FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

PD
 AGENDA

When
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Why
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it?
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 AGENDA

When
How isisitit
Why use it? What is it?
used?
 AGENDA

When
How isisitit
Why use it? What is it?
used?
 AGENDA

When is it How is it
Why use it? What is it?
used? used?
WHY USE IT?
 SIX CORE REASONS

1. Good educational practice

2. Makes every lesson distinct

3. Valuable for accreditation

4. Testing effect

5. Engagement

6. Tangible department goals and department meeting discussion topics

 1. GOOD EDUCATIONAL
PRACTICE
Education is full of “fads”

Indirect learning/discovery learning/project-based learning/digital learning, etc

In a meta study of quantitative research, the effect sizes reported for formative assessment
interventions ranged from 0.40 to 0.70

A 0.40 effect would represent “a gain that is roughly double the average growth U.S.
children in the upper primary to lower secondary grades would be expected

Black and Wiliam, concluded that formative assessment is perhaps the most effective educational
practice when it comes to improving academic achievement.  
2. MAKES EVERY LESSON DISTINCT

Often times, we stretch a lesson over multiple days. What are the problems with that?

Day 1
2. MAKES EVERY LESSON DISTINCT

Often times, we stretch a lesson over multiple days. What are the problems with that?

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6

2. MAKES EVERY LESSON DISTINCT

Often times, we stretch a lesson over multiple days. What are the problems with that?

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6

Assessment

How do we know where we went wrong?

 3. COGNIA
ACCREDITATION
Continuous improvement
4. TESTING EFFECT
Evidence is clearly showing regular and frequent
testing increases learning, but the benefit comes from
students regularly retrieving from memory.
5. ENGAGEMENT
Switches up the lesson

Provides opportunity for student involvement

SO WHAT IS IT?
 FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Is fundamentally about decisions

Data-driven decision making or decision-driven data collection

Decision driven data collection (focus on making a decision on the data that needs to be collected,
not general collection of data)

Means there is no inference to changing of curricular plan

Perhaps better called “responsive teaching”

ASSESSMENT IS FORMATIVE WHEN

“…to the extent that evidence about student achievement is elicited, interpreted, and used by
teachers, learners, or their peers, to make decisions about the next steps in instruction that are likely
to be better, or better founded, than the decisions they would have taken in the absence of the
evidence that was elicited. “
 FUNDAMENTALLY, FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT IS
BEING ABLE TO ANSWER THE QUESTION “HOW DO
YOU KNOW?” FOR EVERY INSTRUCTIONAL
SEGMENT, AS OPPOSED TO THE END OF THE WEEK
OR OR UNIT.
WHEN IS IT USED?
INSTRUCTION PLAN

Day 1
INSTRUCTION PLAN

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6

HOW DO WE KNOW WHERE SOMETHING WENT
WRONG?

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6

Assessment

😩
 NO SURPRISES

Data Data

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Data Data
 NO SURPRISES
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Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

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IDEAL

Day 1
IDEAL

Day 1
 1 week Cycle
6 week Cycle

HOW OFTEN SHOULD

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS 10 minute
cycle
BE USED
Research indicates the shorter the time interval between
eliciting the evidence and using it to improve instruction,
the bigger the likely impact on learning.
5 KINDS OF FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Clarifying, sharing, and understanding learning intentions and success criteria

Engineering effective discussion, tasks, and activities that elicit evidence of learning
Engineering effective discussion, tasks, and activities that elicit evidence of learning
Providing feedback that moves learning forward

Activating students as learning resources for one another

Activating students as owners of their own learning

 OUR GOALS FOR THE YEAR

1) That full class formative assessment occurs every 20 minutes

2) That teachers use the information to make changes to their instruction

3) That teachers record the data for collection purposes as well as to use during the monthly
formative assessment meetings.

4) Reduce or remove “random” name calling for true random name calling
TYPES OF FORMATIVE
ASSESSMENT
 ENTRANCE VS EXIT TICKETS

Entrance tickets defeat the purpose.

Their only valid use is to see how many students did the reading/homework. But in this case,
we’re better off with a quiz.
 EXIT TICKETS

Easy way to assess learning during or after a lesson

The danger: depending on the task, can be difficult to effectively assess

 WHITE BOARDS

We have a bunch of them

The problem: bulky

Solution: Page protectors

 ABCD CARDS
MCQ and True/False

Sequencing

Question tracking

Answer strength
PLICKERS
 OTHER WAYS
DingTalk Polls
ABCD CORNERS
Using a difficult or multiple choice question, have
students gather to different corners of the room based
on their answer

The danger: can lead to feeling shame

The solution: the more that this is done, the less anxiety
there will be. Further, students will see this as a chance
to learn if there is nothing punitive attached to it.
 STICKY NOTE RESPONSE

Works for all subjects, though differently

Discussions with a spectrum: “Gun use is an unalienable right of all citizens” “Social Media is
responsible for rising narcissism”
STICKY NOTE RESPONSE

A C

B D
 THE PROBLEM WITH NAME
CALLING
Not truly random

Teachers choose students because they will likely give complete answers, allowing the teacher
to move on.

Defeats the purpose. The teacher has just used a student to say what they could’ve said
themselves.

“No hands up (except to ask a question).”

 THE KEY WITH FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
QUESTIONING

1) Students must expect they will be called on

2) Students must not expect they can say “I don’t know”

 BASKETBALL VS PING PONG

Ping Pong questioning Basketball questioning

THIS WILL ONLY WORK IF THE
HODS BUY-IN
 OUR GOALS FOR THE YEAR

1) That full class formative assessment occurs every 20 minutes

2) That teachers use the information to make changes to their instruction

3) That teachers record the data for collection purposes as well as to use during the monthly
formative assessment meetings.

4) Reduce or remove “random” name calling for true random name calling
 CHALLENGES

1) Flexibility: Teachers need to have the option to embed formative assessment in the ways most appropriate
for them

Time necessary to check can be overwhelming

2) Cognitive dissonance

The tough part: teachers need to be pushed to act… the thinking will follow

3) How to ensure accountability

4) How to support
 WRITING IT DOWN

I think specifically what was helpful was the ridiculous [. . .] forms. I thought that was the dumbest thing, but
I’m sitting with my friends and on the [. . .] form I write down what I am going to do next month. Well, it
turns out to be a sort of “I’m telling my friends I’m going to do this” and I really actually did it and it was
because of that. It was because I wrote it down. I

was surprised at how strong an incentive that was to actually do something different [. . .] that idea of writing
down what you are going to do and then because when they come by the next month you better take out that
piece of paper and say “Did I do that?” [. . .] Just the idea of sitting in a group, working out something, and
making a commitment [. . .] I was impressed about how that actually made me do stuff. (Lyon, Wylie, & Goe,
2006, p. 20).
 WRITING IT DOWN

1. The action plan should identify a small number of changes that you will make in your teaching.

2. The plan should be written down.

3. The plan should focus on the five key strategies of formative assessment.

4. The plan should identify what you hope to reduce or give up doing to make time for the changes.
 SUPPORTING

1) Meetings must be every month just to talk about the use of formative assessment.

There is abundant research indicating 2-3 weeks is not enough, and 6 weeks is too long

Look to be about 90 minutes

These must be done in-person.

Plan them out early.

 THE STRUCTURE OF THE
MEETING
Intro

Starter activity

Feedback

New learning

Personal action planning

Summary
 Formative Assessment PD Gantt Chart
Key people Orientation Week September October November December End of semester
Admin PD sessions Session 1: Pedagogy and Types of Formative
Assessment
Session 2: Using Formative Assessment in planning

Teacher/HoD Subject meetings to Should be implementing formative assessment on a weekly basis, at a minimum.and meeting
review data (ideally on a biweekly basis to discuss their own formative assessment data and share observations of
biweekly) other members of their department and specific subjects.
HoD Department meetings HoDs should be leading monthly meetings to review overall formative assessment data and
with experience and data document planning changes that will occur this time the following year. This will be useful for
sharing (ideally monthly) Cognia accreditation, particularly their emphasis on continuous improvement

Teacher Teacher peer-evaluation Teachers should be

on formative assessment observing one another
using the ELEOT
system, with a focus on
formative assessment

HoD/Admin HoD and Admin HoDs should be observing

Observations teachers and looking for
formative assessment
specifically

HoD HoD report on HoD report on use of

department use of assessment data to improve
formative assessment learning practices. This should
be modified into a document
that Cognia can understand

Admin Conferences with By end of December, administrators should have

teachers met with all staff to discuss performance with a
focus on how they improved learning outcomes
through formative assessment.
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS ARE
USELESS WITHOUT THE
TEACHER CHOICES THAT
FOLLOW