ASSESSMENT:

FORMATIVE & SUMMATIVE

Practices for the Classroom

Think About It! Group Activity with
Graphic Organizer
What is the difference between assessing
and grading?
What is assessment?
Assessment for learning is best described as a
process by which assessment information is
used by teachers to adjust their teaching
strategies, and by students to adjust their
learning strategies.
Assessment, teaching and learning are closely
linked, as each informs the others.
Assessment is a powerful process that can
either optimize or repress learning, depending
on how its applied.

Planned and Communicated
Assessment for learning should be built into
teachers planning as a part of everyday
classroom practice.
Learning goals, teaching strategies and
assessment criteria should be carefully matched.
Students should know in advance what they will
learn, as well as how and why they are to be
assessed. Teachers plans should be flexible so
that they can make changes in response to new
information, opportunities or insights.
Planned and Communicated
The planning needs to include strategies to check
students understanding of the goals they are pursuing
and the criteria that will be applied in assessing their
work.
How students will receive feedback, how they will take
part in assessing their learning and how they will be
helped to make further progress should also be planned.
A teachers planning should provide opportunities for
both student and teacher to obtain information about
progress towards learning goals, and use it to direct the
learning process.


Your Turn!
As you view the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxAXJEK--qk ,
take notes on how the teacher gathers,
interprets, and uses information to guide
the learning of the students.
What was the objective? How does the
teacher know if the students achieved it?
Assess the teachers behaviors in regards
to the planning, execution, and monitoring
of the lesson.
Assessment in education is the process of
gathering, interpreting, recording, and
using information about pupils responses
to an educational task. (Harlen, Gipps,
Broadfoot, Nuttal,1992)

Watch this video and take some notes on the differences between
formative and summative assessment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0nSW3W4MW0

BALANCED CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT SYSTEM

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
A process used by teachers
and students during instruction
that provides feedback to
adjust ongoing teaching and
learning to help students
improve their achievement of
intended instructional
outcomes.
A tool used after
instruction to measure
student achievement
which provides evidence
of student competence or
program effectiveness.

FORMATIVE SUMMATIVE
Occurs During Instruction
Not Graded
Process
Descriptive Feedback
Continuous



Occurs at the end
Graded
Product
Evaluative Feedback
Periodic

COMPARISON OF ASSESSMENTS

Possible Assessment Methods
Formative Assessment includes

Questions
Classroom Discussions
Learning Activities
Feedback
Conferences
Interviews
Student Self-Assessment

Summative Assessment

Selected Response
Multiple Choice
True/False
Matching
Fill-in
Extended Written Response
Performance Assessment
Formative and summative assessment are
interconnected. They seldom stand alone in
construction or effect.
The vast majority of genuine formative
assessment is informal, with interactive and timely
feedback and response.
It is widely and empirically argued that formative
assessment has the greatest impact on learning
and achievement.

1. Teachers value and believe in students.
2. Sharing learning goals with the students.
3. Involving students in self-assessment.
4. Providing feedback that helps students
recognize their next steps and how to take
them.
5. Being confident that every student can
improve.
6. Providing students with examples of what we
expect from them.
Values and Attitudes about Assessment
Formative Assessment
Assessment for learning
Taken at varying intervals throughout a
course to provide information and feedback
that will help improve
the quality of student learning
the quality of the course itself
learner-centered, teacher-directed,
mutually beneficial, formative, context-
specific, ongoing, and firmly rooted in good
practice" (Angelo and Cross, 1993).
Provides information on what an individual
student needs
To practice
To have re-taught
To learn next

1. The identification by teachers & learners of
learning goals, intentions or outcomes and criteria
for achieving these.
2. Rich conversations between teachers & students
that continually build and go deeper.
3. The provision of effective, timely feedback to
enable students to advance their learning.
4. The active involvement of students in their own
learning.
5. Teachers responding to identified learning needs
and strengths by modifying their teaching
approach(es).
Black & Wiliam, 1998
Key Elements of Formative Assessment
Summative Assessment
Assessment of learning
Generally taken by students at the end of a unit
or semester to demonstrate the "sum" of what
they have or have not learned.
Summative assessment methods are the most
traditional way of evaluating student work.
"Good summative assessments--tests and other
graded evaluations--must be demonstrably
reliable, valid, and free of bias (= prejudices)"
(Angelo and Cross, 1993).

Which of these quotes belong to
formative and which to summative?
often means no more than
that the assessment is carried
out frequently and is planned at
the same time as teaching.
(Black and Wiliam, 1999)

looks at past
achievements adds
procedures or tests to existing
work ... involves only marking
and feedback grades to student
is separated from teaching
is carried out at intervals
when achievement has to be
summarized and reported.
(Harlen, 1998)


o provides feedback
which leads to students
recognizing the (learning)
gap and closing it it is
forward looking (Harlen,
1998)

is used essentially to feed
back into the teaching and
learning process. (Tunstall and
Gipps, 1996)

includes both feedback and
self-monitoring. (Sadler, 1989)

assessment (that) has
increasingly been used to sum
up learning(Black and
Wiliam, 1999)


Formative

often means no more than
that the assessment is carried
out frequently and is planned at
the same time as teaching.
(Black and Wiliam, 1999)

provides feedback which
leads to students recognizing
the (learning) gap and closing it
it is forward looking
(Harlen, 1998)

includes both feedback
and self-monitoring. (Sadler,
1989)

is used essentially to feed
back into the teaching and
learning process. (Tunstall and
Gipps, 1996)
Summative

assessment (that) has
increasingly been used to sum
up learning(Black and Wiliam,
1999)

looks at past achievements
adds procedures or tests to
existing work ... involves only
marking and feedback grades to
student is separated from
teaching is carried out at
intervals when achievement has
to be summarized and reported.
(Harlen, 1998)
If we think of our children as plants
Summative assessment of the plants is the process of
simply measuring them. It might be interesting to
compare and analyze measurements but, in themselves,
these do not affect the growth of the plants.
Formative assessment, on the other hand, is the
equivalent of feeding and watering the plants appropriate
to their needs - directly affecting their growth.

The Garden Analogy

Self-evaluation
Where would you place your assessment practice on the
following continuum?

The main focus is on:
Quantity of work/Presentation Quality of learning
Marking/Grading
Comparing students
Advice for improvement
Identifying individual
progress
Forms of Summative Assessment
Performance Assessment
Portfolio
Traditional Tests
End of Grade/End of Course Tests

Closure
How has the information shared today
changed your views/thoughts about
assessment?
What questions do you still have regarding
assessment?
Do you feel confident that you can add the
assessment (s) to your lesson plan to
increase effectiveness and assist students
in mastery of the intended objectives?