Formative Assessment Techniques
Below are the Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning. Reflect on those suggestions and select two of them to discuss.
- What do you perceive to be the strengths of each technique?
- What do you perceive to be weaknesses of each technique?
- Provide an example from your own teaching of effective feedback you have provided to a student and what made the feedback effective.
Strategy 1: Provide a clear and understandable vision of the learning target”:
◦Develop a set of kid friendly learning targets based on standards.
◦Ensure students understand the learning target.
◦Connect activities and assessments with the learning target: Why are we doing this activity? What are we learning?
“Strategy 2: Use examples and models of strong and weak work”:
◦Select exemplars of strong work that match the learning targets.
◦Help students sort through what is strong and weak models (use only anonymous work).
◦Ask students to justify their judgement using the learning targets / rubric.
“Strategy 3: Offer regular descriptive feedback during the learning”:
◦Offer feedback on formative work based on students’ strengths and weaknesses in relation to a learning target.
◦Offer students opportunities to act on the feedback before a summative.
◦Model self-assessment so students learn to identify “Where am I now?” in relation to “Where do I need to be?” , pointing to a way to “How can I close the gap?”.
◦Involve students as peer-feedback givers.
“Strategy 4: Teach students to self-assess and set goals for next steps”:
◦Teach students how to be accurate self-assessors (need Strategy 1)
◦Give students practice on identifying strengths and weaknesses on a variety of examples (Strategy 2)
◦Give students exposure to feedback that models self-assessment: What have I done well? Where do I need to continue working?
“Strategy 5: Use evidence of student learning needs to determine next steps in teaching”:
◦Make instructional changes based on checks for understanding.
◦Develop a repertoire of approaches to diagnose the type of learning needs in preparation for addressing them.
“Strategy 6: Design focused instruction, followed by practice with feedback”:
◦Narrow the focus of a lesson to address identified needs (scaffolding).
◦Build competency by addressing one component of quality of a learning target at a time, if applicable.
◦After addressing the needs, let students practice and get better before grading.
◦Give students opportunities to revise work based on feedback just on that area of need, narrowing the volume of feedback you give.
“Strategy 7: Provide opportunities for students to track, reflect on, and share their learning progress”
