Formative Years...

A new week and a new assignment for the preparing future faculty class. Reading over the Concept of Formative Assessment I am initially intrigued as we open the box...

...assessment encompasses teacher observation, classroom discussion, and analysis of student work, including homework and tests. Assessments become formative when the information is used to adapt teaching and learning to meet student needs.

...Secondly...

students who understand the learning objectives and assessment criteria and have opportunities to reflect on their work show greater improvement than those who do not

I have always approached school as a student with the mindset of trying to figure out what the professor wanted us to learn. If I can understand her motivations and why she is asking certain questions, I can then better study what is important within the subject.

Black and William recommend that teachers use formative assessment to better gauge the learning taking place in a classroom and they have a list of possible ways for teachers to gather this information.

* Invite students to discuss their thinking about a question or topic in pairs or small groups, then ask a representative to share the thinking with the larger group (sometimes called think-pair-share).

* Present several possible answers to a question, then ask students to vote on them.

* Ask all students to write down an answer, then read a selected few out loud.

Teachers might also assess students' understanding in the following ways:

* Have students write their understanding of vocabulary or concepts before and after instruction.

* Ask students to summarize the main ideas they've taken away from a lecture, discussion, or assigned reading.

* Have students complete a few problems or questions at the end of instruction and check answers.

* Interview students individually or in groups about their thinking as they solve problems.

* Assign brief, in-class writing assignments (e.g., "Why is this person or event representative of this time period in history?)

The interesting part is that inside this assessment, our students also gain insight into their learning and the learning of their peers. So if students have a better understanding of if they are ahead or behind they will be able to gauge their efforts better and are provided a better chance to learn.

In addition to these classroom techniques, tests and homework can be used formatively if teachers analyze where students are in their learning and provide specific, focused feedback regarding performance and ways to improve it. Black and Wiliam (1998b) make the following recommendations:

* Frequent short tests are better than infrequent long ones.

* New learning should be tested within about a week of first exposure.

It continues to provide links to resources for teachers who seek to introduce Formative Assessment into their curriculum. Most of the research cited in this article is done in high school, but they claim it can be extended to higher learning and general learning.

Having never taught a full class on my own, I want to start keeping a list of things I could try if things start going awry. The Vanderbilt Center for Teaching provides a list of a few possibilities of classroom assessment techniques,

• The Minute Paper tests how students are gaining knowledge, or not. The instructor ends class by asking students to write a brief response to the following questions: "What was the most important thing you learned during this class?" and "What important question remains unanswered?"

• The Muddiest Point is one of the simplest CATs to help assess where students are having difficulties. The technique consists of asking students to jot down a quick response to one question: "What was the muddiest point in [the lecture, discussion, homework assignment, film, etc.]?" The term “muddiest” means “most unclear” or “most confusing.”

• The What’s the Principle? CAT is useful in courses requiring problem-solving. After students figure out what type of problem they are dealing with, they often must decide what principle(s) to apply in order to solve the problem. This CAT provides students with a few problems and asks them to state the principle that best applies to each problem.

• Defining Features Matrix: Prepare a handout with a matrix of three columns and several rows. At the top of the first two columns, list two distinct concepts that have potentially confusing similarities (e.g. hurricanes vs. tornados, Picasso vs. Matisse). In the third column, list the important characteristics of both concepts in no particular order. Give your students the handout and have them use the matrix to identify which characteristics belong to each of the two concepts. Collect their responses, and you’ll quickly find out which characteristics are giving your students the most trouble.

Similarly, FLAG offers a wealth of modules for learning assessment.

WHAT ARE WEEKLY REPORTS?
Weekly Reports are papers written by students each week, in which they address 3 questions:

• What did I learn this week?
• What questions remain unclear?, and
• What questions would you ask your students if you were the professor to find out if they understood the material?

The difficult aspect of doing this is just the investment required by the students. If it is not valuable to the student and they don't invest in it, it won't do them any good. :(

But now we come to the end of our Post. We come to the end of our walk through introspective language. But we are American, so let's end it with a BANG!

What is the difference between teaching and talking?

When you Teach, you learn. When you listen you learn. But it is hard to listen when you're talking.

(2) What can you do in the classroom that you can't do anywhere else?

Either the answer is nothing, or I don't understand the question.

I wonder if that's radical.

-Engineer