Ongoing assessment as Learning in Formative Assessment

Ongoing assessment/Formative assessment is used to understand student progress toward

essential goals. Readman and Allen (2013, p. XX1) suggest formative assessment tasks are
learning processes that enable students and facilitators to gather evidence and then reflect on
the learning to inform/modify future teaching and learning. In my second year practicum I found
it necessary to build in formative assessment opportunities to keep track of individual students
with diverse learning needs, progress towards their learning goals and direct future teaching
and learning experiences.
The formative assessment task was to construct a chronological procedure for making a
cupcake after participating in a hand on experience of making a cupcake. The assessment
required students to use cognitive constructivism to construct their understanding/new
knowledge of procedures from their experience of making a cup cake (Readman & Allen, 2013,
p. 8). The cohort that the assessment was delivered to was made up of students with specific
intellectual needs that required accommodations to be made to make consistent judgments
about student learning (5.3 AITSL, 2014). Expectations for the finished artifact were modified to
include written submissions or pictorial sequencing of events. Modifying the expectations of the
assessment task increased student motivation and did not exclude any student from using the
assessment tool.
During the assessment task I provided timely feedback to students to support their participation
and independence to reach learning outcomes (5.2, AITSL, 2014). Education Services Australia
(n.d.) posits that effective teacher feedback expresses to students, what they have achieved
and where and where they need to improve by giving specific suggestions about how
improvement can be achieved. Reflecting on student artifacts with my mentor teacher in
assessment moderation processes, judgments were made about student learning and it was
decided to revisit the outcome in another context to consolidate student understandings of
procedures (5.4, AITSL, 2014). The assessment tool was successful because it included
practices for the non-negotiable principals of assessment by being authentic, providing
engagement and offered timely feedback to enhance student learning.
Summative Assessment
During an assessment task for my university studies I was required to create a rubric that would
provide criteria for the level of achievement in a summative assessment performance task for

Health and Physical Education (5.1, AITSL, 2014). The assessment task required students to
show mastery of scaffold skills to contact and ambulance in an emergency (Figure 1). Readman
and Allen (2013, p. XX) state that summative assessment is used to document a level of
achievement at a point in time. The rubric documents the levels of achievement that compare
student proficiency but does not give provision for differentiated outcomes for students with
diverse learning requirements.
Entering into reflection processes about the assessment and interpreting the data I feel it needs
to undergo moderation processes with more experienced teachers before administering it to
students to ensure that consistent and comparable judgments can be made of student learning
(5.3, 5.4, AITSL, 2014). Westwood (2004, p. 74) give some insight to adaptions that could be
made to the rubric by suggesting that credit should be included for providing diagrams that
effectively convey understanding of the topic and where appropriate assess individuals through
oral questioning. Inclusion of this adaption would make the assessment tool equitable for
learners with diverse learning needs.