6 Types Of Assessment Of Learning by TeachThought Staff What are the types of assessment for learning? And more importantly, when should you use which? In The Difference Between Assessment Of Learning And Assessment For Learning, we explained that “assessment for learning is commonly referred to as formative assessment–that is, assessment designed to inform instruction.” 6 Types Of Assessment Of Learning 1. Diagnostic assessments are used at the beginning of a course or unit to determine students’ prior knowledge, skills, and understanding of the subject matter. One way to think about it: Assesses a student’s strengths, weaknesses, knowledge, and skills before instruction Another way to think about it: A baseline to work from Tip: Done at the beginning–of the school year, beginning of a unit, beginning of a lesson, etc. See also What Is Project-Based Learning? 2. Formative assessments are ongoing processes that teachers use to monitor student learning and provide feedback during instruction. 3. 4. 5. 6.
15 Good Tools for Quickly Gathering Feedback from Students Polls, chat tools, and interactive quizzes provide good ways to hear from all of the students in a classroom. These kind of tools allow shy students to ask questions and share comments. For your more outspoken students who want to comment on everything, a feedback mechanism provides a good outlet for them too. Here's a run-down of some of the best tools for gathering feedback from students in real-time. Newer tools:Tozzl is a chat platform that allows you to quickly create private, password-protected message boards as well as public boards. Tozzl, Tozzl, Tozzl!!! Dotstorming is a neat tool that combines a bit of Padlet with a polling tool. Twitter isn't new, but its native polling tool is new this year. Quizalize is a free quiz game platform. Old reliables:81 Dash is a nice backchannel platform that provides a place for teachers to create chat rooms to use with students to host conversations and share files. Kahoot is a service for delivering online quizzes and surveys to your students.
15 Good Tools for Quickly Gathering Feedback from Students Polls, chat tools, and interactive quizzes provide good ways to hear from all of the students in a classroom. These kind of tools allow shy students to ask questions and share comments. For your more outspoken students who want to comment on everything, a feedback mechanism provides a good outlet for them too. Here's a run-down of some of the best tools for gathering feedback from students in real-time. Newer tools:Tozzl is a chat platform that allows you to quickly create private, password-protected message boards as well as public boards. Dotstorming is a neat tool that combines a bit of Padlet with a polling tool. Twitter isn't new, but its native polling tool is new this year. Quizalize is a free quiz game platform. Old reliables:81 Dash is a nice backchannel platform that provides a place for teachers to create chat rooms to use with students to host conversations and share files. Padlet is a tool that has been used by teachers in a variety of ways for years now.
Your browser isn't supported When teachers know their students well, they can build strong connections that lead to better learning. Knowing students’ interests, strengths, and weaknesses help teachers tailor learning experiences for their students. Formative assessment involves the teacher collecting information about what students know, don’t know, and want to learn. There is a very wide variety of digital formative assessment tools that can be used for free (often charging for extra features). One of the biggest advantages to using these kinds of tools is that they give every student in a class a voice. ASSESSMENT DOWNLOADS – TRAILS Archive for Grades 3, 6, 9, 12 Below are links to the TRAILS assessments in ready-to-print PDF format, with answer keys included for easy grading. For each grade, two general assessments are provided that draw upon items from each of the five TRAILS categories. Additionally, each grade has a ten-item assessment specific to each of the categories as well. (TRAILS Category definitions here) If you prefer to create your own assessments, use the individual item search feature on the Item Bank page. All Grade 3 Assessments General Assessments (15 items each): Category Assessments (10 items each): Develop, Use, and Revise Search Strategies Use Information Responsibly, Ethically and Legally All Grade 6 Assessments General Assessments (20 items each): General Assessment 1 General Assessments (25 items each): General Assessments (30 items each): Develop Topic The typeface used for assessment answer bubbles is 123 Testing, created by Just Us Teachers.
22 Easy Formative Assessment Techniques for Measuring Student Learning I came across Terry Heick’s blog – 10 Assessments You Can Perform In 90 Seconds – at TeachThought from earlier this year and really enjoyed the formative assessment strategies that he outlined. Using formative assessment techniques in class – or “simple assessments” as Terry calls them – are easy to administer and provide the instant feedback teachers need to identify which students need more help, and then adjust their instruction and lesson plans to help them. Visit Terry’s blog above to get more detail on the following ten formative assessment techniques: 1. New Clothes 2. Combining Terry’s ten with the ten we’ve blogged about can give teachers 20 great formative assessment strategies for measuring student learning. 11. Here are a couple more assessments you can use to elicit evidence of student learning. 21. 22. All of these 22 formative assessment techniques are simple to administer and free or inexpensive to use. Do you have a favorite?
Exit Cards – What do yours look like? Classrooms that have moved toward a problem-based model often wrestle with the idea of individual accountability. If we offer tasks that are worked on collaboratively, we need to make sure we learn more about how each individual student is thinking. To do this, one common practice is providing our students with exit cards at the end of the lesson. However, I wonder when we talk about terms like “exit cards” are we envisioning the same thing? Take a look at the following headings, and some sample exit card prompts. Which of the 4 purposes do your exit cards typically fulfill? Questions designed for meta-cognitive reflection / connection: How does today’s problem remind you of a problem you have solved before? Questions targeted towards concepts: Use a diagram to help explain how to compare 2 fractions with different denominators. Questions targeted towards procedures: Two fractions are added together. Questions focused on clarifying misconceptions: Questions targeted towards concepts Related
What is Authentic Assessment? What is Authentic Assessment? Definitions What Does Authentic Assessment Look Like? How is Authentic Assessment Similar to/Different from Traditional Assessment? Alternative Names for Authentic Assessment A form of assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills -- Jon Mueller "...Engaging and worthy problems or questions of importance, in which students must use knowledge to fashion performances effectively and creatively. An authentic assessment usually includes a task for students to perform and a rubric by which their performance on the task will be evaluated. Examples from teachers in my Authentic Assessment course The following comparison is somewhat simplistic, but I hope it illuminates the different assumptions of the two approaches to assessment. Behind traditional and authentic assessments is a belief that the primary mission of schools is to help develop productive citizens. 1. 1.
Library Girl's Picks: The Best Digital Tools for Formative Assessment On Monday, I had the opportunity to participate in another fab edition of the TL Virtual Cafe webinar series. This month's PD offering was an "Edutech Smackdown" featuring the Queen of All Things Library: Joyce Valenza. I love these smackdown sessions because they are the ultimate crowdsourced PD. That said, for my few minutes with the mic, I decided to focus my attention on formative assessment. Which brings me back to formative assessment. When incorporated into a lesson, formative assessment provides the teacher librarian with a snapshot of the teaching and learning while it is still happening. Obviously, this is not rocket science. Admit/Exit Tickets are a beloved formative assessment strategy. Graphic organizers are another great formative assessment tool. Taking a quick survey or poll is an AWESOME way to find out, quickly, what your students know, before moving forward in the lesson. My favorite tech tool right now is an APP called Reflection. Amen, sister.
What does “Assessment Drives Learning” mean to you? There are so many “head nod” phrases in education. You know, the kind of phrases we talk about and all of us easily agree upon that whatever the thing is we are talking about is a good thing. For instance, someone says that “assessment should drive the learning” in our classroom, and we all easily accept that this is a good practice. Yet, everyone is likely to have a completely different vision as to what is meant by the phrase. In this post, I want to illustrate 3 very different ways our assessments can drive our instruction, and how these practices lead to very different learning opportunities for our students. Unit Sized Assessments Some teachers start their year or their unit with a test to find out the skills their students need or struggle with. But let’s take a look at exactly how we do this. I also can’t help but wonder if this is helpful even for their skills anyway? Daily Assessments In-the-Moment Assessments 1. The first practice helps us prepare for WHAT we will be noticing. 3.
The One-Right-Answer-Mentality (Part Two) Formative and authentic assessments as creativity builders At the risk of grossly oversimplifying the wonderful work by Benjamin Bloom, Robert Marzano, Paul Black, Dylan William and other scholars, I would simply say that summative assessments, especially standardized tests are about ranking students (and their schools, teachers, principals, superintendents, school boards, departments of education, ad infinitum). Formative assessments are tools designed to help students grow. Formative assessments provide feedback to the teacher in real time so that they can, as Madeline Hunter used to say “monitor and adjust.” Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (Nicol 2006) summarize seven principles of good feedback which is at the heart of formative assessment: It is, in essence, an informed dialog between the teacher and the student about what that student knows and can do. Formative assessments can be done in a variety of ways. Technology and formative assessment. Student response systems. Cartoon source
Dipsticks: Efficient Ways to Check for Understanding What strategy can double student learning gains? According to 250 empirical studies, the answer is formative assessment, defined by Bill Younglove as “the frequent, interactive checking of student progress and understanding in order to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately.” Unlike summative assessment, which evaluates student learning according to a benchmark, formative assessment monitors student understanding so that kids are always aware of their academic strengths and learning gaps. It also helps teachers improve the effectiveness of their instruction. “When the cook tastes the soup,” writes Robert E. Alternative formative assessment (AFA) strategies can be as simple (and important) as checking the oil in your car—hence the name “dipsticks.” You can find another 53 ways to check for understanding toward the end of this post and as a downloadable document. Observation: A Key Practice in Alternative Formative Assessment New to Alternative Formative Assessment?
15 Ways to Check for Understanding Nothing’s worse than being met with a sea of blank faces at the end of a lesson. That’s why it’s so important to frequently check for understanding with your students. Here are fifteen simple ways to see who’s good to go, who’s almost there and who needs some one-on-one. 1. Use check marks. SOURCE: Mrs. Take a page out of The Daily Five‘s book and create these check marks to help your students remember to check for understanding as they read. 2. Sometimes all it takes is a quick thumbs up or thumbs down to make sure your students are all still on board. 3. SOURCE: Mr. Download this cute freebie to create these exit tickets. 4. Ask one quick question that shows students are keeping up and have them write their answers on individual white boards. 5. SOURCE: Mrs. Teach your students this quick check method and check in often to see where everyone stands. 6. Ask just one question and have students jot a quick paragraph on an index cards to show that they understand. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.