When a teacher understands exactly what their students know before and during instruction, they can be more effective than if they were to find out what students know after a lesson or unit is complete. Formative assessment is powerful because of the critical information it provides about student comprehension throughout the learning process. It also allows educators to respond immediately and adjust instruction so that every student experiences success.
Together, teachers and students can create a meaningful roadmap to increase their academic achievement and success by designing challenging and realistic learning goals grounded in standards. Providing students and teachers with regular feedback on progress toward these goals is the primary function of formative assessment. Regular feedback helps students close the gap between their current knowledge and their learning goals. The research is clear—formative assessment is one of the most impactful tools to increase student achievement. Below are six steps to help guide you in rigorous formative assessment:
Step 1: Deliver engaging instruction
The research on student engagement highlights four instructional delivery methods that increase student interest in learning:
- project-based learning
- inquiry-based learning
- service learning
- technology-infused learning
Students need to find meaning in the work they are being asked to do in the classroom. Connecting the learning objectives with real-world problems and situations draws students into the instructional activities and feeds their natural curiosity about the world.
Step 2: Formatively assess students
Assessing students for learning and during instruction is key to building a foundation for mastery. It is a continuous process that involves the teacher providing frequent, timely, and specific feedback tied to each student’s individual learning goals and objectives. Teachers use assessment data to adjust ongoing teaching to improve students’ achievement of intended instructional outcomes.
Step 3: Analyze student performance
All teachers assess students. However, many teachers do not have either the integrated analytics tools or the time to reflect on their student performance data. As a result, they never get to the point where they are able to use that assessment data to make important and needed changes to their instruction. Teachers that use data-driven instructional practices tend to have much better student outcomes than their peers who do not. Analysis of student data lets teachers know how the instructional plan needs to be adjusted and where more rigor needs to be added to the instructional process to meet the needs of all students.
Step 4: Allow students time for self-analysis
Keeping students involved in the teaching-learning cycle begins with engaging them in the lesson and continues with formative assessment and teacher feedback on their progress toward their learning goals. Another way to maintain student engagement is to teach them the requisite skills to monitor and take responsibility for meeting their goals themselves. Giving students examples of high-quality work and multiple opportunities to review and correct their work builds independent and autonomous thinkers.
Step 5: Deliver corrective instruction
Corrective instruction is not re-teaching the same lesson louder and slower. Rather, it means providing a different lesson, using a new instructional delivery method designed to address the gaps and areas for improvement revealed by the formative assessment process. The use of cooperative learning groups of students who are struggling with the same skill gap is a powerful way to differentiate learning during corrective instruction.
Step 6: Re-assess students
Once teachers and students have invested the time in corrective instruction and learning, the students must be given another chance to demonstrate mastery of the skill. This opportunity signals to the students that their continued work toward meeting learning objectives and their personal learning goals is important and valued by the teacher. The re-assessment should be different from the initial assessment and reflect the lesson delivered during corrective instruction. In addition, giving students another opportunity to show mastery helps determine if corrective instruction was successful.
For more information on using formative assessment to guide instruction, read How Real-Time Formative Assessment Data Helps Teachers Teach.
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