{"id":65,"date":"2014-08-09T03:38:55","date_gmt":"2014-08-09T03:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madameshepard.com\/?p=65"},"modified":"2014-08-09T03:40:41","modified_gmt":"2014-08-09T03:40:41","slug":"formative-assessments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madameshepard.com\/?p=65","title":{"rendered":"Formative Assessments: What Not to Do"},"content":{"rendered":"

I clearly remember the excitement I felt in my first workshop about formative assessments.\u00a0 I was thoroughly convinced that by giving quizzes over each (grammatical\/vocabulary) learning goal, re-teaching the students who scored less than 80% on these quizzes, and then retesting them on the same material, I would ensure that all of my students would be successful in learning the language. Always willing to reinvent the wheel, I dutifully began setting measurable goals, writing several different formative assessments for each goal, planning remedial activities for the students who scored less than 80% on the quizzes, and developing enrichment activities for the students who had mastered the goal the first time.\u00a0 I felt like I was doing what I was supposed to do and my administrators were happy to check the \u201cuses formative assessment to guide instruction\u201d boxes on my annual evaluations.<\/p>\n

If only I could contact each one of those students and apologize for putting them through that process!\u00a0 The students who struggled with grammatical accuracy continued to suffer through boring exercises while those that had mastered the verb conjugations, pronoun substitutions, adjective agreement, etc. were able to spend time on the authentic reading and listening activities that I had developed so that they would have something \u201cfun\u201d to do while I worked with their classmates.\u00a0 \u00a0The problem was that even when the \u201clow achievers\u201d were eventually able to show mastery on the structural learning goals on the objective formative assessments, these skills did not translate to a high level of proficiency on the performance-based summative assessments. To make matters worse, these students never had the opportunity to spend time on the interpretive activities that would have no doubt increased their proficiency in a more meaningful way that the \u201cdrill and kill\u201d activities I used for remediation.<\/p>\n

It now seems to me that the mistake I made was not in accepting the value of formative assessments, but in failing to consider what the terms \u201cdata\u201d and \u201cdifferentiation\u201d would mean in a proficiency-based classroom.\u00a0 At that point in my understanding, I defined data as a numerical value, leading to my mistaken assumption that my formative assessments needed to have right and wrong answers so I could determine my arbitrary 80% cutoff score. Furthermore, I considered differentiation to refer to dividing students into separate groups based on their score and to give each group entirely different types of assignments.\u00a0 While these understandings may have worked in other subject matters, they did not lead to greater language proficiency!<\/p>\n

As my understandings have involved, I have modified my definition of data and differentiation.\u00a0 Rather than a score on a grammar quiz, I will now derive data by completing a rubric on performance-based formative assessments.\u00a0 By providing feedback rather than a score on their work, I hope to encourage my students to focus on their learning and not their grade.\u00a0 Differentiation is inherent in this new framework, as the individualized feedback provides the information the student needs to progress along the proficiency path. \u00a0Students will be given multiple performance-based formative assessments throughout the unit, and then encouraged to use the feedback they receive to set goals for the summative assessment. \u00a0As an added benefit of these new grading practices, I am no longer correcting stacks of grammar quizzes or entering multiple columns of scores into my gradebook. \u00a0Instead, my students will now submit a portfolio showing their achievement on a formative assessment for each proficiency-based learning goal. \u00a0I will assign a score only on the portfolio, which will be based on both the quality of the performance and the student’s goal-setting.<\/p>\n

Click here to see the rubrics I use for formative performance-based assessments:\u00a0Formative Rubrics<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to see the portfolio guide that I use for student goal-setting:\u00a0Portfolio de Progr\u00e8s\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

How do you use formative assessments in your class?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I clearly remember the excitement I felt in my first workshop about formative assessments.\u00a0 I was thoroughly convinced that by giving quizzes over each (grammatical\/vocabulary) learning goal, re-teaching the students who scored less than 80% on these quizzes, and then retesting them on the same material, I would ensure that all of my students would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assessment"],"yoast_head":"\nFormative Assessments: What Not to Do - 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