First, the difference between summative and formative assessments. In our table group, we defined the two as summative being the one that is at the end of something. A final report. The formative assessment is the one that's ongoing; it's the one that is used more directly as assessment for learning, as it relates directly to the project at hand.
I really liked the new questions for assessment as put forth by Douglas Reeves and quoted by Will Richardson:
Learn (What did you know? What are you able to do?)
Understand (What is the evidence that you can apply learning in one domain to another?)
Share (How did you use what you have learned to help a person, the class, the community or the planet?)
Explore (What did you learn beyond the limits of the lesson? What mistakes did you make, and how did you learn from them?)
Create (What new ideas, knowledge, or understanding can you offer?)
Gary Stager disagrees. He believes all assessment is an interruption to learning. Well, I disagree with Mr. Stager. Assessment (oh how I long to shorten that word and just use the first 3 letters with a period after...) can be used to help students. As Chris Lehmann notes in his blog, "assessment as mentoring, assessment as skill-building, assessment as learning about how to create, revise and present. "
Another aha moment for me was the barriers to proper assessment. First, we teach what we assess. In the back of every teacher's mind is the prescribed learning outcomes, the report cards, etc. We know what we need to report on, so therefore that is what we teach. That does limit what learning opportunities we give to our students.
Secondly, we only get the assessments we can afford in time and or money. How true! So often, report card time is a high stress time where we quickly do some final tests on a unit, etc., but haven't had time to properly do "assessment for learning."
" And as Reeves notes, a third depressing fact is that this will require us to be able to step out of our own school experience, to be willing to define success in ways that are unfamiliar and more nuanced. That may be the biggest barrier of all."
I've mostly quoted and reflected from the following blogs:
http://practicaltheory.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/1103-Why-Assess.html by entitled "Why Assess" by Chris Lehmann
and the second by William Richardson on his blog entitled "weblogg-ed" at the following link: http://weblogg-ed.com/2010/new-assessments-for-new-learning/
Share (How did you use what you have learned to help a person, the class, the community or the planet?)
Explore (What did you learn beyond the limits of the lesson? What mistakes did you make, and how did you learn from them?)
Create (What new ideas, knowledge, or understanding can you offer?)
Gary Stager disagrees. He believes all assessment is an interruption to learning. Well, I disagree with Mr. Stager. Assessment (oh how I long to shorten that word and just use the first 3 letters with a period after...) can be used to help students. As Chris Lehmann notes in his blog, "assessment as mentoring, assessment as skill-building, assessment as learning about how to create, revise and present. "
Another aha moment for me was the barriers to proper assessment. First, we teach what we assess. In the back of every teacher's mind is the prescribed learning outcomes, the report cards, etc. We know what we need to report on, so therefore that is what we teach. That does limit what learning opportunities we give to our students.
Secondly, we only get the assessments we can afford in time and or money. How true! So often, report card time is a high stress time where we quickly do some final tests on a unit, etc., but haven't had time to properly do "assessment for learning."
" And as Reeves notes, a third depressing fact is that this will require us to be able to step out of our own school experience, to be willing to define success in ways that are unfamiliar and more nuanced. That may be the biggest barrier of all."
I've mostly quoted and reflected from the following blogs:
http://practicaltheory.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/1103-Why-Assess.html by entitled "Why Assess" by Chris Lehmann
and the second by William Richardson on his blog entitled "weblogg-ed" at the following link: http://weblogg-ed.com/2010/new-assessments-for-new-learning/
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