Formative Assessments

EiE – A Long Way Down: Designing Parachutes Lesson 1 in Stillwater, MN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ2PVwLFDb4&t=81s

Event: (3:30-4:35) The teacher is preparing to read the Lesson 1 story and has her students sitting
around her in a semi-circle. She has a large note pad to record student responses.

T - … So, what’s their problem right now? Because they are starting to face a problem. What happened
to it?
S – It broke.
T – It splattered; it broke. (She begins writing their responses on the notepad.) Ava brought up a really
good word, because why?
S – Gravity took it…
T- How many of you think it is going to work? (Some students raise their hands.) How many of you
don’t think it is going to work? (Some students raise their hands.)

Formative Assessment: The formative assessment would be the students raising their hand to answer
the questions that the teacher asked.

How it improves learning: This helps the teacher see who is comprehending the book that she is
reading and who is thinking about whether or not the parachute will work.

EiE – A Long Way Down: Designing Parachutes Lesson 2 in Stillwater, MN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eG53iqLK2M

Event: The teacher has the students sitting at their desks while discussing the assignment. Eventually,
she has them move into groups to discuss while she is walking around the classroom.

T – (Before putting her students into groups) You are going to decide what is important in your groups.
What are the things you want to focus on? Why are those features important?
S – (Break into groups and discuss the questions given)
T – (Brought class together) One person from each group is going to stand up and share…

Formative Assessment: The formative assessment would be the students working in groups to get
each other’s ideas and broaden their understanding of the questions while the teacher is walking
around. Another formative assessment would be having a student from each group stand up and
discuss their planet that they had and what they had to say about it. These assessments give the
teacher a sense of who is putting in work and who isn’t, it also shows who is understanding what is
going on.

How it improves learning: Group work improves learning because it gives multiple people chances to
share what they know and other people to learn from that. They are given the opportunity to share
ideas without being graded and can ask questions to each other. By having students share what their
group came up with, the other students in the class can learn about what the other groups said.