Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is when we use day-to-day work to analyse the students’ grasp of a subject (Handley, 2020)/ This helps to focus on real learning needs and thereby improve the learning (Looney, 2011). Summative assessment is the overall evaluation of the student’s accomplishment through the year in a consolidated manner. In my milieu, we use both formative and summative assessments. This is to obtain diverse data about the learning and that in turn improves teaching. Summative also is used for qualifying the kids for higher levels of education (Looney, 2011).

I use formative as a diagnostic assessment for my classes. I use them before I start a lesson and through the lesson. I don’t grade them formally but use smileys. These give me and my middle school students information on their gaps in learning. The critical information received helps us to modify curricula if needed (Eberly Center, n.d.). I also assess them continuously using diverse ways such as (a) journal writing, (b) collaborative work, (c) project work and (d) problem solving. Summative assessments are planned and executed at the school level.

Many educators desire to integrate formative and summative assessments (Looney, 2011). In our school we do it by having weightage for all assessments and take a weighted average in the end of the curricular cycle. This helps include the classroom-based assessments for data for the schools and hence the kids take it seriously. It also helps differentiate the assessments and allows inclusion of multiple learning styles. In theory it sounds good. How in practical life, few of us teachers do this at an individual initiative.

Our society assumes that educational worth is determined by a grade (Popham, 2005) and hence summative is nothing but an exam at end of each semester. But for a seamless integration at large scale, one needs technology support and that is missing. The data collected is not detailed enough. Further higher order abilities are hard to assess. Hence the need for integration of multiple assessment methods in the classroom by all the teachers. The problem is that the policy makers do not see the efficacy of anything but formal testing. Further, equipping teachers using ongoing training is also hard and expensive. Hence at a school level it is difficult to integrate the assessments.

However in my own class I will continue as I have seen the benefits of the same. I see how continuous feedback helps the kids to feel confident about their performance. Instead of coming to the school forcefully with worry etched on their faces, they come with an anticipation of something good being generated.

References

• Eberly Center. (n.d). What is the difference between formative and summative assessment? Carnegie Mellon University. https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/formativesummative.html.
• Handley, T. (2020). Formative vs summative assessments: The differences explained.Third Space Learning. https://thirdspacelearning.com/blog/formative-vs-summativeassessments/
• Looney, J. (2011). Integrating formative and summative assessment. OECD Education Working Papers, (58). https://doi.org/10.1787/5kghx3kbl734-en
• Popham, W. J. (2005). F for assessment. Edutopia http://www.edutopia.org/fforassessment.