Assessment and Instruction

Thinking about learning and the students you teach

Presented by Dr. Beth Quick

The power of connections…a demonstration

LIST ONE:

KEF LUN LAK NEMMIL BEBVEK SARFIF POQ

And another…

LIST TWO:

CAT BANFAN DABSIT SETRUN HIDPEN SEE

Yes…there is a point….

LIST THREE:

COAT SHIRTSWEATER SOCKSHAT SHOESGLOVES JACKET TIE PANTS

And finally…

THE LAST LIST:

A GROCERYBOY STOREWENT TOTO BUYTHE CANDY

What do my students know?

PRETESTING to the rescue!

What happens when a teacher does NOT pretest?

1. Time is wasted.

2. Gaps in understanding could occur.

3. Frustration

How are my students progressing in their understanding of THIS subject matter?

The Power of the Formative Assessment

What is formative assessment?

Assessment at regular intervals of a student's progress with accompanying feedback in order to help to improve the student's performance.

What’s the key word in the definition?

FEEDBACK

How can formative assessment be helpful to you and your students?

• To evaluate student progress• To reflect on teaching strategies• To adjust lesson plans for re-teaching or expanding

topics.• To provide meaningful feedback to students so they

can see mistakes and know which areas are in need of improvement.

Formative Assessments

Formative assessments promote learning when they help students answer three questions:

Where am I going? Where am I now? How can I close the

gap?

Do my students now possess the knowledge needed to advance to more challenging subject matter?

Summative Assessment

“Summative Assessments are given periodically to determine at a particular point in time what students know and do not know. Many associate summative assessments only with standardized tests such as state assessments, but they are also used at and are an important part of district and classroom programs. Summative assessment at the district/classroom level is an accountability measure that is generally used as part of the grading process.” - National Middle School Association

Examples of Summative Assessments

• State assessments • District benchmark or interim assessments • End-of-unit or chapter tests • End-of-term or semester exams • Scores that are used for accountability for

schools (AYP) and students (report card grades).

A Final Thought Having become “conditioned” to the normal distribution, we set grade

policies in these terms and are horrified when some teacher attempts to recommend a very different distribution of grades. Administrators are constantly on the alert to control teachers who are “too easy” or “too hard” in their grading…There is nothing sacred about the normal curve. Education is a purposeful activity and we seek to have the students learn what we have to teach. If we are effective in our instruction, the distribution of achievement should be very different from the normal curve. In fact, we may even insist that our educational efforts have been unsuccessful to the extent to which our distribution of achievement approximates the normal distribution.”

(Benjamin Bloom, UCLA CSEIP Evaluation Comment (available http://www.cse.ucla.edu/products/evaluation/cresst_ec1968_m.pdf), Vol. 1, No. 2, May, 1968