"Why Formative Assessments Matter"
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/formative-assessments-importance-of-rebecca-alber
This blog post by Rebecca Alber discusses the importance of Formative Assessments in the classroom. Formative Assessments are informal assessments used to check for student understanding. A few examples of Formative Assessments that Rebecca gave are Exit Slips, Three Minute Paper, Once-Sentence Summary, and Teacher Observations. I am very familiar with exit slips and observation, but I really liked her idea about giving the students a small amount of time to either write a summary of what they learned so far on the topic being taught/learned. I plan on using this with my class next year. Not only is it a way to see what the students have learned, but it also will be a way to have them use and share their writing skills!
I agree that formative assessment is absolutely vital in the classroom. Without it, the teachers cannot diagnose where students need help at. Furthermore, it provides students with an understanding of where they need to improve so that they can gain more confidence as they proceed towards mastery of specific learning goals.
ReplyDeleteOne way that I use formative assessment is to have students write an analysis of a chapter that we have just read. This allows me to gauge several things: student writing, student understanding of literary terminology, student understanding of the text, and so on. The students also know that they are responsible for the reading and it holds them accountable as well.
The questions that I have students answer in their writing is geared toward them finding success with their summative assessment. Everything is related so that students can ultimately succeed.