Reminder
Putting a Bow on Assessment and Data
Thank-you for your dedicated energies around assessment and data. Although it doesn't "speak" to everyone, it will always be important to what we do and how we do it. So, in the spirit of the holiday season, the following paragraphs will attempt to "put a bow" on summative and formative assessment for 2012.
Following an assessment, if your action is to record the
student’s score in the grade book and begin planning for the next concept,
chapter or unit – your assessment was summative. If, after giving an
assessment, your next action is to remind those students who did poorly on the
exam that they should have studied harder – your assessment was summative.
If the assessment you are giving was created by the district and labeled
an interim formative benchmark assessment and the next action taken was to house
the data in the district data warehouse and your action is to begin preparing
for the next interim formative benchmark – your assessment, despite its name,
was summative.
Following an assessment, if your action is to evaluate student
results and implement intervention strategies for struggling as well as
advanced students – your assessment was formative. If students in your
class already know the assessment they are taking is being used to inform both
you and them of their current level of understanding and retakes are expected –
your assessment was formative. If, following the delivery of a district
created interim formative benchmark assessment, you analyze the results and
evaluate the effectiveness of your instruction – your assessment was formative.
If you see teacher questioning and observation as a means for providing
immediate interventions – you are formatively assessing your students
Only a Teacher?
"The future of the world is in my classroom today, a future with the potential for good or bad...Several future presidents are learning from me today; so are the great writers of the next decades, and so are all the so-called ordinary people who will make the decisions in a democracy. I must never forget these same young people could be the thieves and murderers of the future. Only a teacher? Thank God I have a calling to the greatest profession of all! I must be vigilant every day, lest I lose one fragile opportunity to improve tomorrow."
by Ivan Welton Fitzwater
Wishing you all happiness and peace in the New Year!
Margaret
