Assessment Why is Assessment

important?
Assessment is the evaluation or
estimation of the nature, quality, or
ability of someone or something.
Summative Assessment
“Cumulative evaluations that take place
usually after instruction is completed.”
(Pg 84)
Assessment provides the instructor with
the knowledge that their students are
understanding the course material. It can
be a powerful tool to indicate whether a
teacher’s method of instruction is
effective and what parts of the
instruction needs modification.

Formative Assessment
Includes the use of tools that check the
status of students’ development during
instructional activities, preassess, or
attempt to identify students’ naïve
understandings or misconceptions related
to the standards that they are learning.
Formative Assessment is monitoring
students during the learning process
while providing the necessary feedback on
what students are learning. The purpose
of formative assessment is to help
students evaluate what they are learning
and provide them with the tools they need
to improve their learning. There are three
goals for the Formative Assessment
process.

1. Identify where learners are

2. Identify the goal for the learner
3. Identify paths to reach the goal The Importance
of Assessment!
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Assessing Students
Assessing your students should not be
limited to one specific method.
Assessment should also not be limited to
being evaluated at the end of the lesson
you are giving your students. Instead
here is a list of suggestions you can
partake in before, during, and after
lessons to better evaluate your students.
Observations:
During lessons, you may want to consider
the body language of students. Look for
student body language such as nodding
their head or counting their fingers. You
can later interpret these observations as
the students’ strength in understanding
the material and make decisions on how
to structure later lessons.
Questions
Questioning students on what is being
taught can be helpful in teaching
students to think about what they are
stuck on while allowing them to exercise
thinking for themselves. These questions
can help you gauge whether lessons are
too difficult or too easy.
“Assessment is
about teachers
and not about
students” – Deepa
Bhushan
Interviews
Interviews serve as powerful assessment
tools when engaging with a smaller group
of students or interacting with a student
one-on-one. They serve as asking
questions but can help guide students to a
better understanding. Questions like “Can
you explain what you just did” or “How
would you explain this to your younger
sister?” can help determine what your
students understand.
Tasks
Problem-based tasks can be effective in
observing what may be confusing. Taking
the most common incorrect method and
solving it together can help bolster
understanding in the task. Also effective is
the translation tasks. This can be
something like writing a story that
matches an equation or illustrating the
equation to show understanding.