: Brainstorm ideas to share with school’s leadership team and collaboratively identify the most important.
Outcome: Prioritized list of 4-5 ideas the CoP wants to share with the school’s leadership team.
5 minutes Evaluation
Time Allotted
Purpose/Outcome Facilitator’s Tasks Set-up
T = tool or skill used during practice of formative assessment (pink)
After 30 minutes, ask each group to post its concept map on the wall and explain it to the larger group (15 minutes). As teams are presenting, chart important ideas they raise as they are speaking.
After each group has shared its map, ask participants in teams, or pairs, to talk about one or two ideas that they saw on another map and how that idea(s) would change their map (5 minutes). 25 minutes
Reflecting Experience Purpose: Brainstorm ideas to share with school’s leadership team and collaboratively identify the most important.
Outcomes: Prioritized list of 4-5 ideas that will help the leadership team clarify: What teachers have learned in this course; and What are the next steps for teachers as they continue to implement formative assessment.
Following on the discussion from the previous activity, ask participants to brainstorm important ideas about formative assessment they would like to share with the school’s leadership team. To spark their thinking, have them skim the list of options for collaborating with their peers and then ask:
What have you noticed about how your own instructional practice has shifted as a result of this work? What do you feel is a next step in your own learning? What do you feel is a next step for our collective (team or school-wide) learning?
During this brainstorm, work on simply creating a list of ideas. Discussion will follow later.
Chart paper, markers, and colored dots.
Enough copies of “Building Your Capacity to Implement Formative Assessment: Different Options for Collaborating with Peers” on page 29 in Appendix C for every participant.
Time Allotted
Purpose/Outcome Facilitator’s Tasks Set-up
Once all of their ideas are captured, give them three different, colored dots and ask them to put them next to their first (one color), second (another color), and third (final color) choice. Identify their top 4- 5 ideas and determine how they will be shared with the leadership team.
Note: At the conclusion of this activity, you may want to share some of the tools in Appendix C with them. 5 minutes
Evaluation Purpose: Gather feedback about this session.
Ask participants to complete the evaluation form.
Enough copies of the evaluation form on page 26 in Appendix B for each participant.
90 minutes in total
Instructions for Creating a “Concept Map” of the Formative Assessment Process
Background Information
A concept map is a backwards planning tool that outlines important concepts, skills, and knowledge to teach and assess. A concept map allows others to quickly see how concepts, skills, and knowledge are related or linked with a domain. A concept map also helps to identify a sequence for ordering instruction within a unit of instruction, by clarifying how ideas are connected within a unit. This deepens a student’s understanding by helping to create a mental picture of the learning that is expected.
Today’s work will involve developing a concept map to display the key concepts/ideas, knowledge, and skills or tools that connect and support each other in formative assessment. The result will be a “mental picture” of formative assessment.
Assignment
In teams, or groups of 3-4, create a concept map about formative assessment. Your team/group will work with pre-printed cards to organize and represent a concept map that addresses the following prompt:
How can we best represent the important ideas and concepts of formative assessment in a way that highlights their connections and relationships?
As people develop increased expertise in a subject, their “mental models” of that topic become more sophisticated and they begin to see connections between previously disconnected ideas. This concept map can help you and new users of formative assessment understand and distinguish between:
Key concepts of formative assessment; Supporting ideas in formative assessment; and Specific facts, skills, or tools used during the practice of formative assessment.
The process for team/group work—developing and posting your concept map (35 minutes)
