Reply by Anna Lankford
After reading this article I have realized that my use of formative assessment has been very limited. In the past I have used particular assignments or tasks to help me make instructional decisions for my students. The assessments helped me determine who needed rememdiation or who had successfully mastered the objective. I was doing all the work. This article has helped me to realize that the involvement of my students in this progress will help to improve student achievement. I have tried to use peer assessments in the past but would quickly give up on them because of incorrect feedback from students and their attitudes and behavior during the process. The article says that students need to be taught the habits and skills of collaboration in peer assessment. I think my mistake was not modeling for my students what this collaboration should look like. I particularly liked the idea of using the "traffic light" icons in a self assessment activity. Then to move to a peer group to justify their judgments or using the icons to sort students into groups based on their self assessment for additional help.
Another thing I found interesting in the article was the feedback through grading. I had never thought about students ignoring the comments made on an assignment if there was also a numerical grade. I like the idea of writing very detailed comments on student papers to let them know what they did well and what they need to do to improve the task, but this takes a great deal of time on the teacher's part. Parents would also appreciate having more detailed information on their student's ability and progress than just seeing a numerical grade on a paper. If students are to improve learning through the comments on their papers teachers are going to have to give students the chance to correct or revise the assignment.
The small box on page 10 "Assessment for Learning" was an excellent definition of assessment for learning and formative assessments. Teachers need to realize that formative assessments are more than just an assessment for a grade in their grade book. This definition is clear that an assessment becomes a "formative assessment" when the results are used to adapt the teaching to meet the needs of the learner.
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Reply by Dr Olson
Good response. You have identified one of the difficulties involved in student self- and peer-assessment: They have to be taught how to do this. One helpful way to involve the students in this process is to involve them is setting the criteria for evaluation. This doesn't mean abdicating your esponsibility--rather you can guide the students in making sound choices.
I also liked your observation that, "Teachers need to realize that formative assessments are more than just an assessment for a grade in their grade book." In my opinion very little of what is graded through assessments needs to go into a gradebook--at least, not if the grades in the book are to be averaged later to give the kid a report card grade.
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Reply by Callie Grubb
I really enjoyed this article. It interesting as well as refreashing that student learning can improve by simply changing everyday tasks such as questioning and grading. I have never reflected on the art of questioning. In fact, I never really considered it a learning tool. However, thinking back on my own learning experiences, I now realize that I am much more inclined to think critically when I am given a longer response time. When teachers "expect" rapid fire, answers tend to be very shallow. Also, slower learners cannot respond as quickly as the more advanced students. Slowing things down and really taking the time to provoke thought is something that assessments of learning has taken away. Today, teachers feel like that don't have any time to spare! We really need to take time to "smell the roses".
Grading, in itself, can cause alot of anxiety for both the student and teacher. Letter grades do constitute a level of acheivement and if a student doesn't make the grade, then they are failures. I can definitely see how the removal of grades can help promote a more positive learning environment. As a student, myself, the removal of the grading system would help me to focus more on the task at hand rather than the grade I may or may not receive. Comments can be much more beneficial if the teacher is willing to take the time to provide the insightive observations that can be so crucial to the learning experience. Positive remarks help to promote positive self-esteem. This motivates students to correct and/or improve their work because students are able to see past the score.
The article is best summed up by the statement that "no matter what the pressure to acheive good test scores, learning must be done by the student." Isn't this what it's all about! As educators we must change our own habits whether at the local, state, or national level so that our students' needs are better met.
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Reply by Michael Robbins
I found this article to be very effective in delivering information about assessment for learning and formative assessment. The use of teacher and student comments gathered during the KMOFAP Project really made the content easier to absorb and understand, much like one of the benefits to peer assessment or peer marking. When students are given the opportunity to participate in peer work and discussion, the language used in conversation will be more natural and easier to comprehend. The comments scattered throughout the article, by teachers, were presented in uncomplicated and familiar terms for me, as a teacher, to digest.
The overall suggestive theme of the article was to use questioning, feedback, and peer and self assessment as tools for holding students accountable for learning. It's up to the teachers to train, or model, for the students, how to use these tools appropriately and effectively. I found the "No hands" policy to be extremely interesting...something I can see myself implementing in my classes. There are always those students who feel confident in their thinking and are more than willing to show off their God given abilities. It's the other students that constantly attempt to fly under the radar, many times low achieving students, that are often overlooked or simply drowned out. These are usually the students that most need the opportunity to explore, through questioning and discussion, the problems or contextual situations at hand. As I read about allowing ample time for students to respond to questions, I began to evaluate my own performance in this area. To my dismay, I realized that I am sometimes guilty of not allowing enough response time, rephrasing the question for the student, or sometimes moving on to another student for a response. This is an area that I would like to explore further. One activity that I do use frequently when workiing with problem solving skills is the "Think, Pair, Share" method. The article suggested that activities such as this are effective ways for students to learn through exploring their own questions about the content. In the "Think, Pair, Share" method, students are asked to "think" about the problem and brainstorm ways of solving it. Then, they are "paired" to discuss their understanding of the problem and work together to solve it. The "share" piece of this allows each pair of students to share their findings with the rest of the class. The ideas that were suggested for feedback left me somewhat perplexed. I'm still pondering how a math teacher could take a sample of problems and provide only comments for improvement. Perhaps, a simple "right" or "wrong" mark with mistakes circled or highlighted so that students can view their mistakes, ask questions, collaborate with other students, and make revisions. This technique is something that I use frequently with unit/chapter tests and I generally see good results of student understanding and improvement. When the authors described the "traffic light" idea, I was immediately interested. I have used "thumbs up, no thumb (fist-all knuckles), or thumbs down" to assess students' understanding of a particular concept. I ask the students to give a thumbs up if they "get it", all knuckles if they "have questions", or thumbs down if they "have NO clue." If I have a large number of all knuckles/thumbs down, I try to address the concept a little differently and more in depth. After reading about "traffic lights," I realized my lack of student involved follow up. The idea of combining green and yellow (or thumbs up and knuckles) to address the questions, while the teacher works more with the red (or thumbs down) makes perfect sense! I love it!
I feel fortunate to have read this article. There were many valuable suggestions for providing opportunties for student involved learning, a crucial piece of assessment for learning.
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Reply by Cyndi Austin
In his article on pg 16, the last paragraph before the topic on reflections, Black states, “The overall message is that summative tests should become a positive part of the learning process. Through active involvement in the testing process, students can see that they can be the beneficiaries rather than the victims of test, because tests can help them improve their learning.” YES!
I stated in another discussion that although I agree with accountability testing I also believe that the state’s move from 25% EOC weight to 100% EOC weight is detrimental to the educational process. I believe that removing the qualified professional’s (the teacher) assessment weight of 75% and replacing it with an 100 question test, providing a re-test safety net, and allowing the principal the power to override the test results is asinine. The only one who has no say in the summative testing process is the only one who is qualified to assess the student’s learning progress. However, dwelling on this assessment component doesn’t help the student therefore; I will focus on Black’s enlightening and productive statement.
Using summative test for formative purposes provides both the teacher and the student with an opportunity to review, reflect, revise and improve. Can you imagine a society in which everyone took the opportunity daily to review, reflect, revise, and improve? Using summative test for formative purposes gives those of us in education an advantage over other occupations and companies. I realize the stress and egos involved in high stakes testing (if my name is on it I take it very personally) but if the entire educational community followed Black’s advice and viewed the summative tests as a positive part of the learning process then student achievement, teacher retention, and parent involvement would greatly increase.
Using summative data provides a teacher with a point of entry into the subject matter. This reduces the time wasted on the guessing game. Involving students in the assessment process is engaging and enlightening and increases a student’s motivation. When the student’s excitement elevates for school a parent’s curiosity is peaked and inquiry into the student’s studies begin. Teachers become encouraged by the increased effort on behave of both the student and the parents and will therefore work to sustain the motivation and raise the bar of academic achievement.
What man made (possibly) for judgment, educators can turn into a viable resource for higher learning.
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Reply by Dustin Farmer
I found this article to be very interesting. It was interesting to learn how changing up a question to make it more open ended can cause learning to take place at a greater rate. I have found myself guilty in the past of being impatient with students and just answering the questions for them. I know that I have students who are afraid to speak up in class for fear of being wrong. However, I have never created an environment that students feel comfortable in. Those students who answer questions incorrectly never get addressed. I now understand that it really is important to address wrong answers and figure out why students may have came up with that answer.
The article has changed my way of thinking. Yesterday my student teacher was given her first opportunity to teach a lesson. She watched me teach the lesson to the first class, and then was given her first opportunity to do so. She jumped in attempting to teach what she had watched me do in the previous class. She began to teach based on her memory of what I had did. Fortunately the class she taught had significantly fewer students which resulted in the activities not working so well. Rather than stepping in and stopping her, I allowed her to continue. Rather than tell her what I would have done, I began to ask her how she could have adapted the activity to meet the needs of a smaller number of students. She began to think about it, and asked it their was a right answer. I told her no, and she began to explain several different ways that the activity could have been changed up to make it better.
I began to realize that this was a much greater learning experience for her than if I had stepped and changed the activity right away. She may not have fully realized that the activity did not function as well during her class, but she may have felt that it was because of something she did. However, when I began to ask her how she would adapt the activity, I could tell that she realized that it was not her instruction, but that sometimes we have to be able to adapt to certain situations. Our students are no different. I began to realize that my students would learn much more if I give them opportunities to come up with their own answers rather than narrow it down until I have all but given them the answer.
It was obvious she had learned the importance of my procedures in class because she used them when she taught. She made sure students did not go until she said go and that they stopped when she said stop. I began to see, as the article mentioned, that students can learn from and evaluate one another effectively. If students can learn to recognize what their classmates are doing right and wrong, they will be more effective at self assessment as well,
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Reply by Laura
Several findings impressed me as I read this article. First of all, in order to improve teaching and learning, teachers must collaborate with each other, students must collaborate with each other, and teachers must work together with students. The importance of collaboration among teachers has become evident at my school over the past several years. By working together, teachers can develop lessons and units that are integrated and more effective. The old saying "two heads are better than one" definitely holds true. Secondly, students must be involved more actively in learning. In order to accomplish this, teachers must move from the being "sage on the stage" to being "the guide on the side." Being a facilitator of learning may seem more difficult for a teacher in the beginning, but it pays off in the end. As teachers let go of control, students must change too from being "passive recipients of knowlegde" to becoming active learners. I know for a fact that this improves student achievement because I worked hard several years ago to change my teaching style. As I worked toward becoming a facilitator of learning, students in my class became more excited about learning and there was a constant buzz from students discussing the day's lesson. My principal once commented that my room was not a quiet place and I was rarely sitting at my desk. I took this as a compliment. Finally, in order to make this type of change in a school, the administration must be supportive and the School Improvement Team must be involved. There must be a few teachers who are willing to be "torch bearers" and lead the charge to change the way teachers teach. These torch bearers then form a "nucleus of experience and expertise for dissmeinating their ideas throughout the school." They can do this through staff development (a must), through modeling lessons and activities, and through short presentations at faculty meetings. By making this paradigm change, which places students in control of their own learning, student achievement will improve.
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Reply by Deby Johnson
This article proved to be very beneficial to me! The beginning of the article did a great job of focusing on three critical problems in educational settings today! Assessment methods aren't good at promoting learning, grading practices emphasize competition and assessments often have negative feedback. The more I read, the more I critiqued my own classroom practices. I realized quickly that my idea of involving my students and assessing them often forced them to compete team against team, classmate against classmate. Student's active in the lessons is an aim of my instruction, however I may allow this to create a competitive spirit which does always create the knowledge that there will be a winner but someone has to lose! As suggested in the article, I do not grade every assignment, and I also allow for second chances as previously discussed in another article. I do place comments on my papers, however, I still circle incorrect answers and at times it looks like my student's papers have contracted some mysterious, splotch-creating disease! I found myself identifying with concepts effective in my classroom, but overwhelmingly found myself more open to the ideas and strategies presented that had been proven to make a difference! I "caught" myself today, trying to allow more wait time before re-stating questions or giving clues for answers. My students got very impatient, even though I really only allowed a few extra seconds. However, it did generate more discussion than just allowing a regurgitated answer. I have been using a type of "big question", by the way, it's called our required ESSENTIAL QUESTION that must be on the board every day. I developed that essential question, because I was instructed to do so. After reading this article, I had a different view of the purpose of that "big question". I also attempted to use the "traffic light" today as a means of quick assessment in my math groups. I have two different math groups in my self-contained classroom and overwhelmingly they will look you straight in the eye and tell you they totally understand a concept. Upon some form of assessment, either oral or written, they show they didn't have a clear understanding at all! Today, with the use of the traffic light assessment, they were suprisingly honest! Out of five in my particular math group I had one red, three yellow and one green. I then paired my green with my yellows and I was able to spend one on one time with my red! The same thing happened in my assistant's lower level math group! It was incredible, they were honest, no one looked at each other's paper and there wasn 't the fear of someone realizing they didn't understand. It was very effective and a very quick way to assess student needs which in turn allowed for more individualized instruction! After shool today I was researching some other strategies to possibly use and I found a video of the traffic light and other methods in use. I am enclosing the links...just copy and paste into your browser if interested!