ED 710 - Formative Assessment Reflection

I think that formative assessment is my ultimate favorite assessment type. I enjoy using formative assessments because often times my students have no idea they are being assessed. I have found that formative assessments can reveal a great deal more to me than summative assessments. Often times, my students bomb summative assessments because they know they are being graded. I use my formative assessments effectively because I am able to make better decisions about what my students know beyond the grade they earn on a summative assessment. I use this information to ensure that the grade in my grade book authentically reflects an individual students knowledge of the curriculum.

I have used a variety of techniques within my classroom. In a given class period, I generally formatively assess my students a minimum of three times. Some of the things I use is worksheets, whiteboards, exit tickets, and questioning. Questioning is a very powerful formative assessment and can allow me to make on the spot decisions about how to proceed with my lesson. For example, during a formal observation with my assistant principal, I had carved out about 5-10 minutes to review a topic before jumping into the activities planned for the day. As we were reviewing, it became clear that there were quite a few misunderstandings and confusion among my students. So instead of moving full steam ahead, which is very tempting to do when being observed, I made the decision to take a few steps backwards and spend additional time helping my students gain a better grasp on the topic. I knew at that moment that I would not get close to completing all the activities I had planned but I also knew they needed a strong background knowledge in order to be successful in the planned activities. So a ten minute review morphed into a 25 minute review but in the end my students were successful in the following activities. Straying that far off from my carefully planned lesson had me nervous walking into my post observation conference. However, those nerves were unnecessary as my AP commended me for adjusting my plans to ensure my students were ready. He thought it was simply fantastic that I did not push ahead when I knew that my students were not ready to do so.

Formative assessment is something I feel fairly confident in and has really allowed me to meet the needs of my individual students. It has allowed me to build meaningful groups and helped students reach the same level of understanding as their peers. I have been able to create groups that have worked independently while I have sat with a small group of students. Those students I was able to work on a more personal and individual level, have come up to me and thanked me for helping the understand topics better. I hope to continue using formative assessments to not only help my students but to improve and develop my teaching.