Formative Assessments: Some Favourites
Formative assessment is a tool to supervise learning with an efficient and constructive feedback (Carnegie Mellon University, n.d.). It helps a teacher to be self-guided while learning-teaching process is going on. In any formative assessment, a teacher can check progress among the students and adapt the curriculum side by side along the way. It is a most creative way of teaching while designing curriculum simultaneously.
I am a grade 6 teacher and one of my formative assessments is projects where they make personal presentations. I give them a task or a project and the product is differentiated and the students choose the means of presentation via a power point or a document or any other manner. This is my favourite for every time I give such a task, I am surprised by the creativity that I witness in the students. The presentation is generally followed by a peer discussion that is done in an empathic space. Empathy is something I nurture by asking the peers to share 1 good thing about and 1 gap in the project in a tone that is well meaning. Students also give anonymous vote for their favourite presentation. Finally, the whole class individually engages in a self-reflective space. This is so the students can self-assess and compare with projects undertaken at other times in the year. (Western and Northern Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Education, 2006).
For example, when introducing ‘pi’ in area of circle, I asked the students to find the information on pi on their own based on trigger questions from me. Then they engaged in a group discussion to clarify their thoughts and share with each other their learning. Finally, each student created an independent presentation for the class and received feedback. I have tried this many times with different group sizes. For small group sizes it works as individuals for larger groups I ask them to work in a small group for the same. In the end, when the students make presentations bringing their individuality through them, it is a blissful feeling!
References
- Carnegie Mellon University. (n.d.). Formative vs summative assessment https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/formative-summative.html
- Western and Northern Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Education. (2006).Rethinking classroom assessment with purpose in mind. https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/assess/wncp/full_doc.pdf
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