Tying the Knot Between

Formative and Summative

Assessments How to Plan For Assessments that are

Useful and Evaluative.

Kmoss 2013

Identifying the Strings

Identify the differences between formative an summative assessments.

Consider ways to make formative assessment integrated with instruction.

Consider a plan for summative assessment.

Identify how formative and summative assessments work together.

Consider how data can be used to for instructional and evaluative purposes.

Formative vs Summative

Formative SummativeOccurs during instruction Occurs after instruction

Not Graded Graded

Process Product

Detailed feedback for improvement

Evaluative feedback

Continuous Periodic

Examples Classroom discussionsLearning tasks/assignmentsInformal, timely feedback ConferencesSelf-Assessments

ExamplesSelected response (multiple choice, true/false, matching, fill-in, etc. )Written responsePerformance assessment

Formative Assessment Plan

Begin with the end result in mind. Start with identifying the end goal or standard to be meet.

Create a task analysis. Identify the steps from the gateway activity to the task specific activities in order to meet the standard.

Create small discussion groups for tasks that have clear focused objectives and time constraints (which can be flexible).

Assess while instruction occurs.

Integrate informal and formal assessment with instruction.

Data should be collected at multiple points and should be used to inform and cater instruction towards the need of the learner. • Pretesting students to see what is already known provides a clear

starting point for the gateway activity.• Progress monitoring via informal/formal assessments will reveal

areas needing more instruction.• Focus on the task specifics, not form.

Summative Assessment Plan

Start with the leaning outcome; what should the students know after instruction.

Create a list of the skills and knowledge students should know at the end of the lesson.

Determine what the best assessment mode for students to show knowledge and growth.

Data from the results of the assessment may be used to:

• Reflect on the lesson by the educator.• Evaluate student struggles.• Evaluate and revise performance assessment type.• Evaluate teaching best practice.• Assess teacher effectiveness in the classroom via administration.

Bringing the Strings Together Formative and summative assessment should go hand in hand as the growth of a skill is viewed throughout the learning process.

Formative assessment done in a timely and meaningful manner, produces better outcomes on summative assessments.

Summative assessments shows the growth of a learner from the beginning of a task to the end. Reviewing and comparing formative assessments with the summative assessments creates a more complete picture of the learner.

Summative assessment could be the same as a pretest or other curriculum based measure to show growth and attained skill.

Formative Assessment Provides Better Learning

Outcomes 1/3Claim: Students who first worked in small discussion groups were able to complete independent tasks with greater accuracy than attempting a similar task independently. Therefore, small discussion groups enhance independent student growth.

Evidence:Exit cards were used after whole group instruction and discussion about ways to create an interesting and focused topic sentence to hook the reader. They were also used after small group discussions centered around the same task. In the first set of exit cards, 65% of students could generate a clear topic sentence that hooked the reader. In the second set of exit cards, 90% of students were able to create an interesting and focused topic sentence to hook the reader.

Warrant:Because 90% of students were able to write interesting and focused topic sentences independently after the small group task, compared to the 65%, one can see that small discussion groups help independent learners meet goals and objectives while fostering independent task completion with better than performing an independent task prior to engaging in a small group task.

Formative Assessment Provides Better Learning

Outcomes 2/3Claim:Students who were provided quality feedback on task specific objectives, were more likely to make revisions and edits to the draft than those whose papers were also marked up with formatting and grammar corrections.

Evidence:In a comparison of students rough drafts to final drafts, those papers that were marked up with corrections for grammar and formatting as well as task specific comments did not spend time revising the task specific needs of the paragraph type, as evidenced in the lack of change in published work. While, students whose papers had limited markings for grammar and formatting errors, revised the paper tackling the task specific needs as well as the grammar and formatting.

Warrant:More students who were only provided task specific feedback on ‘how-to’ paragraphs revised their drafts for the needs discussed, than those whose papers were also marked for grammatical and formatting needs. This shows that feedback centered around the objective or task, rather than marking all errors, will encourage students to make the task specific changes.

Formative Assessment Provides Better Learning

Outcomes 3/3Some may argue the prior examples highlight practice on specific tasks being the motivation for change rather than knowledge gained. Yes, practice of course makes one better, however in claim 1, completing tasks within a small discussion group is what enabled students to create more interesting and focused topic sentences because they were able to make judgments on a task collectively, allowing for opportunities for discussion about what is ‘good’ versus ‘not good.’ Students were more likely to challenge themselves to try different ways of completing the task when in the small group where risk is not as huge.

In claim 2 some may argue that a students paper void of marking for editing errors shows a student who has higher level writing abilities, therefore would make necessary task revisions. However, students whose papers were not marked for editing errors (when plenty were visible) were not necessarily the better writers. Thus, showing that regardless of writing ability the focus of feedback should be placed on task specific goals for the concept to be mastered.

Summation

• Assessments are needed to evaluate student comprehension at all phases of the writing process.

• Summative assessments will show many things including student growth, areas needing more instruction and possible lesson weaknesses, evaluation of instruction procedures both from teacher to student and administration to teacher.

Resources

• Hillocks, George, Jr. 2011. Teaching Argument Writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

• Smagorinsky, Peter, Larry R.Johannessen, Elizabeth Kahn, and Thomas M. McCann. 2010. The Dynamics of Writing Instruction. A Structured Approach for Middle and High School. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.