Objectives and Standards

● The objective of this presentation is to help educators gain a better

understanding of assessments and how they can be used to better teach.
● ISTE Standard 7: Analyst - Educators understand and use data to drive their
Assessing Student instruction and support students in achieving their learning goals. Educators:
○ 7a Provide alternative ways for students to demonstrate competency and
Data reflect on their learning using technology.
○ 7b Use technology to design and implement a variety of formative and
Presented by: Kaitlyn Edwards summative assessments that accommodate learner needs, provide timely
May 6th, 2020 feedback to students and inform instruction.
Eagle Canyon Elementary School
○ 7c Use assessment data to guide progress and communicate with
students, parents and education stakeholders to build student
self-direction.
● Teacher Leader Standards: Domain V: Promoting the use of assessments and
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data for school and district improvement.

Think about a time when you were overwhelmed with student
work and had a lack of actual student data. This presentation
is going to help you limit the need for irrelevant grading and
boost your ability to receive quick and efficient data.
Formative Assessment
“Formative assessment is a process used by teachers and
students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust
ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievement
of intended instructional outcomes.” (CCSSO FAST SCASS, 2008).

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Why Use Formative Assessments
● Help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and
target areas that need work.
● Help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address
problems immediately.
● To enable better instructional decisions by collecting and applying
evidence of learning in the moment.
● To see a measurable difference for students by giving quality
feedback.
● To boost student achievement and ownership of learning by
encouraging student collaboration.
● Formative assessments are generally low stakes, which means
that they have low or no point value.
Examples: Paper and Pencil
● Exit/Admit Tickets:
○ Exit tickets are small pieces of paper or cards that students deposit
as they leave the classroom. Students write down an accurate
interpretation of the main idea behind the lesson taught that day.
○ Admit tickets are done at the very beginning of the class. Students
may respond to questions about homework, or on the lesson taught
the day before.
● 3–2–1 Countdown
○ Have students end the day with this one. Give them cards to write
on, or they can respond orally. They are required to respond to three
separate statements:
■ 3 things you didn't know before
■ 2 things that surprised you about this topic
■ 1 thing you want to start doing with what you've learned
Benefits of Formative Assessments
● Gives educators a chance to adjust their
teaching in the moment.
● Gives students the ability to vocalize a
need for help.
● Enables teaching instruction to be more
individualized.
● Increases student motivation.
● Increases the amount of rigor.
● Creates self regulated learners.
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Examples: Verbal
● Think-Pair-Share
○ The instructor asks a question, and students write down their
answers. Students are then placed in pairs to discuss their
responses. Teachers are able to move around the classroom and
listen to various discussions. It lets them gain valuable insight into
levels of understanding.
● Jigsaw
○ Launch a jigsaw activity to teach accountability to each student
while checking for understanding of a specific topic. A mainstay part
of co-operative learning, the method consists of dividing a task into
subtasks and assigning one to each student in a small group. Group
members that work to become “experts” about the information
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within their subtasks.
Examples: Physical Activity Examples: Digital
● Four Corners ● Flipgrid
○ Put a list of multiple choice questions together. Each should have ○ Pose a question and have students record their thinking. Students
four answers. Gather students in the middle of the room, reading can watch other classmates videos and comment on what they
each question and its possible answers aloud. Students then move to learned.
the corner that represents what they believe is the correct answer. ● Edulastic
Depending on how students move, you should gain an understanding ○ Create your own assessments through item banks or look through
of class comprehension already created assessments.
● Partner Quiz ● Google Forms
○ Pair students together and provide an open question to tackle. As ○ Create forms with hyperlinks, images, and videos. Use them for
they work to solve it, encourage them to give each other corrective surveying and quizzes.
feedback — identifying mistakes and explaining how to reach proper ● Quizlet
solutions. Pairs can move to another partner for the next question. ○ Lets students learn and improve by studying with flashcards, games
and more.
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Quick Check:
What is the purpose of a formative
assessment?

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Common Formative Assessments
Common formative assessments are unique because they are
focused on a single unit of study, essential learning standards,
and provide teams of teachers with a tool for measuring
student growth through the unit. More importantly, they allow
teachers and students to make adjustments to ensure all
students learn at high levels.
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Why Use Common Formative Assessments
● Team-developed common formative assessments are more efficient
because they allow teachers to divide the workload and responsibility for
designing assessment.
● Common formative assessments are built to ensure all students have
access to the same curriculum – they guarantee the same focus for
learning.
● Data does not inform practice. It’s how teachers use data that is common
to all students that can provoke new practices.
● Common formative assessments provide a data basis to provide
team-level interventions when students don’t learn and
extension/acceleration for students who demonstrate mastery.
● Common formative assessments standardized assessment without
high-stakes and without replacing the daily formative assessment
individual teachers use in classroom lessons. 14

Common Formative Assessment Cycle

Effective Formative Assessment Cycle basics include the
following steps:

1. Collect data from a learning experience

2. Analyze the data for what students know and do not
know
3. Reflect on the data to plan interventions and/or
extensions/enrichments
4. Implement plan of action
5. Repeat steps 1-4
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 Implementing a CFA

● Identify learning targets Quick Check:

● Write or find assessment questions Name one part of the CFA cycle.
● Determine proficiency
● Identify possible interventions
● Identify possible extensions

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CFA Example: First Grade

Now you try….

Please talk with the people around you
about a formative assessment you want
to try in your classroom.

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 Resources
Now you try….
https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/formative-summative.html

Now that you know what formative https://www.nwea.org/blog/2016/three-reasons-to-prioritize-formative-assessment-in-the-classroom/

assessments are, please create one https://wabisabilearning.com/blogs/assessment/formative-assessment-examples

with your team. https://www.prodigygame.com/blog/formative-assessment-examples/

https://wabisabilearning.com/blogs/assessment/17-formative-digital-assessment-tools

Choose any essential standard and learning target. https://ccsso.org/sites/default/files/2018-06/Revising%20the%20Definition%20of%20Formative%20Assessment.pdf

https://teamtomeducation.com/common-formative-assessment-best-practices-benefits/

https://openingpaths.org/blog/2014/03/formative-assessment-cycle/

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