Samantha Jackson

Graduate Portfolio

Standard 3 Reflection:

EDUC 603: Evaluation of Student Learning: Distinguish between examples of formative and

summative assessments.

Radford University

Fall 2022
 The second standard I chose from Evaluation of Student Learning is that teachers will be

able to “Distinguish between examples of formative and summative assessment” when finished

with the course. As a current teacher I have some experience with constructing and

distinguishing between summative and formative assessments in my classroom. I was already

creating some for my classes and using some designed by my professional learning community

(PLC) members. However, this class helped me take a deeper look at these assessments and how

they can truly assist me in understanding the knowledge my students have gained during my

class. Formative assessments are used to identify student understanding and knowledge during

or at the end of a class. Formative assessments are usually quick and let the teacher know if the

student understands the topic or if they need some extra help. Summative Assessments are

usually given at the end of a unit and test the students' knowledge and skills gained over the

course of the unit. Understanding formative and summative assessments has helped improve my

teaching practice by giving me more ways to gather data on my students learning, helps me see

who may need help before the summative assessment, and assists me while reflecting on my

lessons.

To begin, understanding the difference between formative and summative assessments

has helped me with gathering data of student knowledge. I use formative assessments often in

my class to make sure that students understand a topic. I have put questions into my slide shows

using Pear Decks and have the students answer them as we go through the slides. This helps

give me instant feedback about what they are understanding from the slide shows. I can do long

answer questions or short multiple-choice questions depending on the topic or time we have.

This has helped me understand what works best for that group of students and gives me the

opportunity to explain a topic in more detail in the moment instead of during the independent
activity. I also do quick formative assessments at the end of the class as exit tickets to see how

they have grown after the activity. For summative assessments, I want to give my students

multiple ways to show me what they know. I like to use a mix of multiple-choice, true/false,

short answer, fill-in-the-blank, matching, and long answer questions. This way students are

given the opportunity to show me what they have learned in multiple formats. After the

summative assessment I use that data to see what my students have learned from the unit and

compare that to my formative assessments. This way I can see what lessons worked well over a

long-term period and what lessons need to be improved.

In addition to gathering data about student knowledge, learning about the difference

between formative and summative assessments has helped me understand who needs help prior

to a summative assessment. Many of my formative assessments come in the form of exit tickets.

These exit tickets help me understand who may need more review outside of class. I pull for

these students for review during our “Tiger Time” block that is set aside for extra review. This

has been extremely helpful for me and the students and helps them to understand topics. I can

review class topics with my students prior to the summative assessments in smaller groups and

give them extra practice with assistance that they may not be able to get in a class with 30 other

students. Many students are already extremely nervous when they must take an assessment.

Having the data from a formative assessment prior to the summative assessment will help me

take away some of that test anxiety because I can give them extra review and help them feel

more prepared.

Understanding the difference between a formative and summative assessment has helped

me when reflecting on my lessons. The data will help me understand which activities and

lessons need to be revised for the next year. Reflection is an important aspect of being an
educator because each year is a new beginning and there are always ways we can improve our

practice. If there are a lot of students who did not do well on a formative assessment, I would

use that data to see how I can improve the lesson for next year. Sometimes, I may need to scrap

the whole lesson and think of a new activity. Other times, I just need to tweak some aspects of

the lesson to help my students. I reflect the most when I am reviewing the formative data at the

end of each class. This way, if I need to change the next lesson, I can note that in my lesson

plans for next year, instead of waiting until the summative assessment. Utilizing data while I am

reflecting on my lessons will help me focus on what needs to be changed and what I can keep.

In closing, understanding the difference between formative and summative assessments

has been an essential skill that I learned from Evaluating Student Learning. It has helped

improve my teaching and knowing what types of questions I should be asking my students. I use

quick formative assessments to help me see which students need more help understanding a topic

during and at the end of a lesson. This gives me important data that I can compare to the

summative assessments to see if the lessons and review activities helped my students understand

the topics and which need improvement. My summative assessments come at the end of a unit

and have questions that focus on topics from the whole unit to see what my students have learned

over time. Summative assessments also help me determine whether an activity or lesson stuck

with my students over time. For example, if my students did not do well on the Naturalization

portion of the Citizenship Unit, that means I must review those lessons and make improvements

for next year. Understanding the difference between these two assessments has assisted me with

instructing my students and they have highly benefited from this.