Understanding Formative Assessments and Plans for use in the Classroom
Thinking about what it means to be a teacher we often note the end goal of having students learning and applying new knowledge. What can be easily overlooked is if and how teachers know in real time what the true level of student understanding is. Summative assessments will give data on student understanding but only at a point when it is too late for the teacher to make changes to instruction to increase and enhance student understanding. Formative assessments on the other hand can give teachers data on student understanding early enough to be used to help guide the plan for instruction. This week I created three formative assessments and received teacher and peer feedback on them. Through these exercises I have learned the importance of conducting formative assessments, some different types of assessments and strategies for conducting them, and how to immediately use the data from the assessments. This has been a total launch into a new area of learning for me as I prepare to be...