Formative assessment is a crucial component to determining the level of understanding of the children within a classroom. Formative assessment is a tool for teachers to use to provide them with feedback to the students and guide the instruction (Formative vs Summative Assessment n. d). By using formative assessment within the classroom teachers will be able to determine if their instruction is effective or ineffective. This can allow teachers to immediately find out if a child is struggling, and allow the problem to be addressed immediately (Formative vs Summative Assessment n. ).
This can allow the teacher to monitor the levels of understanding within the classroom. Formative assessment can be a very crucial tool in assessing students. This provides teachers with knowledge regarding the quality of instruction. By knowing this information, teachers can adjust their teaching techniques to provide a more valuable instruction for their students. Formative is directly related to summative assessment. By researching and implementing different forms of formative assessment, teachers can ensure the success of students within the classroom.
Rationale Due to the extreme impact formative assessment can have on a classroom, I decided this was something I wanted to further research in order to be able to do this successfully for my students and myself. The classroom that I am in this semester has 26 students. With that being said, I found it difficult to determine if I am reaching the needs of each student throughout my lessons. This is something that I am extremely worried about. I did not want to discover from a summative assessment that my students did not understand the material. To prevent that, I wanted to explore efficient ways of using formative assessment.
I want to ensure that I am reaching the needs of each student, and challenging the more advanced students. By having adequate forms of assessment I can recognize the strengths and weaknesses before it is too late. Along with that, I am curious to which methods of truly prove the child’s understanding and provide them with the support they require to adequately complete and be knowledgeable about a topic. With that being said, I would like to explore and use a variety of different formative assessments to determine which is best to show the strengths and weaknesses of the child.
Formative assessment implementation Throughout the different weeks in field I implemented a different form of formative assessment. The main formative assessments that were focused on were exit slips, thumbs up and thumbs down, and graphic organizers. Each week, one of the three forms of formative assessment were focused on and implemented strongly. This three-week cycle allowed me to observe two or more weeks for each type of formative assessment. I decided it was important to spend a week on each with the students at a time in order to see if there was a change throughout the course of the week.
Also, this allowed me to compare the weeks with one another to determine how efficient these methods of formative assessment were. Thumbs up or thumbs down implementation The first week I began implementing a thumbs up or thumbs down with the students. This is something that they were already accustomed to. Throughout this week, I asked the students if they could give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down. When a child gave a thumbs up, it meant they agreed with the statement or understood the material. Reversely, when a child gave a thumbs down, it meant that they did not understand the material or disagreed with the statement.
This was done for a variety of different topics throughout the day. This was incorporated in all aspects of the day. Typically, this method was used five times throughout the morning. This altered my teaching immediately based on the results of the students. Usually, if more than five students misunderstood the information I would state the facts in a different way to help them better understand. I used this method throughout math, science, and social studies. When using this method, I found the best way to record was through a tally chart.
As the students answered the question, I created a tally for each person with a thumbs down. At the end of the lesson, I wrote down the question, and the amount of thumbs down for that question. I found this method to be extremely effective within the classroom because it provided me with immediate results instead of waiting until the next lesson. Exit slips implementation The following week I began to implement a new form of formative assessment. This was exit slips. After each lesson, would give each student three to five questions about the lesson that was taught on that day.
Depending on the lesson, the exit slips may involve, drawing a picture, answering a question, or describing something they have learned from the lesson. The questions always depended on the lesson that was taught that day. However, when used in a unit, there would be questions from previous lessons within that unit to ensure the students are able to recall that information. By using these, I was able to determine the success of the overall lesson. This also helped me understand what concepts the students struggled with and what concepts they understood well.
Based upon the information from the exit slips, I was able to alter my lesson for the next day to ensure student understanding of the previous lesson prior to continuing on with the next lesson. As students were completing their exit slips, I noted any questions | saw students struggling with. By doing this, I was able to better comprehend alterations that needed to be made for following lessons. This method was extremely beneficial in understanding the success of the entire lesson rather than just portions of the lesson.
Graphic organizers implementation In the last week of this three-week cycle, I executed using graphic organizers as a form of formative assessment. Graphic organizers were the most diverse form of formative assessment that was used. The types of graphic organizers used are as follows: Know, want to know, and learned charts, T-charts, venn diagram, time lines and spider webs. One of form of graphic organizer was used throughout each lesson. The use of graphic organizers varied depending on the lesson.
In some lessons, the students were asked to complete three parts of the graphic organizer and then we would work together to finish the inder. In other lessons, the students worked with a partner or in a small group. Students, also, were asked to work individually on graphic organizers. For the most part, we would review the graphic organizer prior to the end of the lesson. As the students were completing the graphic organizers, I walked around to each student and observed and took notes on their graphic organizer. This helped me better understand the level each student was at.
Depending on the information I observed from the graphic organizers, I would alter the lesson. While I was observing the students, if I noticed students misunderstanding a concept or lacking a concept on their graphic organizer I would revisit that concept. Pending on the time the graphic organizer was used, it would alter the lesson for the following day, or it would adjust the lesson for the remainder of the class. Graphic organizers are a very good formative assessment that allowed me to have a better understanding of the level of understanding form my students as well as my teaching.
